The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1287 - The Cocaine In The White House Gets Epsteined

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

The Secret Service gives up looking for the West Wing coke fiend, Ray Epps finally gets charged for “January Sixth,” and French president Emmanuel Macron receives a severed finger in the mail.   Ep.1287    - - -     Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://utm.io/ueSEl   - - -    DailyWire+:   Want to work at The Daily Wire? For more information, click here and select “Careers”: https://bit.ly/3SsC5se   Become a DailyWire+ member to gain access to movies, shows, documentaries, and more: https://bit.ly/3jJQBQ7   Get your Michael Knowles merch here: https://bit.ly/3X6tlKY    - - -    Today’s Sponsors:   PureTalk - Switch to PureTalk and get 50% off your first month! https://www.puretalkusa.com/landing/Knowles   Good Ranchers - Get $30 off with promo code KNOWLES at checkout. https://bit.ly/43G8p0P    Genucel - Extra 10% Off Summer Skincare Essentials Bundle + FREE SHIPPING for new customers! 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

I wrote a little song to remind you, choice hotels, get you more of the experiences you value. The can be a hotel's got it all. A rooftop bar, have a ball. Bring a date, your squad, or even your mom. Book direct at choiceotails.com. The Secret Service has concluded its investigation into a bag of booger sugar found in the Biden White House and concluded that they cannot identify any suspect. According to the Secret Service, despite combing through security systems and indexing several hundred individuals who entered the West Wing, the West Wing, which is perhaps the single most surveilled and secure place on planet Earth, the investigators were unable to find any fingerprints. That, of course, was the investigator's first mistake. If you want to identify the owner of some

Cartagena nose candy, you don't check for fingerprints. you check for nostril prints. But regardless, Hunter's nose is currently scrounging like a pig for truffles to find the next foreign shakedown to score another 10% for the big guy. So he, just like his entire family and his family's staff, they're all unavailable to face any consequences. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to the show. This episode is brought to you by Good Ranchers, delicious good ranchers, great meat at a secure price, 30 bucks off your order with Code Nolls, ULES, go to Good Ranchers.com. Use code Knowles, KnaWLS, today. The Biden campaign and Biden White House have a big political liability right now. That political liability is Biden's refusal to

acknowledge one of his grandchildren. That's finally bubbling over. We'll get to that in a second. First, though, the Bidens are just totally protected. They're totally protected. I've been to the West Wing on just one occasion, but went into the West Wing. I can tell you, firsthand, people know where you are at all times. There are cameras everywhere. There are people watching everywhere. You are searched like crazy. It's smaller than a lot of people think it is. It's not some big, wide open space. It was built for smaller people in a smaller time. If they wanted to figure out whose coke this was, they would have done so. But the Secret Service is going to look the other way because the big guy doesn't want, let's say, let's say,

it's not a member of his family, even though very likely it is, doesn't want people within his inner circle, prosecuted for bringing Coke into the White House. So they're just going to move along, move along nothing to see here. There was a little glimmer of hope over the past couple days. Republicans grilling Christopher Ray, director of the FBI on Capitol Hill, trying to see if amid all of these Biden scandals, the document scandal, the bribery scandal, the potential payoff's 10% for the big guy. is Biden getting investigated at all? And the FBI starts to maybe give us a little hope and then pulls it right back. Did Joe Biden take payments from Burisma or any other foreign companies as vice president, president, or private citizen Biden?

As you may know, there is an ongoing investigation being led by the U.S. attorney in Delaware, Mr. Weiss, appointed by President Trump in the last administration, that our Baltimore, field office is working with, and I would refer you to him as to what, if anything, can be so the president is under, he is under investigation. I'm not going to confirm or speak to who is or isn't under investigation for what. I'm simply going to tell you. So he's not under investigation? I didn't say that either.

By longstanding department policy and practice. I'm not going to be confirming or denying who is or isn't under investigation. So he hangs out a little bit more. more at the top than one might expect. He's saying there is an investigation in Delaware, going on, he's saying this in response to a question about an investigation for Joe Biden, and then he immediately walks it back. But let's say that there is. Let's say the U.S. attorney in Delaware is investigating Joe Biden for taking bribes from Burisma, from China, from wherever. Does anybody seriously think they're going to hit him with this? Does anybody

seriously think that? There was an investigation into the Coke in the White House, which would be extraordinarily easy to identify, and frankly, all of us have a good gut instinct of whose it was to begin with. They couldn't do that. They say, oh, no, yeah, the investigation was inconclusive. Does anybody seriously believe that the investigation is going to be anything but inconclusive in the case of Joe Biden's bribery? No, of course not. They're going to drag this thing out. They're going to slow walk it, and then nothing's going to happen as a result. Now, speaking of slow walking investigations, there was a bit of strange news coming out of the DOJ in the last two days, which is that Ray Epps is going to be charged.

Ray Epps is this strange figure from January 6th. Sorry. January 6th, the worst day in the history of America, the worst cool day time. So Ray Epps is this odd figure from January 6th because he is the most prominent guy that we have on camera, we have on audio multiple times, urging people to, break into the Capitol on January 6th. He was so officious in his calls for the mob to get unruly and to aggress on Capitol Hill that a group of people around him when he was calling for this said he was a Fed. He said, wait a second, you're just trying to egg us on. You're a Fed, Fed, Fed. And they were chanting it all around him. But he kept it up. And he kept chanting for people to go into the

capital. He was on the FBI's website. He still appears in an FBI tweet. Most wanted people from January 6th, but he wasn't charged with a crime. He wasn't arrested. He's like the only guy from January 6th that was not arrested or charged for the crime. So a lot of people have suggested that he's a Fed. The suggestion that he was a Fed was then bolstered by the liberal media defending this guy. Don't forget, the liberal media had called January 6th, the worst day ever, and it was almost the end of the republic, and it was a coup d'etat. And yet they're defending the most prominent instigator of January 6th. That didn't make a lot of sense.

Glowing profiles in the New York Times, a constant defense of him. Now, Ray Epps saying he's going to sue Fox News for defamation, probably in the hopes that Fox will just settle out of court. And now the DOJ comes out and says, Ray Epps is going to be charged. So the timing of this is convenient. At the same time that Ray Epps is bringing a lawsuit against Fox News

to try to have a shakedown and get some money and maybe further tornish time. and maybe further tarnished Tucker Carlson's reputation in the liberal media, the DOJ is saying, okay, well, we are finally going to arrest him. But that doesn't answer anything. Why did it take two and a half years? Why did the DOJ round up every Midwestern granny who had the audacity to take a photograph in the Capitol Rotunda on January 6th? They rounded them all up within about a week. They threw a lot of them into prison. They threw a lot of them into solitary confinement. Yet this guy, the most prominent instigator of the whole thing,

whose location we've all known, because he's had these glowing magazine and newspaper profiles, the DOJ waits two and a half years. What is this about? I think they're hoping that this puts to rest the conspiracy theory that Ray Epps has some relationship with the federal government. To me, this just adds fuel to the fire. This seems even more bizarre than had they not charged him in the first place. Doesn't explain a damn thing. Seems a little bit like smoke in mirrors. Now, there is some good news coming out of the DOJ, and it actually relates directly to me. We'll get to that in just one second. First, though, when you want to talk to all of your friends about the threats and the joys and the news that's going on in this country, you got to check

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A couple of months ago, I had a campus speaking event. A lot of radical students tried to shut it down. The administration, Pittsburgh tried to shut it down. Legislators tried to shut it down. They couldn't do that because it's a public school. So there's something called the First Amendment. The event went off. But then the anarchists showed up. And they set the street. on fire and they burned me an effigy and as I was walking onto the stage, they threw an explosive at the building. Cops may just walk back in, but we did the event anyway and we wouldn't let them intimidate us. Okay. Well, the great update here was that the FBI arrested the two anarchists who got this explosive and threw it at the building and they indicted them as well. There's a further update,

which is that the Torch Antifa network has taken responsibility for this attack that that missed, I'm still here. Ha, ha ha. So, Antifa, which the Libs tell us does not exist, has issued this statement. This is specifically the Torch Antifa Network, thanks to Andy Noe, who has just done the best reporting on Antifa out there. They have said, breaking update, the Torch Antifa Network, a collective of violent cells that include Rose City, Antifa, has claimed bombing suspects Brian Pepe DePippa and Crystal DePippa

as their members. These aren't spring chickens, by the way. This is a 36-year-old man in a lot. a 40-year-old woman. A married couple that decided that what they were going to do on a Tuesday night or whenever the event was was to show up in Pittsburgh and try to blow up a speaking event where two people were debating a matter of public policy and anthropology for that matter. Antifa goes on, they're soliciting donations, or I'm sorry, this is from Andy Noe. They're soliciting donations for the extremists using PayPal, though it appears PayPal has paused the

campaign, which is good. they're now soliciting tax deductible donations using a far-left non-profit. Daryl Lamont Jenkins was revealed through court documents to be one of the leaders of Torch Antifa, according to federal investigators. DePippa traveled across the country in recent months, repeatedly set off explosive sensors at airports for RDX. But of course, the TSA let him get on the airplanes anyway. So the Libs are going to tell you Antifa is not real.

Well, if Antifa's not real, that would be news to Torch Antifa, which like ISIS is claiming responsibility. for this terror attack. If Antifa's not real, then who are the two people who just got arrested wonderfully by the FBI and charged by the DOJ? There are many other anarchists and Antifa members who identify themselves as Antifa members who have been totally let off the hook for violence in recent years, but at least these two have been prosecuted. And presumably, one of the main reasons they were prosecuted is their explosive that they threw at the building went into a crowd of about a dozen cops and injured cops on the scene, which escalates the issue even more.

All of which is to say, Antifa is a real thing. It's a real organization. They should be rounded up and thrown in prison. They should be investigated like the mafia is investigated, like the Ku Klux Klan is investigated. I'm sick of hearing about the Ku Klux Klan from the Libs. The Libs pretend that the Ku Klux Klan exists. I don't think there are five members of the Ku Klux Klan in America. If there are, I think every single one of them is an undercover agent spying on the other ones. They don't even know that the other ones are feds. They're very, very few of these people. And yet, the way the media treats them, they're the greatest terror threat.

I mean, this is the way the DOJ even talks about, the great terror threat in America's white supremacy. Show me the clanhood. I don't see it anywhere. Then they point to these other groups. They'll say, look at the Patriot Front. I love it. They call it a front. It's a little on the nose for the Hollywood script writers.

The Patriot Front is a far-right white supremacist organization marching and having all sorts of displays covering up their faces. What are these guys actually doing? The so-called Patriot Front Front is going up and has really flamboyant displays at the Lincoln Memorial or something, and then they go home. They go back to their homes in Langley or wherever they live. When they do show up with actual right-winger, the right-wingers usually push them away, like the proud boy. or any of these other right-wing groups? Where's the threat? Meanwhile, Antifa, for years now, has been attacking, maiming, killing people across the country,

showing up to every prominent right-wing event, and then during the BLM riots of 2020, decides to torch the country for eight months, C to Shining Sea. And the feds don't do anything about it. Until now. Until now. This is really good stuff. I don't want to be too harsh on the FBI,

especially the FBI for arresting them and the DOJ for charging. But we've got to go further, folks. This is an organization. We have history in this country of going after not just individuals, but organizations. If you can do it for the mob, if you can do it for the clan, you certainly can and should do it for Antifa. Now, speaking of political violence, Emmanuel Macron, the leader of France, has just received an unpleasant package in the mail. he received a severed finger from a living human being. This was sent to the official residence of President Emmanuel Macron, according to a report from the London Evening Standard, showed up at the Elisei Palace in Paris.

No note was included in the package. The investigators then took the finger and put it in the fridge, like the regular fridge where they keep their coffee and sandwiches and things, because they wanted to preserve it so that they could investigate it further. So far, no analysis has come out. It would seem a little bit threatening. Or if it's not threatening, at least a lot of people are concluding this is the evidence that whichever person mailed this to Macron is just totally crazy. To which I say, how dare you? How closed-minded and bigoted of you to suggest that this is evidence of someone who's gone a little bit

crazy who need psychiatric help. You know what I call this? I call this fist affirming care. That's what happened here. And it's so wonderful that this fist affirming care is being put on display at the highest levels of national politics in France. Frankly, in the name of progress, in the name of liberalism, I think we need to exalt that sort of thing here. That was a man who identified his fingerless. Yes, he had a finger assigned at birth, but he identified his fingerless. And I'm just so, so happy that he could get the care that he needs. I'm sure he's doing wonderfully now. Thank goodness that when we're talking about other anatomical parts, America is much more progressive than these regressives who would suggest there's something

disordered about that. Can you imagine? I'm allowed to say, I think I'm, I don't think I violated any rules from big tech in my commentary on the finger. Speaking of dubious medical treatments, this is a bad one. This is a bad one. The FDA has approved the first ever over-the-counter birth control pill. The pill is called O-Pill. It will be available without a prescription. It's a daily oral contraceptive sold over-the-counter.

This is bad. This should not be permitted. I won't even say we should ban it. We should just keep the current system in place, which is that you can't get birth control over-the-counter. And there are a lot of reasons as to why. The liberals are thrilled about this. They want sterility. They want sterility and promiscuous sex and everyone to be miserable. And as we followed the liberals' sexual ethic, everyone has become more and more miserable over the last 60 years. Okay, obviously that's what they want. The libertarians are probably fine with the over-the-counter birth control thing. There are many conservatives 10 years ago who would have said, oh, I'm all for that. Let's reduce regulations. Let's let people choose to do whatever they want.

Conservatives, of course, are going to say, no, this is a bad idea, and there are a number of reasons. The really hardcore, philosophically consistent conservatives will name the really deep reasons as to why this should not be permitted. First question would be, what good does it do? What good can possibly come out of over-the-counter birth control pills? Well, then people don't need to go get a prescription in order to have mostly demeaning promiscuous sex. Well, then people can have fewer children. We have a dying population. The birth rate in America is below replacement and has been for a very long time. Is that a good thing to have fewer children? I don't think so. Is it good for individuals to have fewer children? I don't think so. It's good. What other good comes from? Well, people will have more bodily autonomy. Yeah, it's true. I guess you have the bodily autonomy to hack your arm off too. Is that good though? Does that lead to human flourishing? No, I don't think so. Okay.

But then even if you're not a really hardcore conservative, even if you're a little bit more, moderate and you're in the middle. What else is going to come from this? Well, minors are going to access this stuff. Your kids, your daughter is going to access this stuff or she will have the ability to. If you say, listen, honey, listen to 13-year-old daughter, I don't think it would be good for you to have promiscuous sex. I think that would be bad physically for you. You might contract some sexually transmitted disease. You might become pregnant, not know what to do about that. you might be used and abused, but it could also cause a lot of psychological problems if starting at the age of 12 or 13, you're just used for the sexual gratification of men without

any consequence whatsoever, because they'll have you take these pills. Furthermore, maybe there are some questions. I know you're not allowed to raise this possibility, but a lot of women have it, especially in recent weeks and months. Maybe it's not good to pump yourself full of a bunch of chemicals starting at a very young age without talking to a doctor, without talking to your family, without really paying a lot of consideration to this. Maybe that's not a good idea to do that sort of thing. That would be the more centrist kind of view of it. What good comes from this? Do we have a surplus of babies in this country? Do we have too much sexual restraint in this country? No, I don't think so. And so the only way to oppose this,

is for the conservatives to stand up. And the only way for the conservatives to stand up is to get rid of all this stupid nonsense about maximizing individual autonomy. That is not freedom. Freedom is not just doing whatever you want whenever you want to do it. Legalizing all the drugs, legalizing all the weird sex stuff, legalizing mutilating your body, that's not freedom. That is slavery to your basest appetites. Conservatives used to know that. We kind of went a little crazy for a few decades there. I think we're coming back out of it now, though. We need less weird sex stuff and we need more babies and restraint. That would be very good. You know what else? We need more of good meat. Where are you going to get it? Good Ranchers. Right now go to Good Ranchers.com. Use promo code Noles. If you have not heard yet,

the FDA approved lab-grown chicken for sale. Bebh. Meat formed in a lab will soon be coming to a store near you. If you prefer meat grown in a pasture instead of a petri dish, then you need good ranchers. Not only do they sell real meat from real animals, but they sell the best meat this country has to offer from steakhouse quality cuts of beef to better than organic chicken. Everything Good Ranchers sources is from local farms in America. Right now you get 30 bucks off with my code knolls at good ranchers.com. These guys have the best meat in the business. The burgers are the best burgers I have ever had at home in my entire life. We had them just the other night. And then last night, I went to a steakhouse. I was at a dinner, a formal dinner at a steakhouse. Sweet little Elisa

cooked Good Ranchers steak at home. I was envious of her because I was at the steakhouse eating in the steakhouse meat. I know her steak was better. Go, it is just the greatest. Go to Good Ranchers right now. It is Good Ranchers.com. Use promo code. Knowles. KnaW. LES. You will use my code Noles. Get 30 bucks off any box. Good Ranchers.com. GoodRanchers.com. American meet delivered. Despite the lackluster economy, the Daily Wire is thriving, and not only that, we are hiring, we are currently looking for a senior copywriter to join our fast-growing marketing department. As a senior copywriter, you will collaborate with copywriters, creative directors, and designers under the guidance of the executive creative director to craft compelling

and conversion-focused marketing copy for a variety of media. In fact, you'll even have the opportunity to write the ad copy that I am reading to you right now, so it better be good and you better know your punctuation and your grammar. This position will primarily focus on D2C copywriting. What is that? I have no idea. It's working across the entire DailyWire brand umbrella. The position is based in Nashville, Tennessee. If you are interested in joining our team, go to DailyWire.com slash careers right now. Speaking of cultural developments, the Screen Actors Guild, please prepare yourself, sit down, pull over if you're driving. This is going to be tough.

The Screen Actors Guild is going on strike. Okay, moving on. The SAG, when SAG is the Screen Actors Guild, it merged about 10 years ago, with after the American Federation of Television Radio Artists, voted unanimously to go on strike. They will be joining another strike in Hollywood, which is the Writers Guild of America's Strike. And that means effectively that unionized Hollywood is shut down.

And SAG is kind of a crappy union. Back in my wayward youth, I would occasionally work with the Screen Actors Guild as a professional actor. And it's not a great union because at any given time, like 99% of its membership is unemployed because actors have hard time as getting jobs generally. And so all of these radical leftists who are largely unemployed just voted to go on strike. But the SAG union doesn't do a lot for actors generally. The Writers Guild actually is a pretty good union for its members. SAG doesn't do all that much. And so in recent years, a lot of professional actors, a lot of huge name actors, have gone FI-Corps, which, financial core, which is to say they don't really go along with the union. They'll pay their dues

because they have to, as a result of a court case, but they don't really care. The influence of the Screen Actors Guild has waned dramatically, just as the influence of unions, especially in Hollywood, has waned dramatically, just as the influence of Hollywood has waned dramatically, just as the influence of Hollywood has waned dramatically. And that's really the point here. The writers are going on strike. The actors are going on strike. Does anybody care? When was the last time you went out to see a movie? I bet, just judging by box office numbers, the last time you went out to see a movie was to go see the Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviesel, which is a movie that was made largely outside of Hollywood. Jim Cavisel's a terrific actor. He's a big Hollywood star. The movie was,

funded basically by just a bunch of kooky conservatives, and then it was made by a bunch of highly skilled professionals who were disenchanted with the way that the Hollywood studio system works. Other than that, what shows are you watching? I'm not watching any shows right now. You know what show I'm watching right now? Occasionally I'll put on an episode of Father Brown from the BBC. I don't even know what's coming out of Hollywood. The only movies that I would be even tempted to see in Hollywood, it's Mission Impossible. I guess just Mission Impossible. I don't even know. I'd like to go see the last movie star on earth, Tom Cruise. Maybe I would go see him in a movie. Other than that, I don't even know what they're producing. I'm a culture vulture. I worked in Hollywood for considerable amount of time. I've worked in New York. I like the arts. I read poetry. I read plays. I should be the number one audience, the number one fan for these things. And yet I'm tuning out and you're tuning out. This is reflected in the completely collapsing viewership of the Academy Awards, the collapsing viewership,

not just in movies and theaters, but even of the big Hollywood films on streaming. It's over, guys. So, okay, you're going to, you're going to protest. Okay, you don't have any leverage anymore. Fine, the writers and the actors are going to strike. Fine by me, man. That's fun. We're going to go watch Sound of Freedom.

Speaking of power brokers, turning to the 20. 24 race. There's a report out with bad news for the DeSantis campaign, which has struggled since its launch, suggesting that top donors are considering a flip to Tim Scott. Tim Scott, you know, nice, fairly moderate centrist Republican senator from South Carolina. I don't know that I'd buy this report. If the report is real, come on, man. That's not going to work. It means that the Donors who don't want Trump are souring on DeSantis' chances so they're looking for an alternative. I really like Tim Scott personally. It's not going to happen. Just looking at the numbers, looking at the political realities, it's not going to happen. Could Tim Scott in some world become

the number two guy to Donald Trump if DeSantis' campaign really totally collapses and all of the anti-Trump forces rally around Tim Scott? Maybe. I think, though, at this point, donors who are trying to take a candidate from 3% to the nomination, they're just setting their money on fire. DeSantis himself, who's got almost 20%, the odds that he would be able to take the nomination right now are quite low. And I know that people are very upset with me for this. Guys, I'm like the last conservative pundit in America who's not actively working for a presidential campaign. And I'm just calling it like I sees it. And people are pulling their hair out and they're saying, but no, but in 2016, but in 2012, but in 2008. I'm saying,

guys, that doesn't matter. We haven't had an analog for this kind of a primary since 1892, because that was the last time that you had a one-termer running for a rematch. So yes, Donald Trump is not the incumbent, but practically speaking, in many ways he is like the incumbent. That's why these other guys are not going to catch fire. And the other problem here, I love for Tim Scott, he's a really nice guy. But Tim Scott has a very conciliatory tone. He's really nice, as I've just said. And if you think that this moment in 2024 is the moment for like a really nice conciliatory guy to meet in the middle and work across the aisle and all shucks, we're all on the same team, you don't know what time it is. You got to go get your watch fixed.

That's not where we are right now. The two candidates who have a real shot at the nomination right now, or Trump and DeSantis. And the left. field candidate who's done a lot better than a lot of people predicted is Vivek Ramoswamy. What do all three of them have in common? They've all bucked GOP orthodoxy and the nice, nice work across the aisle, just cut taxes, ignore the culture. They are all extreme culture warriors in their own ways. And they're the only guys with any momentum whatsoever or any real shot at the moment. Donors, you've got to know what time it is. Money cannot buy you the nomination. any alone cannot buy you the nomination. Just ask President Jeb Bush. Now, before we go, you know what,

I'm just going to have to leave this. This is, I tease. This is what I do now. I tease in the show. Joe Biden has a big political liability that I've called out for a while because I think it's actually my least favorite thing about the guy, but he's mostly gotten away with it until now. And it's the fact that he doesn't acknowledge his seventh grandchild, the love child from Hunter Biden. and even the White House is beginning to have to acknowledge this, and the campaign team is being told to try to avoid this question as best they can. But we don't have time because we've got to get to the mailbag right now. So sorry, Tee-he-he, that's a little bit of a tease.

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Go to jenu-sel.com slash Noles right now. Get your dark spot corrector in the jenu-sel most popular package. Genu-sel.com slash Noles, 70,70% off GenuSel's most popular package. All orders will include a mystery luxury gift while supplies last. cell.com slash knolls. My favorite comment yesterday is from Hugh Jordan, who says, for future reference, Knowles has made it clear he's not endorsing any of the GOP candidates for the primary yet. Thank you very much. Thank you. The one guy who gets it. Everyone's trying to shoot the messenger over here. The people who are completely only gung-ho on Trump, they're attacking me for being too harsh

on President Trump. The people who are totally bought in on DeSantis, they're attacking me. for being too harsh on DeSantis. I'm being harsh because it's a primary and I'm not working for any of these candidates and I'm just calling them like I see some folks and these are tough guys and they got thick skin and if they can't handle a little criticism from yours truly, how the hell are they going to take on Joe Biden? Huh? Now it's time for my favorite moment of the week when I get to talk to you in the mailbag. The mailbag is sponsored by PureTalk. Go to puretok.com slash Knowles to get 550% off your first month. Take it away. Hey, Michael, I have a friend who recently lost his mother.

I've been praying for my friend and his family as well as the mother's soul. I have also been praying for her body as it has been made known to me that the family will be cremating her body and having a reception. I don't believe the family will be bearing the ashes afterward, but this is what the mother wanted. My question is, how should I go about attending this event because I want to be there for my friend, but I don't know if I should be worried about any sins

as cremation makes a mockery of the resurrection. Thanks. I share your view of cremation. I have had loved ones, family members who have been cremated. Not my preferred choice. I do think as a symbol, it does make a mockery of the resurrection of the body. And I think that's why, as our culture moves away,

from its traditional religion of Christianity, cremation is becoming more and more popular. That said, I don't think it's a sin to be cremated. Even the Catholic Church now allows for cremation, post-Vatican 2, unfortunate. So I don't think it's a sin to be cremated, and I don't think it's sinful for you to go, you know, support your friend at his mother's funeral or whatever kind of post-funeral service they have if she were cremated. I don't see any sin or some stumbling block. there at all. Just as I don't think it would be sinful to go attend a weaker liturgy of almost any sort if the point is to go pay your respects to the dead, pray for the repose of

her soul, and help your buddy. I think you're okay. I think you might be, you might be missing the forest for the trees there if you're a little too worried about that. I share your reservations, but no, it's okay. Go support your buddy and pray for your your friends' mother. Okay, next question. Hi, Michael. This is the Shuckmeister, you'll be happy to know that for the time being, I've kept Mr. McGillicuddy from forcing my future tradwife to work at the widget factory. Unfortunately, though, the only reason that so is because she doesn't exist in my life right now. In all seriousness, I wanted to tie this into a topic you brought up recently about how IVF commoditizes people, specifically that a baby from IVF is a good

end from a bad means. Can we not extend that rationale to dating apps? I'm a young Catholic gentlemen in my mid-20s, and I have a hesitation about using them because I feel like they commoditize people. The end is good in that people are getting in relationships, but the means to get there is swiping left or right on a person who has hopes, dreams, talents, and identity all behind that screen just loosely crammed into a few sentences and pictures. On the apps, you and everyone else are the product. Is that feeling justified or am I just a bit too old-fashioned? Love to hear your response. Thanks. The feeling is justified and you might be a bit too old-fashioned. Both of those things are true. Yes, there's something a little distasteful about putting an advertisement for yourself up where your prospective spouse is just judging you based on not only your looks, but on pixels on a screen and a couple written words. But that said, what happens when you go to a bar? When you go to a bar and you dress nicely and a woman puts on makeup and the man throws on a jacket, and the man throws on a jacket.

and he's trying to look cool or whatever, and he's ordering the drink. You are also putting yourself on display to be physically attractive to the opposite sex, to then perhaps go on a date and then perhaps dig a little bit deeper. So to some degree, it's the same thing happening in the dating apps, albeit in perhaps a more concentrated and therefore distasteful form in the dating apps. Would it be better for you to meet your future spouse in, a more lively and organic way. Perhaps, you know, high school sweetheart or a friend of a friend or you get set up on a blind date or something like that. Yeah, sure. Maybe that would be better.

But the way people date now is on the apps. I think the issue of the dating apps is, in part, a trend of capitalism, not of communism, not of just far-leftism, but of capitalism, too, to turn people themselves into commodities to be consumed. Yeah, that's a problem. But another problem of it is the abstraction of the identity from the body, which is a trend that you see all throughout our culture, and you see it especially in dating apps, that when you are first encountering somebody through a dating app, you're not really encountering them, you're encountering a disembodied simulacrum of that person, not the real person in flesh and blood, but just pixels on a screen. And that's a problem. As we move more and more into virtual reality, we're losing

real reality as we live more and more in some metaverse constructed by Mark Zuckerberg we're spending less and less time in the fullness of the beautiful world that God has created for us to live in. That's something to worry about.

This is why when people go on a date on dating apps and they say, wait a second, you look skinnier on your pictures or something like that. This is just a baser expression of the same problem, which is you're not really looking at the person. You're just looking at some zeros

one's on a screen that come together to form a hint or a representation of that person. So, yeah, it's fair to have all these reservations, but also maybe just go out and date the girl and move past that ugliness in our culture, whether it's the way people dress or comport themselves or where they meet or how they meet even sometimes through the medium of the dating app, and then get to the real stuff as quick as you can. Okay, next question. Hey Michael Knowles. My question to you today is about the Vecramaswami. So I've watched every clip, interview, speech of his that I can find, and honestly, I'm blown away. Everything that I've seen

has pointed me to believe that he is the right candidate and that he deserves my vote. Now, with that being said and running the risk of sounding closed-minded, the only drawback I see is that he is Hindu. So I believe we're one nation under God, and I believe that to be the Christian God. So how do we reconcile this? Can I vote for someone who, doesn't believe in the God or in the religion that America's founding principles are based upon, if a candidate came up and said that they were atheist, I would not vote for them solely based on that. So as a conservative Christian, can I vote for someone in good conscience that is a different religion than mine and doesn't believe in Christian morals? I appreciate it. I look forward to

hear him back from you. It's a real concern. You're going to hear a lot of squishes say, that's not a concern at all. Don't worry about that thing. A man's private religion doesn't mean. No, Of course it matters. Religion is a very powerful thing, and it forms the way we think about just about everything. So it's a real concern. I would ask Vivek how he thinks about religion. Because one of the curious aspects of Hinduism is you could get 10 Hindus into a room, ask him to explain religion to you. You could get 10 different answers, 10 very different answers. So I would ask Vivek to talk about religion to you. That's a legit question. And then furthermore, let's say he says, look, I'm, I am a Hindu. I'm not even a Hindu that leans toward monotheism, though many of my Hindu friends do, and maybe Vivek does too. I'm, I don't know, there's some other kind of Hindu or whatever. Then you get to your question, which is, can I vote for someone to have public trust who doesn't share my religion?

Now, I would point to someone like Benjamin Disraeli. Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew, one of the greatest prime ministers and one of the most important conservative figures in the U.S. UK in recent memory. And by recent memory, I mean the last 300 years or so. So can that happen? Yeah, I certainly think it can. Hinduism is a step even further than Judaism. But, you know, we live in a world where things are not going to be perfect. So you say, well, I want the perfect Christian leader who's got this particular view of Christianity and who's going to do this thing in public life and he's going to be this smart and he's going to be this talented and he's going to have this this this and the other thing and you're you're not going to get all of that so if you put say Vivek up against some nominal Christian whose understanding of the faith is so warped that as a matter of

public life and the discharging of his public duties he would end up being worse than an atheist say then I think you just have to make a prudential practical judgment there and I would say if you're attracted to the vague as a candidate and you've got this one holdup where you haven't seen any practical consequence of that yet, then I would say you'd be crazy to just throw the guy out immediately. I would press it a little further, you know, keep a proper caution about those views and try to prod them a little bit. But as a practical matter, you judge the tree by the fruit. Okay, next question. Hello there, Mr. Knowles. This is the conservative monk. I'm so happy to finally get to talk to you. I'm coming at you with not a question, but a comment. I want to implore you

to please recant your dismissal of the existence of our interstellar overlords. They are among us. They have been here a very long time. I have it on good authority to tell you that if you recant your former statements and beg forgiveness at the feet of our interstellar ambassador to our intergalactic masters ambassador walsh then you might forego working the salt mines of caglar nine for the remainder of your life please do so as many of us are very fond of you it's also noteworthy that i do not know ambassador walsh nor did he put me up to this what hold on what I did I did I said the things what I gotta go thank you for that missive I appreciate that with my friend mr. Walsh on vacation for the past week or two I had not been barreded by such

inanity in a while so I'll take your suggestion under consideration and let's get to a written mailbag before we get to the member block it is fake headline Friday too by the way so I'll need your help to make it through the fake headlines. But before then, greetings, Mr. Nolstradamus, writes Zach. A few episodes ago, you spoke about the possibility of a cigar talk in your show. What's your go-to brand? I myself, am a fan of Monte Cristo. Their epic is my favorite, but my usual is their platinum. My first cigar was the Kalua from Drew Estates. That has been discontinued. What was your first cigar? Thanks. Love the show, especially the members block, or as I call it, the Sanktum of Nolstradamus. I could go on and on. I don't have nearly enough

time to go into this. I think cigars are very important. I always had a wonderful cigar dinner last night. I really enjoy them. I have very particular tastes in cigars, developed over many years of enjoying cigars. My first cigar was a machine-made Cuban cigar called a Guantanamara, which is a really low-quality cigar. It's short, chopped up filler, but it has that good Cuban tobacco flavor, and I was 15. What did I know? And I really liked it. I was hated cigarettes. I I don't like the devil's lettuce, but I really liked cigars. And shortly after that, I discovered Oliva cigars, which at the time were not nearly as well known as they are now.

And I just adore oliva cigars. They're Serizzo Perfecto. I still love, I think, dollar for dollar, you really can't beat them. I love it. I then got into Tatuahe cigars and Don Pepin and my father. I got into that. Padron, I love. I mean, you know, the list goes on and on of the brands.

But I've been thinking about this a lot lately because I do have particular tastes and cigars that I've cultivated. And occasionally you can get custom blended cigars and those kinds of things. So anyway, I'll be exploring all of these options. A lot of people write into me, they say, Michael, what should I smoke? I want to get into this. Does one smoke by oneself? Yes, maybe with a book. Wonderful relaxation opportunity.

Does one smoke socially? Yes, one absolutely does. you know, another great aspect of cigars for the fellas is if you want to have a guy's night and maybe you love women but you don't want always women hanging around all the time, cigars are a great way because 99% of the time they can be woman repellent. And sometimes women even like it when the men smoke cigars. One, because it is very manly and virile and thumotic and increases your testosterone and all these things. But two, they recognize that men need their own spaces sometimes and they need

a little relaxation working very hard. So anyway, all of that to say, I'm giving more thoughts on how to incorporate cigars more into the Michael Knowles show, Kham de la Chim universe. Now, in that universe, it is fake headline Friday, and I need your help to find the fake headline among the real ones. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it. Become a member and use code Knowles at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.