The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1641 - Elon For House Speaker?

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

Rand Paul recommends Elon Musk for House Speaker, Biden commutes the sentence of a woman implicated in three murders, and an illegal alien from Mexico is on the run after filming himself doing the unspeakable to a child.   Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/4biDlri   Ep.1641   - - -   DailyWire+:   It’s your LAST CHANCE to take advantage of our best sale of the year! Get 50% off a new annual membership right now! https://dailywire.com/subscribe   Matt Walsh’s hit documentary “Am I Racist?” is NOW AVAILABLE on DailyWire+! Head to https://amiracist.com to become a member today!   Order your Mayflower Cigars here: https://bit.ly/3Qwwxx2 (Must be 21+ to purchase. Exclusions may apply)   - - -   Today's Sponsors:   Good Ranchers - Get the Michael Knowles box: https://www.goodranchers.com/knowles Use code KNOWLES for additional savings.   Responsible Man - Be the man America needs you to be. Shop Responsible Man, and get an exclusive discount with code KNOWLES at https://responsibleman.com/   Stronghold Rescue & Relief - Support our teams today at https://strongholdrescue.org   - - -   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

If Mike Johnson goes down, should Elon Musk be the Speaker of the House? A major Republican senator seems to think it's a good idea. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Noles show. Welcome back to the show. An illegal alien from Mexico is on the run after allegedly filming himself and distributing copies of the film of himself committing an unspeakable act. Unspeakable. I don't even want to say it against an eight-year-old child. These are the people that the Democrats let in.

These are the people that President Trump wants to deport. There's so much more to say. First, though, go to good ranchers.com. Use promo code Noles. During the busy Christmas season, that credit grocery store, all that questionable meat, can make preparing the perfect holiday feast more stressful than it should be. That's one of the reasons I trust Good Ranchers. The main reason I trust Good Ranchers is because it's the best meat that you're going to get anywhere. And it's 100% American meat. And there are no antibiotics. And there are no hormones. And it's premium, steakhouse quality, and everything they make is delicious. And it's pre-trimmed.

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that is included in every box for a year. It's a crazy value. You will get $25 off your order. You will get free express. shipping, you go to good ranchers.com. Use code Knowles. Get that exclusive offer. Good Ranchers.com American Meat delivered. Elon for Speaker, who's down for it? I think it'd be pretty fun. I'm into it. What's the big deal? He'd probably do a better job than a lot of people up for it, at least according to Rand Paul. Rand Paul, Major Republican Senator, says the Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress. That's true.

nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk. Dot, dot, dot, think about it, dot, dot, dot, dot. Nothing is impossible. Not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka the Uniparty, lose their ever-loven minds. Now, before you say this is a crazy idea, some people are going to say it's a great idea right away. Some people that are going to say, this is a crazy idea.

Every so often it's floated that the Speaker of the House will be someone who is not a member of Congress. But that doesn't work. And the reason it doesn't work is the Speaker of the House has one job. The job is to twist arms. The Speaker of the House has to apply leverage, needs to develop a system of sticks and carrots, to corral his members to bring them all in line and get legislation passed. That's the job.

It's a nasty job. It's a tough job. It intrinsically requires conciliation and compromise and wheeling and dealing. And that's why Republican Speaker, especially because of the ideological diversity of the Republican conference tend to be terrible at it and get booted out of office as Mike Johnson very well might soon. So you say, well, Elon doesn't have any of that leverage. You know, he hasn't been in Washington for a long time.

He doesn't know where the bodies are buried. He doesn't really know how to wheel and deal in the halls of government power. He's a powerful guy, but not in government, except for this. Elon Musk controls one of the biggest communications platforms in the world. Twitter, X now, breaks news before the establishment media. Twitter moves public opinion before the establishment media. Elon Musk's X is in no small part the reason that that continuing resolution got killed. So he's got a lot of power there, power to move public opinion, and he's the richest guy in the world.

So when Elon came out, when the Republican congressman were trying to slip through that continuing resolution, and they said, Elon said anyone who votes for this should be primaried in two years. That's a real threat. If I come out and I say anyone who votes for something should be primaried in two years, it's a little bit of a threat. I have a pretty big platform. I don't have a ton of money. I'm not going to be able to donate to all of these primary candidates. Most people ignore that stuff. When the richest guy on planet Earth, by a lot, says that he's going to make sure you are not reelected, that you are primary and booted out of your seat, then you start to pay attention. I'm not saying it's the greatest idea. However, this is not totally crazy. Of any private citizen who has ever been floated for Speaker of the House in my lifetime, and there have been a lot of them, this one seems to me the most plausible. Some people would say, oh, we don't want the richest guy in the world being the Speaker of the House. He has too much power. He's not democratically elected. Okay, some people are going to say the people who are democratically elected is such losers. Yeah, we do want this guy.

He actually represents us better than they do. Now, a question for Johnson is, will he be able to hold on to the speakership? He's taken a lot of political blows over the past few days. In fact, I'm heading out to America Fest to speak at Charlie Kirk's conference, TPSA out in Arizona. Speaker Johnson was supposed to speak at America Fest. He pulled out after the continuing resolution debacle. And he pulled out because he probably would have been booed on stage. And I actually have a fair bit of sympathy for Johnson.

I think Johnson ideologically is more conservative than many speakers we've had in recent memory. But he's not doing a great job. And he's not doing a great job, I think, because the job is basically impossible. What's he supposed to do? There are a handful of really right-wing Republicans. There are a bunch of squish Republicans. There are some Republicans who basically are just Democrats.

the Democrats themselves are pretty united. What's he supposed to do? It's the worst job in Washington. Someone tweeted out, they said, hey, Michael, how do you like the sound of Speaker Michael Knowles? Let me be totally clear. I will not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for the worst job in Washington, D.C.

I would not wish that job on my worst enemy. So Johnson, he's in a real pickle here. Can he hold on? Some are floating that they got to boot him. President Trump so far is sticking with him. Trump told Fox News Digital that Johnson will easily remain speaker if he, quote, acts decisively and tough and eliminates all the traps being set by Congress. So so far, he still has Trump's support. And that's really what it comes down to. Johnson will remain speaker so long as he has Trump's support. Donald Trump will choose the next

speaker. Donald Trump is the guy. Donald Trump runs the Republican Party. He launched a hostile takeer of the Republican Party in 2016. He shook it up a lot, shook up some orthodoxies on things like trade, on things like immigration, on things like foreign policy, on things like the media, the way the government relates to the media, and the American people voted for him. The American people like him more than they like their congressmen, more than they like their senators. They gave Republicans unified government because of that guy. That's it. You might hate Trump. You might wish some other Republican won in 16 or 24 or whatever, but that's just a fact, okay? Sometimes in politics, you know, politicians will say, listen, it's not about me.

It's about us. It's not about me. It's our victory. It's all about it's about all of us. It's about this and that and this collective and this abstraction. Now, with this guy, it really is kind of about Trump. He's the man. He's the one who reordered the Republican Party.

So Speaker Johnson needs to win the support of one man. Forget about some members of the Freedom Caucus don't like him. Forget about some members of the establishment don't like him. It doesn't matter. Those guys will fall in line if he keeps Trump support. So far, he still hasn't. Now, I need to fess up to something. This show almost every day airs live.

I wake up early. I eat breakfast with my beloved family. I come in here. I do the show live. That's not happening today. As I sit here speaking to you, it is not actually the time at which you're listening to this. I had to pre-taped this show before I flew out to Arizona so that I could speak at America Fest,

which appears to be the largest conservative gathering of the year. I don't know, maybe of several years. Just as I was recording this show yesterday, I speak, it's very confusing because I'm recording it now, but you're hearing this tomorrow, which for you is today. It's kind of like inception. but scheduled just after the recording of this show is the vote for a new continuing resolution. Johnson and the Republicans got a new deal. They scrapped a bunch of the Democrat nonsense that went down in flames.

The new deal, as it was proposed yesterday, contains a three-month continuing resolution, two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, which President Trump wanted. That's until January 2027. a clean farm bill package, $110 billion in disaster relief. Republicans want that. Democrats want to pretend Republicans don't want that. Clean health extenders without pharmacy benefit manager reform. PAYGO scoreboard wiped to zero, no E-15 provisions, you know, all sorts of little

addenda that don't really change the calculation on the bill. Now, it remains to be seen what actually ends up in the final version of that bill. scheduled just after the recording of this show is a vote, but they might actually have to change some of the House rules to even be able to vote on the bill that was proposed on the very same day. So it might go down. It might require a rule change. The deadline is coming up fast upon us.

You know, we're hours away. And so all I know about what happened on this vote last night is that it will have been chaotic. That's all I know. And that is by design, regardless of the actual specifics of this bill. is by design. The whole, I mentioned this yesterday on the show. The whole point of this continuing resolution is for it to be painful and chaotic and last minute and for the leadership to be able to say, oh, sorry, there's no time for you to read the bill to the members. That's, this is not a crisis that just cropped up. This is an intentional crisis. And this is how Congress governs. Congress

governs by intentional crisis. And Congress governs by intentional crisis, not merely because they're devious and deceitful and losers. They govern by intentional crisis because there is a structural problem in the government. They cannot currently govern any other way. They have to keep the government going, but the incentives are such that they cannot actually come to a resolution any other way. So we can cast all sorts of blame and aspersions on Congress. They deserve a lot of it. But H. L. Mencken famously said democracy is the theory that the common man knows what he wants and deserves to get it good and hard. There are plenty of parts of the government that are largely unaccountable to the people that we have no say over, a lot of the laws that govern us, we have no say over. But when it

comes to Congress, we do still vote for these people. And the people we vote for do still go there. And so we bear some responsibility for this. Every man hates Congress, but he tends to like his congressman. There is a conflict there. Okay. So, I'm not letting Congress off the hook by any means. But if you live in a representative government, if you live in a democracy or a republic, at a certain point, you the citizen have to look at yourself in the mirror

and say, you're going to start with the man in the mirror. You're asking him to change his ways. We tend to get the government that we deserve. It doesn't reflect well on us to look at the government right now. There's so much more to say, first though, go to responsibleman.com. Use promo code Knowles.

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it's pretty old news, isn't it? Breaking. Joe Biden has dementia. Oh, gee, you don't say. What year am I? Did I fall into a coma? What year am I in? This is an article coming out December 19th, 2024. Subheader, AIDS kept meeting short and controlled access. Top advisors acted as go-betweens and public interactions became more scripted. The administration denied Biden has declined. Great. Thanks for this report. Where was this report six months ago during the presidential race? Hmm? Where was this report a year ago? Two years ago? Where was this report in 2020 when Biden was clearly in decline even then? I didn't see this report. Don't forget, the Wall Street Journal has a relatively conservative editorial page. But in terms of the news reporters, kind of left wing, just like all of the establishment media, where was that? Where were you media when I needed you? Where were you, journalists when it mattered to uncover that Biden? has dementia. It's not just the journal. Chris Saliza, formerly of CNN, a journalist who is actually better than the usual crop of the left-wing journalists. But here's what he had to say. Here's his mea

culpa on not digging into Biden's dementia. As a reporter, I have a confession to make. I should have pushed harder, earlier, for more information about Joe Biden's mental and physical well-being and any signs of decline. So let me explain. Joe Biden was president from 2020 to 2024. I worked at CNN through 2022. During that time, the early part when I was at CNN, 2020 to 2022, people would regularly, Republicans would regularly ping me and say, why don't you ask more questions to Joe Biden and how he's doing?

He's 76, 77, 78-year-old man. And I would sort of brush them off because what I would say is, Well, there's no obvious evidence that he's declining. Yeah, he moves a little slower. He talks a little slower, but there's no evidence that he's declining. He walks a little slower, talks a little slower. That would be evidence that he's declining. But it's a little more than that.

I appreciate that Saliza is doing a minor, tiny little meaiculpa here. I think we need a little bit of a bigger mea culpa. Oh, there was no evidence. There was no evidence. The guy was babbling. He'd be staring incoherently. The guy looked like he was drooling. he was stiff as a board when he was walking around.

He couldn't remember the name of God. You remember that? One Nation under, you know, you know the thing. I understand Joe Biden was never the sharpest tool in the shed, but he used to at least be a kind of a slick talker. Ever since he left the Obama White House, he has not been his old self. And so, so Lizzie admits here, he says,

I brushed off those concerns. But, you know, I shouldn't have done that. Anyway, here's my confession. Okay, good confession. but you need repentance when you confess and you need to ask forgiveness and then then you can receive absolution. But we got to go all the way here. I don't want to read these reports. Wow, can you be breaking. Joe Biden was diminished and the White House lied about it. I need you there when the White House is lying. That's when I need you there. But you don't want to do that or CNN didn't want you to do that and the

liberal media don't want you to do that because the liberal media don't exist to ask tough questions of liberal politicians. The liberal media exist to act as the propaganda arm for the liberal politicians. The media didn't just accidentally miss that story. They didn't just, you know, out of innocent neglect, forget to report on that story. They covered up Biden's decline just as much as the White House did. They're totally culpable in it. And so now even some of the White House aides, they're coming out. And the journal reporting is though, you know, this is some great journalistic find. No, you're all admitting that you lied. Anyone who was not speaking openly about Biden's senility is they're all kind of the same. The White House staff, the campaign

staff, the journalists, Kamala Harris. You're admitting you actively lied to us. So the question is, why should we keep trusting you guys? Now, speaking of Joe Biden, the hits just keep on coming with the man who is still, I guess, technically president. Joe Biden just commuted the sentence of a woman who is implicated in the killing of two of her husbands

and one of her boyfriends. Joe Biden granted clemency to just under 1,500 people last week. The White House boasted about this, by the way. This should be a shame, given some of these people. but the White House boasted as it was the largest grant of clemency

in one day in American history. Within that grant of clemency, there were 39 pardons. One of them, according to reporting from the Washington Free Beacon, is Josephine Virginia Gray. Josephine Virginia Gray was sentenced to 40 years in prison back in 2002 for insurance fraud. What was the insurance fraud?

The insurance fraud was her receiving payouts after the implausible murder of all three men that she was romantically involved with, two of whom she was married to, between 1974 and 1996. She was then resentenced to the same amount of time again in 2006 after she appealed. This woman collected $165,000 in these three insurance settlements combined. Three guys dead so that she can get $165,000. It's a lot of money, but it's not, I don't know, it's not even that much. You think about three guys dead.

She was charged with murder by Maryland state authorities, but she was never convicted for murder because she was convicted in federal court in 2002 for insurance fraud for violating the Slayer's rule, meaning if you kill someone, you don't get to get the insurance money for their death. And then as a result, they said, okay, well, she's going to be in prison basically for the rest of her life, so we don't need to pursue the murder charges. And Biden just commuted her sentence because he, he, said, well, it was a nonviolent crime. Insurance fraud is a nonviolent crime, I guess. Insurance fraud because you murdered people is a, that is a violent crime. That's at least a,

the underlying crime there is rather violent, it would seem to me. Let's her off the hook. This is the Democrats on crime. And it gets worse from there. It's important to focus on these because you have to, in order to set Trump up for the best kind of administration, you have to show people just how bad the situation for law and order is in this country. Joe Biden granting clemency for a woman implicated in three murders. Convicted for insurance fraud related to those murders. But here's an even worse crime. Well, a different kind of crime. It strikes the heart as worse, but both are pretty egregious. An illegal alien from Mexico is on the run after filming and distributing video of himself committing unspeakable actions against an eight-year-old child. This is a

family show, so I won't say what those actions are. You can probably interpret and infer what I mean. He's on the run in Florida, having been accused of filming himself committing this horrific act against a child in Martin County. He's a 37-year-old illegal from Mexico. He has an active warrant for his arrest. This is not the only story like this. And the Trump administration needs to highlight every one of these stories. Because I promise you, when the deportations start, start. How many illegal aliens are there in this country? 11 million, 15 million more. When the mass deportation start, you know that the liberal media, the dishonest lying liberal media, are going to post pictures of sweet little babes who are being pulled out of their homes by the mean old police,

and they're going to pretend that all these illegal aliens are sweet, wonderful dreamers who never did anything wrong. And that is not the case. It's these guys. It's these guys who are going to be deported. Some of the most heinous, hideous criminals ever welcomed in by Joe Biden, welcomed in by the Democrats for decades to commit unspeakable acts on children, rarely held to account. The acts committed, they were totally needless. They were only even in this country because the Democrats rolled out a red carpet for them and refused to enforce immigration law. Every one of these stories, the Trump administration needs to expose because the deportation policy is a matter of reason. It's a matter of reason. It's a matter of justice. Of course, a country needs borders to be a

country. That's what delineates a nation. Of course, the American people have the right to enforce their basic immigration laws. Of course, this is what the American people voted for, not just in the electoral college, but the majority of Americans voted for this. Trump ran on this as a major issue. That's a matter of reason and logic and facts. But selling the deportations will be a matter of emotion. There's no question about it. When the deportations hit, it is going to pull on heartstrings. I don't care how rock-ribbed a conservative you are, the liberal media are going to play on every little one of your heartstrings. And you should not be duped by this. You should not allow the media to trick you. The Trump

administration needs to come out aggressively and show the reality of what illegal immigration means, like horrific crimes that are implied by illegal immigration. That's a matter for our side of communicators. The libs have their communicators. That's all the news networks. That's the New York Times. It's Washington Post. It's all it. We need our communicators. to push the truth out there. There's so much more to say first, though, go to stronghold rescue.org. As Americans, we are blessed

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unfortunately, remain deployed over Christmas to meet the urgent need in Burma. Stronghold is able to serve others because they're funded by a subscription model similar to Netflix. Every month, thousands of supporters each pitch in a little bit to keep Stronghold running. If you would like to become a supporter to, visit strongholdrescue.org right now. When you become a monthly supporter, you'll receive the same kind of t-shirt that stronghold teams wear during their real-world operations. Right now, private donor has pledged to double the donation of every new supporter up to 25 grand total. So head on over there right now, strongholdrescue.org. My favorite comment yesterday is from Daxopoulouse, 8753, who says, that money, the money that the congressman

voted to give themselves in raises, or tried to vote to give themselves in raises, the CR went down. That money should be tied to actually doing your job well like it is for the rest of us. I kind of kicked a hornet's nest yesterday because I said of all the things in the stupid continuing resolution, to me, the least shocking one was Congress giving themselves a modest raise. I think it was like a 4% raise or less than 4% raise after 15 years of not having had any raise. And I said, you know, this is not, this is a relative, I don't really care. Maybe it's an unpopular opinion.

I don't care if they give themselves a tiny little raise. It doesn't affect the budget at all. They haven't had one of 15 years, whatever. But then people say, well, they don't do their jobs. The problem is they do do their jobs. The Republicans who obstruct the Democrats are doing their jobs. The Democrats who obstruct the Republicans are doing their jobs. There are people in Congress for whom we should say it is a national disgrace that they are

sitting in Congress. These people don't have integrity. They don't have intelligence. It's disgraceful that some of these people are in Congress. But someone sent them there. they did get elected. The dysfunction of Congress is a little bit, just the personal failings of the members. It's more just a structural problem.

And it reminds us of the Mankan quote. I'll quote it a second time on the show. Democracy is the theory that the common man knows what he wants and deserves to get it good and hard. Speaking of criminals, Luigi Mangione, I was trying not to say the killer's name, but it's everywhere now. So I guess the cat's out of the bag. He is the murderer who killed the United Health Care CEO in Cold Blum. blood. He was extradited to New York at a court hearing with 100 supporters outside. Supporters of a cold-blooded killer who murdered a poor guy right before Christmas,

who was a wife, who has kids, just murdered him. And some people cheer him on. Now, some of the supporters there, these people, I have a picture of it. If you're only listening to the show, go look it up. Some of these people, they're down a bad path. They don't look like things are going well for them. They said, free Luigi. signs. Privatized health care as a crime against humanity. These are people, they're communists, they're lunatics, they're freaks. Freeks. Morally, completely ignorant. Okay, there's that. There is an ideological aspect to the support for Luigi Manjani, people who are just envious and covetous and without morality and consequentialists and all the rest. Every ism, every is,

that's nasty, they've got it. Sure. There is another side to it, though. Okay. And the other side is, I think part of the reason some people are supporting him, this guy's got a 20% approval rating according to an Emerson poll that just came at one to five people in America views this murderer positively. I think it comes down to the fact that he's pretty good looking. As crazy as that sounds, I think that's actually what it's about. The New York Times ran a story about him. This is what the Times wrote. This is New York Times, the paper of record. Luigi Manjone, the online version of him, was an Ivy League tech-enthusi. who flaunted his tan, tanned, chiseled looks in beach photos and party pictures with blue blazered frat buddies.

Do we need to pour some cold water on whoever wrote this for the New York Times? They're not the only ones. He's a good-looking guy. And he wouldn't be the first murderer, relatively good-looking murderer, that attracted people's attention. It reminds me of Ted Bundy. Women were throwing themselves at Ted Bundy, this psychosexual sadist, this serial killer, who would commit all truly unspeakable acts to all sorts of people. There was a woman Carol Ann Boone, who was probably the most prominent of Ted Bundy's admirers.

She moved to Florida. She moved across the country to be close to him. She married him. She had a kid with him, this complete psycho murderer. Because despite all of the evidence that Ted Bundy had beheaded and murdered and abused, all of these people, peeping Tom. I'm total, total, psycho. She still believed that he was innocent.

He wouldn't do that sort of thing. She had all sorts of pet names for him, sweetie pie, all that sort of thing. What is that about? Well, that I'm afraid, you know, I love women. I'm very pro-woman. I don't have a whiff of misogyny. But I am clear about the distinction between the sexes. This is a woman problem.

This is the problem of women who can fix him. Maybe if you're a woman, maybe you've experienced this. If you have women in your life, you can talk to them about this. The women who say, no, no, I can fix him. And men don't have this problem as much. But women do. They look at a guy, he can be a stone cold psycho killer. But if he's even moderately attractive, the one will say, oh no, he doesn't really mean it.

Don't worry. Women, they're very nurturing by nature. Women are somewhat more persuadable in certain circumstances, and they can fix him. I think that's a big part of it. I'm all for delving into the deep ideological and philosophical roots of social phenomena, as you well know. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes it's just because the guy has chiseled looks and he goes and gets tanned. And I have to remind you.

lest I be sued that Luigi allegedly murdered that guy. He is but a suspect. He is not yet convicted of any crime, even if he is convicted of the crime, as it seems likely he will be, given the abundance of evidence, but he's still a suspect. If he is convicted of this crime,

there will still be women who find him attractive. Not a good bet. Not a good bet to try to fix him. Luigi, Ted Bundy, anybody. Speaking of bad bets, business insider has a perspicacious take on 2024. Points out that 2024 was the year America started to bet on everything. And you don't even have to read the article. You know that this is true.

In 2024, we saw the rise of meme coins. We were just discussing the other day how a new cryptocurrency called Fartcoin amassed a market cap of over $800 million larger than many Fortune 500 companies. even Bitcoin, Bitcoin, which many people maintain is a solid investment, is a solid asset, is a form of currency, but I think most people who invest in Bitcoin, most people who buy Bitcoin are doing that because they just want to see the price go up. So it's a speculative asset. It's kind of gambling for most people.

Sports betting, there was a Supreme Court decision in 2018 struck down a federal prohibition on sports betting. Sports betting is spread everywhere. 38 states plus District of Columbia has sports betting. This is not great. All of the betting. Now, I say this is someone with friends of mine, multiple friends of mine, for going back 15 years now, whenever we have a meal,

we go down, we have lunch, or we go to the bar, have some drinks, we will play rock paper, scissors shoot for the bill. We don't really split bills. We're not even that generous. Oh, please let me get this. No, no, we play rock paper, scissors shoot for, for, I'm talking. in 15 years. Thousands and thousands of dollars over the years.

You figure 15 years of the people you spend the most time with, you play every single bill. That's a kind of a gambling. Even last night, I bought my annual lottery ticket. I saw a friend of mine bought a lottery ticket. I accidentally bought three, actually, because I don't really know how to buy lottery tickets. So I'm not, look, I play poker sometimes. I'm not totally opposed to gambling.

Gambling, I don't think, is intrinsically sinful. But gambling is, I think, acceptable. I believe St. Thomas Aquinas agrees on this. It's acceptable when it is a form of entertainment, when it is a way to facilitate conversation. You know, you sit around and you play a low-stakes poker game. You're having conversation. It's a way for guys to hang out. So that can be really good. It can be kind of fun. Harmless entertainments. That can be games. There's a role for games in society. Where it becomes disordered is when you get a little too invested into it. When you begin to think of gambling and games as investments. that's really bad for the country because it becomes irresponsible, because it is unreasonable. We're talking about games of chance. We're talking about the wheel of fortune that you cannot control. It begins to reek a little bit of desperation. If you've ever known a real gambler, you know, real gamblers are desperate. I kind of hate gambling, even though I do a little bit for the meal here or the coffee or the whatever, I kind of hate gambling because I hate losing money and I expect I'm going to be.

to lose money when I gamble. Do it for a little bit of fun. Okay. But if you do it where you say, I really want that money, I really need that money, that seems desperate. Because you can make money by working. You can make money by planning and working and being diligent. I think this reflects a broader issue for the country, because I think the country in many, many ways, has become irresponsible. Certainly, we've abused our liberty to licentiousness, just as our founding fathers warned us not to. I think the country has become unreasonable. I think our politics is now largely a matter of irrational will, just clubbing each other over the head. And the country has become desperate.

One in five women is hooked on depression pills. If that's not desperation, I don't know what is. People report being lonelier, sadder, more anxious. Men are dying deaths of despair, suicide, overdosing. That's a desperation. That's not good. It's not that gambling is making us desperate and irresponsible. It's that the gambling is a symptom of that.

The fact that even our investments now, are largely gambles. Now, a little good news before we get into the mailbag from my own state here. This is in the Tennessean headline, Nashville Star is fading. The Big Sort is creating a rural and red revolution. I said, well, that's kind of odd. You mean Nashville Star is fading? Everywhere I look around, there are cranes going up in Nashville, a huge building, housing prices are going way, way up.

What are you talking about Nashville? starts fading. Well, the argument is Nashville is a liberal stronghold in a red state. That's what's fading. And why is that? A lot of people are moving to Nashville. I was one of those people. They're moving. Well, I'll just quote from the article. As widely reported, the Californians and New Yorkers flocking to our state come for largely political and cultural reasons, helping to explain how Trump's electoral margin of victory in Tennessee increased by roughly 4% from 2020 to 2024. That's the good sign. The population growth coming from blue states, myself included, within the last five years, coming from blue states has made the state that everyone's moved to significantly more red,

significantly more conservative. This is a good sign about the big sort. When I first went to move to Tennessee, it was a local. I was looking around and she said, hey, don't you, California, my Tennessee. see. I said, lady, I'm not your problem. I promise you. I promise you, that is not what I'm moving here for. And that's true for many, many other people. This is what's called the big sort that people, the conservatives are going to move to conservative places. The liberals are going to move to liberal places. It's actually one way in which our government might become more representative, a little glimmer of hope with all the dysfunction in politics. If you have communities that are more ideologically or philosophically coherent,

then you're going to have representatives who better represent the interests of the constituents. 2025 is almost here, folks. It's sure to be a defining year for America's future. We need you in this fight with us right now, join DailyWire Plus during our Christmas sale. Save 50-50% on annual memberships. I will be speaking live at Turning Point USA's America Fest today,

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Finally, finally, I've arrived at my favorite time of the week when I get to hear from you in the mailbag. The mailbag is sponsored by Pure Talk. Go to puretalk.com slash Knowles. You will get an additional 550% off your first month. Take it away. Hey, Michael, got another music question for you. I've been tasked with putting together my first Christmas mass

and needs some help putting together the catalog. This is a two-part question. First, what are some of your favorite Christmas songs? and who sings them. Doesn't have to be church-related. Second, what Christmas hymns would you recommend for this Mass? We have three that have been required by the pastor to play, which are, O come all ye faithful, silent night, and joy to the world. I thought about putting together a couple very seldom heard songs, such as Mary Did You Know, for example, and mixed traditional and modern together, despite your disdain. So to sum up my question, any requests? And for the record, this is a Catholic Mass. Thanks.

Good. Yes, don't do the modern stuff, please. There's a song that's kind of an Advent song, I guess, but it's so joyful that I would consider a Christmas song too, which is, come thou long expected Jesus born to set thy people free. That's a good song. I'd recommend that. And then you already mentioned, oh, come all you faithful. I would just ask that perhaps you consider doing it in Latin. I really like the Latin. Adeste, Fidelis, lighty triumphant Teveni, teveni, in Bethlehem. And part of the reason I like that song is, especially in the Latin, some have suggested it is a Jacobite song.

The Jacobites, for those of you, it's a little hobby horse of mine, but it's the claim that the throne of England really belongs to the Stuart heir, who is now a Bavarian prince named Franz, who is a brother named Maximilian, who has a daughter named Sophie,

who has a son named Joseph Wenzel of Lichtenstein, It's kind of a long story. But the argument is that James II was booted out illegitimately by parliament in an act of parliamentary supremacy that really screwed up the UK government. And they invited these interlopers William and Mary of Orange. And that was the problem. So there were these rising to restore the rightful king. And Adeste Fidelis, O'Caramil You Faithful, has some clues in there that it's also about the Catholic error, the Bonnie Prince Charlie. One of them being, regimenangelo, king of the king of the.

angels, but it also could be read Regim Anglorum, perhaps, King of the English. So anyway, it's a little, that's like a nice little secret. It's a little more esoteric, but that's a good one to do. Okay, next question. Hey, Michael, love everything you do. I accidentally stole from Walmart and immediately thought, I need to seek higher counsel. I went Christmas shopping for my three sons and when I got to my van recognized that I had stolen two books, $20-ish each, that I was planning to gift to my sisters. I went back in to pay for them and both the doorman and the lady at the checkout was like, just keep it. What are you doing, man? Probably because I didn't want to admit that they had let me slip past them.

Not only do I want to do the right thing, but I want to look at my sons in the eyes and say, be honest and know that I am doing the right thing, but how do you reconcile the fact that the Walmart employees were pushing me to steal? What are your thoughts? I think your interpretation is probably right, or they just are morally ignorant and darkened,

but yeah, part of it, sure is, oh, shoot, we didn't do our jobs right. Well, let's just cover this up. You are right. You should pay for it. You should pay for it because your soul is worth more than 40 bucks. That's why. You know, if you're going to sell your soul, you better sell it for more than 40 bucks. You actually can't sell your soul, but you can sin, which damages your soul. So you should, you should pay the four. You can say, oh, no, I insist. So my soul's worth more than 40 bucks. Sorry, I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell and I don't want to offend God. Take my 40 bucks. Sorry. I don't know. You have, you have, you have. You have. You have. You

guys are going to have to deal with repercussions. I'm not telling anyone, but take my 40 bucks. I agree. It would be different. This happened to me the other day. I was at a corner bakery in D.C. And I was getting some food for my kids. And I mentioned my kids. And the lady behind the counter, very nice. She said, oh, how old are your kids? How many do you have? She said, I want to give you a couple cookies. So, oh, that's so sweet. And I respect her authority as a work. She doesn't own the place, but she's a worker there. and I respect her authority and judgment to be able to give me a couple cookies. I didn't insist on paying for the cookies. But in this case, you were not offered something by the store.

You just accidentally took something. And then they didn't want to, they wanted to brush it out the rug. The staff didn't want to admit that they missed out. Pay the $40. Next one. Hey, Michael. I got into a very heated argument with a friend the other day about, is it cheating to be looking at lewd drawings,

whether it be of a human woman or cartoon characters instead of watching traditional pornography. I argued that, yes, it is, as the drawings are meant to portray women in provocative manners and is demeaning. But my friend argues that it is no different than seeing a painting in an art gallery and getting turned on by it. I then retorted that those paintings are meant to depict the beauty of a feminine figure in the same way something like the statue of David is meant to portray the majesty of a male figure, to which my friend replied, if he becomes sexually attracted to it, it's no different than porn. Honestly, it's like talking to a painting, and even the paintings would understand better. I'd really love your perspective on the matter.

Thank you. And I will say it since we can't say it in public anymore, apparently, but I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas. Thank you very much. Good question. Yes, you're right. Don't look at lewd images, whether they are photographs, whether they are paintings or cartoons or other drawn images that look a lot like photographs. If it's lewd, don't look at it.

What's the difference between looking at a pornography or looking at some naked lady and I don't know, the birth of Venus or something? What's the difference? I don't know, man. If you're walking around beautiful art galleries becoming aroused by Botticelli, something's gone wrong in your head.

You know, work that out, okay? Maybe take a cold shower. But what is the distinction? why is a naked woman okay in one instance in a depiction but not in another it's about whether or not the image appeals to the prurient interest it's a word that we don't even really use much anymore if it is intended to cause arousal if it is if it is if it is obscene and you know you know it you know it when you see it so yeah that's wrong if you if you look at you know a lewd image and you said well that's a photograph and that's wrong but that's just an AI depicted

image that looks like a photograph, but it's not really a photograph. And so one is okay, and the other is not. You are, you're being really obtuse and you're trying to find a way out of it. If something is drawing up in you, your base passions contrary to reason, then, you know, tell your buddy, stop coping, don't look at it. Next one. Hello, Mr. Michael. This is Stanley in Utah. Earlier this week on your show, you played a one-round game of yes or no with producer Davies, and the question was asked, is Die Hard a Christmas movie? A quick brag, I also call that you would call that an Advent movie,

and I'm glad that you ended up agreeing with that. Using the word Christmas movie, the way most people do, I wanted to make an argument to you that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie because I feel that if I can convince you, a person who actually listens to facts and logic, and will keep an open mind based on that information, if I can convince you, I think I can convince anyone. First off, what is a Christmas movie?

A Christmas movie in my mind is not simply set during Christmas. If that were the definition, then we'd have to consider movies like while you were sleeping with Sandra Bullock or the second Batman movie, Batman Returns with Michael Keaton. Those would have to be Christmas movies, then simply because they're set during Christmas. My definition of a Christmas movie is one that you would only watch during that Christmas or for your sake Advent season. For example, you probably would not watch movies like White Christmas or Home Alone on a given day in July. Die Hard is a movie that if someone came in and I was watching it in the middle of summer, they wouldn't say, hey, why are you watching this Christmas movie right now? They would just sit down and enjoy the movie with me.

Anyhow, that's my contention. I would love to know if that was convincing to you. Have a great day. That's a persuasive argument. But then does that mean that it's also not an Advent movie? What is it? You've convinced me on what is your Christmas movie, but our next daily. our documentary has to be, what is an Advent movie?

We'll get to at least one written mailback question. From George, Michael, what is the woke right? I keep seeing this term bandied about on X. Seems like every other post, but when I ask someone for a definition, all I get is grief for asking. It just seems to me that it's another instance of conservatives cutting their own throat, which they seem to do quite often. They often do it.

The woke right is a polemical term that means pretty much anything, and therefore means nothing. The people, the liberals, classical liberals and libertarians and neo-conservatives, sometimes use the term woke right to refer to classical conservatives who are not liberals or libertarians,

or traditionalists, or fascists, or the Nietzschean right, the irreligious right, or really anyone who's not a liberal. Conversely, the illiberal right, be it Nietzschean, be it,

all, right, be it this right, or whatever kind of right. They sometimes use the term woke right to refer to the liberals and the libertarians and the neoconservatives because they are more liberal. They share more in common with the left, and so they're kind of like the woke.

And so it's really the term is just being thrown by everyone, at everyone else, in order to claim what it really means truly to be conservative. So I don't use it. I don't find that term to be helpful really at all.

If we're going to try to argue about the heart of conservatism, then just come down to it. You know, the people who say, you're on the woke right because you're not a liberal like me. Well, no, I'm a conservative. I'm a conservative because I'm not a liberal. So we're not all the same. There are a lot of people on the right and a lot of groups that don't agree with each other. The classical liberals, the post-morality, post-Christian right, the traditionalists, the neocons, the populists. that, you know, they say, I'm not the first to observe it, that obscure political monikers are the right-wing version of gender pronouns.

And because there are all these ideologically incompatible groups, that's part of the reason that the Republican Conference can't really ever get anything done in government, why they have a lot more trouble doing that because the left is united. They're all basically progressive of one shade or another, whereas on the right, we never seem to agree on anything. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it. Become a member use code, Nolts, KW, LES, a checkout for two months free on all annual plans.