The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 534 - Andrew Cuomo: Moral Idiot

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

The UN is predicting 130 million people around the world might die, not because of coronavirus, but because of the economic shutdowns associated with coronavirus. Is it still all worth it to save just one life, Governor Cuomo? The new numbers expose a fundamental moral error on the Left that’s been around a lot longer than coronavirus. Then, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams begins to openly campaign to be Joe Biden’s running mate, Alec Baldwin inadvertently reveals some spiritual truths about quarantine, and finally the Mailbag! Check out The Cold War: What We Saw, a new podcast written and presented by Bill Whittle at https://bit.ly/2z2j1NB. In Part 1 we peel back the layers of mystery cloaking the Terror state run by the Kremlin, and watch as America takes its first small steps onto the stage of world leadership. Go to dailywire.com/subscribe to get started AND get 10% off with coupon code KNOWLES. That’s dailywire.com/subscribe, coupon code KNOWLES, and get the rarest of all beverage vessels, times two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The UN is predicting 130 million people around the world might die, not because of coronavirus, but because of the economic shutdowns associated with coronavirus. Is it still all worth it to save just one life, Governor Cuomo? The new numbers expose a fundamental moral error on the left that's been around a lot longer than the virus. Then, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams begins to openly campaign to be Joe Biden's running mate, Alec Baldwin inadvertently reveals some spiritual truths about quarantine. And finally, the mailbag. I'm Michael Knowles, and this is the Michael Knowles show.

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Use promo code NOLS to save. Order today with everything going on, get the sleep you need and deserve. Okay. If the lockdowns save just one life, then it will have all been worth it, right? That is what New York's governor, Andy Cuomo, told us in the last couple weeks. Now, CNN is picking up on a news story. that all of us normal people figured out almost at the beginning of this pandemic, namely that there could be negative effects of the lockdowns themselves.

CNN runs a tweet, quote, The world is facing multiple famines of biblical proportions in just a matter of months, the UN has said, warning that the coronavirus pandemic will push an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation. Now, that is not precise. The point is true, but that is not precise. the coronavirus is not going to push 130 million people to the brink of starvation is the coronavirus doesn't starve anybody. The economic shutdowns that were chosen by the government will possibly

push 130 million people to the brink of starvation. Obviously, we couldn't have predicted it would be 130 million or 120 million or 140 million. But every normal person, every non-leftist person realized at the beginning of this that when you shut down the global economy, there are going to be negative consequences from that. Okay, this is no surprise to anybody except apparently the UN and CNN. So how does this new number change Cuomo's calculation? If we can save even one life, then it'll all be worth it. Why does Andy Cuomo sound like Bernie Sanders?

I don't know. They're both from New York, I guess. Cuomo's calculation was always extremely stupid. Okay, Cuomo's calculation, first of all, it's supposed that you could shut down the global economy without any negative consequences. That's crazy. And it also supposed that the doomsday models were reliable. So when you said two to four million Americans could die, they just assumed, okay, that's fine. Now, four million Americans are going to die. Okay, yeah, you got to shut down the economy. You got to take as extreme a measure as you can. But what's the likelihood of that?

Well, we quickly learned it wasn't that likely. It's four million, then two million, then half a million, then 100,000. Then now they're saying somewhere around 60,000. Who knows, between 60 and 100,000. and obviously much more in line with drug overdoses in the flu than it would be in line with 4 million or 2 million people dying. Now that all of these numbers are crashing down around Cuomo, people are asking real questions, namely the question that those of us who have been a little skeptical of the government here have been asking for weeks. What do we do if the cure is worse than the disease?

And Andy Cuomo is having none of it. It's a very serious question, but he's having none of it. because according to the leftists, according to people with this narrow ideology, the cure can't possibly be worse than the disease. And this is a really important point because it exposes not just Cuomo's factual idiocy, but his moral idiocy and a moral idiocy that is widespread on the left. These are regular people who are not getting a paycheck. Some of them are not getting their unemployment check.

And they're saying that they don't have time to wait for. for all of this testing and they need to get back to work in order to feed their families. Their savings is running out. They don't have another week. They're not getting answers. So their point is the cure can't be worse than the illness itself. What is your response to them? The illness is death.

What is worse than death? Well, what if somebody commits suicide because they can't pay their bills? Yeah, but the illnesses may be my death as opposed to your death. You said, they said, the cure is worse than the illness. The illness is death. How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death? So this is idiocy of the highest order factually and morally. On the factual point, he's just wrong.

The illness is not death. In fact, that's what we've learned more and more each day of this pandemic. If you contract coronavirus, the likelihood. that you will die is exceedingly low, like way, way low. Like, initially they told us it was 3 to 4%. Now they're saying it'll maybe 0.6%, maybe 0.3%, maybe 0.1%. We don't know. It keeps going down and down each day because it turns out more and more people are affected.

We're getting news that Los Angeles had a, or California rather, had a death from coronavirus on February 6th, which means it was here much, much earlier than it was. It might be even earlier than that. And if it was earlier than that, that would explain why it spread so much and why that death rate has gone down. So when he says the illness is death, that is just simply not true. But here's the moral idiocy is he says, what can be worse than death? There's nothing worse than death. Death is the worst thing.

That's not true. There are many things worse than death. Like, okay, for all of the history of our civilization, We have believed that death is a very, very bad thing, but there are things that are worse than death. This was the thesis of Ronald Reagan's famous Time for Choosing Speech, one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century. He said, if there's nothing worse than death, then should Moses have refused to lead the Israelites out of Egypt? Should Christ have refused to refuse the cross? Should the Patriots, a conquered bridge, have refused to fire the shot heard around the world?

There are things that are worse than death. You know, during the Cold War, there were two sides here. There was better dead than red, right? Those who would rather die than live on our knees. And those who said better red than dead, they'd rather live on their knees than die on their feet. And Cuomo is expressing that point of view. He is actually expressing the point of view that he would, that there is nothing worse in life than dying. Nothing worth standing up for.

This is the height of cowardice. Now, the reporter pushes him on this and says, well, what about some of the other externalities here? What about some of the other effects? He goes point by point. He says, yes, sure, things are bad. If you're stuck at home with an abusive spouse, domestic abuse is bad. But that's not worse than death. Nothing is worse than death.

What if the economy failing is equals death? Because of mental illness, the people stuck at home. No, it doesn't. It doesn't equal death. Economic hardship, yes, very bad, not death. Emotional stress from being locked in a house. Very bad, not death. Domestic violence on the increase.

Very bad. Not death. And not death of suicide. someone else. See, that's what we have to factor into this equation. Yeah, it's your life, do whatever you want. But you're now responsible for my life. You have a responsibility to me. It's not just about you. You have a responsibility to me. That could be Andy Cuomo's mantra for the whole pandemic and certainly for his governorship. You got a responsibility to me. Forget about you, worry about me. Nothing is worse than death. Could you imagine if we had an army full of Andy Cuomo's?

We'd be dead. We'd all be dead because nobody would have any courage. What Andrew Cuomo is saying right here is don't ever have any courage. Don't ever risk your life for anything. Don't consider anything greater than yourself. And if you do consider something greater than yourself, Remember, that something is me. Me, Governor Andy Cuomo. This idea is profoundly un-Christian, profoundly un-American. We just celebrated Easter. Andy Cuomo pretends that he's a Catholic.

What is the story of Easter? The story of Easter is God so loving the world that he gave his only begotten son to die to redeem mankind. But there's nothing worse than death. Oh, okay, all right, well, fair enough then, I guess. No greater love has a man than to die for his friends. No, but nothing's worse than death. Of course, there are many things that are worse than death.

We have to calculate what that is, where that line is. Are we saying that people should recklessly endanger their lives? No, of course not. However, are we saying that we should shut down the global economy? If you don't have to do that, if that's going to cost more lives, if there's something in the calculus beyond just life? I mean, this has been the problem with Andy Cuomo's calculus the whole time. He says, if we can save one life and it'll all be worth it.

You know, there are more factors here to consider than just that. It turns out that he's even wrong on his calculation of this many people will live and this many people will die. You got that completely wrong too, apparently by about 130 million. But even beyond that, there are things in life other than mere survival. And if Andy Cuomo understood this, then his view of the world would be far less perverted. He is finally asked, point blank, what if people want to work? What if people need to work? What if people can't feed their families?

He gives the most glib, arrogant, condescending answer he possibly could have. They're saying that is there a fundamental right to work if the government can't get me the money when I need it? Is there a fundamental right to go to work? Go take the job as an essential worker. Do it tomorrow. Yeah, you want to go work? That's fine. do what I tell you to do.

Can you think of a less essential worker than Andrew Cuomo? I can't. Chris Cuomo is a lying brother over at CNN. But actually, I don't know. Maybe it's a competition between those two Cuomans. I used to think Chris was the Fredo of the family. Now, I'm not so sure. What a glib answer? That's the answer of a guy who's never had to worry about having a job

because he's worked in government his whole life. Yeah, you want to get a job? Go become an essential worker. Well, guess what we're learning. We're learning that all workers are essential because the UN is saying 130 million. and people are going to starve to death because you shut down the global economy. The essential workers are still working, right?

But it turns out everybody's essential. Cuomo apparently doesn't understand that. The left doesn't quite understand that. AOC, another New Yorker does not understand that. The moral idiocy is not merely on questions of life and death. It gets down to work in the nature of man itself and leave it to AOC to get that totally wrong. We'll get that in a second. First, I've got to thank our friends over at ExpressVPN.

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Get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free. protect your internet today with the VPN that I use and I trust to keep my data safe, expressvPN.com slash Michael. So Cuomo gets the life and death issue wrong. He doesn't know what life is, doesn't know what the significance of death is. The left doesn't get this at all. Actually, Alec Baldwin, the celebrity, shows us something a little bit about this. I will get to that in a moment.

What AOC misunderstands is the nature of man as it relates to work. and socialists generally misunderstand this because they don't want to work because they're lazy bums. AOC has this brilliant idea with now, we found out another something like 5 million people and another 5 million people are thrown out of work. So that brings the total up to what, 27, 28 million people out of work in the last month. She says, well, I've got an idea when the pandemic lifts and you're all desperate to try to get a paycheck so you can feed yourself and pay your rent. Actually, what you should do is refuse to work. a lot that we could be doing right now, but ultimately, I think when we talk about this idea of

reopening society, you know, only in America does the president, when the president tweets about liberation, does he mean go back to work? When we, you know, have this discussion about going back or reopening, I think a lot of people should just say, no, we're not going back to that. We're not going back to working 70-hour weeks just so that we could put food on the table and not even feel any sort of semblance of security in our lives. AOC only works a 70-hour week. What a... Come on. She's like one of the top politicians in the country, and she thinks 70 hours is a lot. 70 hours is a lot. Think of how many people at the top of their fields get to only work 70 hours a week? Do you think Tim Cook at Apple only works 70 hours a week?

No, only in government. You get to reach basically the pinnacle of fame and influence and still work 70 hours a week. Unbelievable. Beyond that, people are mocking her for this. Saying, oh, my gosh, what crazy. She misspoke. No, she didn't misspeak. She's been campaigning on keeping people out of work since the beginning of her political career two years ago.

Don't forget, the Green New Deal, her signature legislative. project has a provision in it to just pay people from the government who are unable or unwilling to work. So you just say, I don't really want to work this year. And you get a paycheck under AOC's plan. And it comes down to this word she uses, liberate. She's mocking Trump. She says, only in Trump's America, only in this conservative Republican hellhole,

could the word liberate imply that you have to work? Because the left and socialists have this idea that working. is somehow just a punishment. It's miserable. It's awful. It's something that humans shouldn't do. They shouldn't have to work. Nancy Pelosi said this.

Remember during the passage of Obamacare, she said, we need to decouple health insurance from your employment so that people don't have to work anymore so that they can go become poets, so that they can become writers, artists, as though work is holding mankind back. and if we can only stop our need to work, then we could finally flourish. But that isn't true. The only way we flourish is by working. Okay?

In the Garden of Eden, Adam had a job to do. He had to tend the garden and name the animals. Certainly, when they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden, God says, by the sweat of your brow, you shall earn your food. You work. You have to work. Now, what does that tell us, the fact that the most influential book on the origin of humanity begins with the issue of work. Every other story about humanity begins with this kind of

work. What does that tell us? It tells us that man is made to work. And you just know this intuitively. You know this right now because you're living it. When you're not allowed to work, when you're thrown out of your job, even if you do get to keep your job, when you're just told to sit at home and do nothing, you get depressed. You don't feel good about yourself. You don't feel satisfied or gratified. And when you're working and when you're working really hard, even if you're working a 70-hour week, maybe an 80-hour week, maybe even a 90-hour week, the thing that's so weird about it is when you're really in it, when you're really succeeding at your job, you feel better than if you were on vacation at a beach. Isn't that weird?

We shouldn't expect that, right? We should think that the best we're ever going to feel is with a pinia calotta sitting on the beach. But it isn't. You actually feel best when you're accomplishing something. Doesn't understand this. This is part of the radical liberation that the left and the socialists have pushed for for 200 years now, which is we're going to liberate ourselves so much, emancipate ourselves so much that we will emancipate ourselves from our own human nature, from the confines of reality, from our biological sex, from our need to work itself. And it drives people absolutely mad. Those are the two moral idiots of the Democratic Party right now, the two most prominent,

and AOC. The rest are just of the usual variety, the blathering kind. One of those happens to be the nominee for president, Joe Biden. AOC, for all that we knock her, she sounds like Winston Churchill compared to Joe Biden. Here's Joe Biden celebrating Earth Day yesterday, talking to former Vice President Al Gore, remember him, savior of the world. I don't know what Joe Biden is to. talking about here. Please take a listen and see if you can decipher it for me.

Most Americans now get the challenge we're facing. They believe in science. The issue is important to them, and they want their leaders to act on climate, particularly young people, as you said, inspired by the activism of Greta and so many young Americans as well who are leading on climate. You know, JFK said, he said he refused to postpone. You know, that one line in his speech, we all had to learn when we were kids about. going on the moon and he talked about, you know, the one thing that the line that meant the most to manage to drive my colleagues crazy was his phrase, I refuse, we're doing this because we refuse to postpone. Well, we should say as a nation, I refuse to postpone. As president, I refuse to

postpone taking immediate action. And look, I'm confident. I'm confident. Not only can we address the crisis, we can make most of the opportunity. and create 10 million good jobs, make the U.S., the world's clean energy exporter, and more optimistic than I have been since I've been a 29-year-old kid about what we can do. So I think my favorite part of this entire exchange or narrative or stream of consciousness is that he thinks a 29-year-old as a kid, because to Joe Biden, a 29-year-old is a kid. But the rest of it's pretty crazy, too. The problem that Joe has is he can't focus his thoughts anymore.

He actually did use to be able to do this, but he can't now. This is probably the number one sign that he's slipping, which is that he begins somewhere and he just meanders and the thoughts go all over the place. And then by the time he ends, he's nowhere near where he began. So frankly, in this clip, he was better than he usually is. He's at least talking about the environment. But he starts to wander and he's talking about Greta and then he's talking about JFK and then he's talking about when he was a kid and he learned the speech.

and then he can't really remember the line from the speech. And then he says this line, we cannot postpone, which is not a line from the speech. JFK does talk about postponing in the speech, but that's not, first of all, it's not what Joe Biden said. It's not the central line of the speech. The central line of the speech is, we will go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. That's the thrust, and Biden doesn't get it. He just misses it a little bit again, and then he tries to dig himself out, and he ends up nowhere, which is probably where he belongs.

And you can see it on the face of Al Gore. This is everyone that talks to Joe Biden, whether it's a left-wing news broadcaster or it's Bernie Sanders or it's Al Gore. You can see them split screen and they got their good politician face on. And then Joe starts talking. And as they're talking, you can see the distress enter onto their face because they think, oh my gosh, what have we done? Donald Trump is going to win another four years. He might win another eight years if he clobbers him so badly. that's why Joe Biden needs a strong VP.

And there is someone, someone who is a failed politician, someone who has never won anything bigger than a local state office, who is ready to take the job for him. We'll get to that in one second. First, I've got to thank our friends over at Wondery. I want to let you know how much I love crazy, weird stories about creepy hippies. You already knew that.

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but definitely check out those crazy Hauri Krishna. murders because it really it really checks every box wild wacky politics murder mayhem deception go check it out right now we're going to play a clip after the show so stay tuned for that somebody is willing to take the spot as said joe biden's vice president that person is not necessarily a sitting u.s. senator or a sitting u.s. governor or a former u.s. senator or anybody who's held any office higher than a local state rep. And that person would be Stacey Abrams. A lot of people are looking to you as a possible vice presidential pick for Joe Biden. Now, I love it. You said you would be an excellent running mate. It's refreshing to hear such confidence.

I love it. I would be great at the job and I want it, you said. So tell us why you would be an excellent running, running mate, even though it's pretty obvious to me. Well, I appreciate that. Pretty obvious to me. How is it obvious to you, Joy? What has she done? Her highest office she's ever had is a local state rep. Not a U.S. rep, not a congressman even, like a local state rep in Georgia.

There are millions of people more qualified to be vice president than Stacey Abrams. This is just what the women of the view do is they speak without thinking. I mean, that's sort of the definition of the view. Joy here just likes the idea of Stacey Abrams, for what reason. We'll get to that in a second. So she says, oh, you'd be perfect. You'd be so qualified. I mean, it's so obvious to me.

But listen, since I can't quite name it right now, what do you think? It's like that time that Whoopi Goldberg a few weeks ago said, I think Dr. Dr. Jill Biden should be the surgeon general. And the other women said, what? She goes, oh, yeah, she's an amazing doctor. She's an amazing. They said, no, actually, Whoopie, I think she's a doctor. of education. She's not a, she's a teacher. She's not a doctor. Oh, oh, okay. And they just talk

because they like the idea of these democratic politicians, especially if they check some intersectional boxes like Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams. So they just say things that have no connection to reality. Stacey Abrams, though, is prepared with an answer. Tell us why you would be an excellent running, running mate, even though it's pretty obvious to me. Well, I appreciate that. And yes, I try to be straightforward because while we hope the work speaks for itself, sometimes the work needs a hype man. And I learned early on that if I didn't speak for myself, I couldn't tell the story. But here's where I am. I've spent the last 25 years of my life in service doing the work that I believe needs to be done. Is there anything more grading than when a career politician refers to

their work exclusively as service? I've, I've listened, I'm a martyr. I'm a mother. I'm a Teresa, basically, I've served you. Because I went to law school and then I'm absolutely hungry and I crave political power. And so I ran for the first office I could and I've been paid by your taxpayer dollars ever since to do, in Stacey Abrams case, absolutely nothing. I'm just a real servant. You know, I'm practically a missionary or a martyr. Yeah, that's me. Also, there's more evidence here that Stacey Abrams is not. qualified to run a coffee shop, much less to run as vice president of the United States. Stacey Abrams doesn't know what a hype man is. She said, look, you hope the work speaks for itself.

In Stacey Abrams's case, it doesn't because she hasn't done anything. But she said, but sometimes the work needs a hype man. Yeah, a hype man is someone who isn't you. The hype man is the guy who isn't the main person who goes and chats up how wonderful the work is. But because Stacey Abrams hasn't accomplished anything and she's just a loser, she's no for having lost a race, she's got to be her own hype man. It's very ugly. It's very off-putting. It's just a woman who seems very prideful boasting about things she has not accomplished and complaining about offices that she hasn't won. So then finally, she makes the case for all that work that we need the hype man for. What do you say to critics who say that you aren't qualified

for vice president because you've only held state office? I would say that, national experience can be measured in multiple ways. And the truth of the matter is what we want is capacity. We want competence and we want skills. And I would challenge anyone to look at my resume and to understand that I've built three national organizations in the last year and a half tackling the most fundamental questions in our country. And I'm not stopping simply because there are people who dislike what I do. I'm working on it because my responsibility is to serve the people like me, like my parents, like my cousins, who are working in chicken processing plants and who are worried about where their next paycheck comes from and who deserve a government that

can be responsive. And if I'm not willing to say that's work I can do and back it up with a resume that shows I've done that work, then I shouldn't be in the business I'm in. Right. You shouldn't because you've proved that you can't do that work. You were a state rep for for 10 years and then you tried to run for governor and you lost. That's it. There's the proof. Not even just that you lost a race, but she didn't really do anything when you were a state rep. She's built three national organizations over the last year. What does that mean? What are the names of the organizations?

What are those organizations accomplished? Do you know how easy it is to write down, to start a political action committee or something or a nonprofit? And, you know, you get one donation in California and one donation in New York. You say, I've got a national organization. Sure. You organized something, I guess. What does it do? What is its name?

We have no idea. Three national organizations, and we haven't heard of any of them. man, that's pretty sad. They're tackling the most fundamental questions in the country. How? What are they doing? She isn't doing anything. She hasn't ever done anything.

The only reason that she is being considered is because the Democratic Party is obsessed with sex and race. So just to begin, Joe Biden says, I am going to pick a woman. I don't care who's most qualified. It doesn't matter to me. I'm just going to pick a woman because that will help me pander to my base. And so they say, okay, we're going to pick a woman. Now, many Democrats have said it's got to be a woman of color. So now we've got race added to sex here.

Those are the two qualifications. And yeah, sure, Stacey Abrams checks the intersectional boxes of victimhood. Is that going to put her in the best position? Is that going to put the Democrats in the best position to win? You just check a couple superficial identity boxes instead of looking at any accomplishments, which Stacey Abrams completely lacks. There are millions of Americans more. qualified than her to be Joe Biden's running me. Okay, I don't think this is going to help them.

I don't think it's going to help them because what the Democrats are playing on here is they think that these intersectional victim identity boxes now matters more than how you can help in the electoral college. So they think that around the country, people are going to look and they'll say, well, Joe Biden, maybe I don't care for him that much, but Stacey Abrams is black, so I'm going to vote for her. or Stacey Abrams is a woman, so I'm going to vote for her, or whatever, whatever the identity group is. Usually, historically, people have picked vice presidents to help them win a certain state. Is Joe Biden going to win Georgia?

Probably not. Probably Georgia's going to go for Trump. Is Stacey Abrams going to help him win Georgia? Probably not. She lost the governor's race. Now Brian Kemp is the governor. So she doesn't add anything in terms of picking up a new state. they just think people's sexual and racial solidarity is going to outweigh the importance

of winning this state or that state. I don't think there's any evidence of that. I think they're going to regret that decision if they pick Stacey Abrams, which is why I'm now fully behind Stacey Abrams for Joe's running mate. Before we get to the mailbag, I've got to thank our friends over it, Beard Supply. Look, me, I'm clean-shaven, unfortunately. Because I have been checking out beard supply, I now really, really want to grow one. Trouble is, I can grow a full beard except like right here. So I don't know what I'm going to have to. I'll put mascara there or something. You thought quarantine was your chance to try something new, didn't you? You thought like me. To let down your facial hair join the ranks of the bearded brethren. Well, you must have missed

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For a limited time, Beard Supply is offering my listeners, 25% off. Go to Beard Supply.com. Use the promo code, Knowles for 25% off all oils, soaps, bombs, grummy supplies. Beard supply.com promo code Knowles, your beard can be so much better. Go to beard supply.com today. You know, before we get to the mailbag, just one quick note from Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin is stuck at home. He's absolutely losing his mind. And it doesn't just show us something about the psyche of Alec Baldwin. It shows us a spiritual reality of the lockdown.

Hey, I normally probably wouldn't do this kind of thing. But every day now that I wake up that we're out here, at our house and thinking about what's happening and what's going to happen. And I think it's harder. I think it's a little harder every day because I think less about myself than the people I care for. And I can't get my hair cut anywhere. Okay, it remains as crazy, if not crazier than that for the whole rest of this rambling video. He goes on about a bunch of nonsense about the economic.

impact of the lockdown. I don't care about any of that. I am more interested in how completely insane Alec Baldwin looks. And if you will allow me to engage in a little psycho babble here, I think it shows us something about the lockdowns, which is most people don't need to be alone very much. Some people do. And, you know, that's unpleasant sometimes, but it can be very spiritually edifying. If you don't have to be alone very much, and now you do have to be alone, that can be a scary prospect. When all the dinners go away and all going out to the bars and all constantly doing this and then,

you're just sitting alone with yourself, then the only person you can be with is yourself and your God also, you know, but some people are not exactly aware of that. And they have to look at who they are and they have to look at what their lives are full of and what their lives mean without all the distractions. We are so prone to being distracted,

especially in this very luxurious, prosperous culture and society that we live in, that we ignore the fundamental questions. We ignore the fundamental facts of life. We ignore the memento mori, which the pandemic reminds us of, that we are going to die. And all this great glitzy stuff and all the nice jewelry and all the fancy food and drinks, it's going away. You don't get to take it with you. That can be a wonderful thing to confront. It can make your life so much better if you confront it, this could be a wonderful opportunity to look into that, or it can be absolutely terrifying and you can end up with your hair standing up like muttering to yourself like a crazy person, like Alec Baldwin. Those are the two options. Seems like, you know, if you got to turn lemons

into lemonade, that would be a good way to use this pandemic, is to address the things that are beyond not just the walls of your apartment, but the walls of this life. All right, let's get to the mailbag. You know, obviously, we appreciate all the subscribers. Right now, if you become an Insider Plus or All Access member. You won't just get one leftist tears tumbler. You will get. Are you ready for it? Are you ready?

Can you guess what you're going to get? You're going to get two leftist tears tumblers. Oh, man. What a deal. Twice as good. Head on over to dailywire.com slash subscribe. We'll be right back with the mailbag. I'm going to fly through this mailbag.

I'm going to squeeze in more answers into this seven minutes than I usually do into 15. From Eric. Mr. Knowles. I was wondering if there is some advice you could give me. My wife has a hard time. having faith in a higher power due to an assault when she was young. I wanted to know if there's anything you might be able to think of to help her find God's love and find her way back to religion. Very sorry to hear that that happened to your wife. That can be a big stumbling block. We saw this in

the church sex scandals, in the Catholic church sex scandals, and the Baptist sex scandals, and all of them when you have your faith shaken by an assault, whether it's a priest or a pastor or just some guy you know, that can make you really question the world. What you've got to tell your wife, I hope this doesn't sound cold. I think this is actually the most compassionate fact you can tell her is that whether or not God exists has nothing to do with our subjective feelings and experiences in the world. That's not the question. God is not just a feeling, okay? God, if he exists, is a fact. And that fact is objective. and it's outside of us.

The arguments for the existence of God are compelling, and there are many of them. You can just Google arguments for the existence of God. The tomistic arguments are good from St. Thomas Aquinas or from other people as well. The arguments against the existence of God are not good. I can only think of one.

The only argument against the existence of God, which ties into your wife's experience, is suffering, senseless suffering. Why does a kid get abused? Why does a kid get leukemia? Why do bad things happen to good people? That is one of the argument that there is suffering in the world. But of course, all of the great religious thinkers have had a simple answer to this,

which is that mankind has free will, that it is a fact of the world that sin and death pervade it and the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. So now you might get to the point where you say, okay, God exists, but he's a jerk. because he's given us this world where abuse happens. Okay, maybe though this actually still is the greatest possible world. Maybe the world with incarnation and atonement, the world in which God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life.

Maybe that is the greatest possible world. Maybe a world without free will where there's no sin and death would actually be worse than a world in which there is free will. we can pursue our own desires and we can pursue the good as we see the good and we can choose to do what we want to do is better, even if there's sin and death, because God will redeem that world and God has redeemed that world. There's so much more to it than that. Hopefully that will be an introduction to your wife and wish you luck from Jeff. Hi, Michael. I'm a huge fan of your show. I'm sure you've heard of the QAnon movement. My question is, do you see any validity to the movement or do you dismiss it as just another conspiracy theory?

I'm not sold as to believe a certain way on it, but hoping you could maybe shed some light on it. Thanks for any answer. And again, I love your show. I specifically became a member just for your show. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yes, I have heard of the Q&N movement, but I don't know very much about it. I haven't looked into it too closely.

So I'll give my answer just on conspiracy theories in general. I don't like conspiracy theories. I always go for the simpler explanation than the conspiracy theory explanation. The reason that conspiracy theories catch on, however, is when there are conspiracies. And by that, I'm not talking about any conspiracy in particular. I'm talking about when we can't trust the people who are supposed to tell us the truth. So the media here are the big culprits. The media have lied to us time and time again.

You saw Chris Cuomo pretending to walk out of his basement for the first time in weeks, even though we know that he got caught outside of his house. and he lies right on TV, right to your face. And so we say, well, wait a second, I can't believe those guys. There actually is some sort of a conspiracy, right? There's the CNN, Chris Cuomo conspiracy. There are all these other lies that come out. And that gives more credence to conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theories should be judged on their predictive ability, right? Because the way they're usually judged is by this 2020 ex post facto explained in reverse kind of thing, like Nostradamus. You know, Nostradamus predicted everything. No one knew that at the time, but when you look backwards, it looks like he predicted everything. You've got to look not just to the explanatory power looking backward, but to the predictive power looking forward. If this particular theory can predict things into the future and you can actually say, okay, in 10 days this is going to happen, and then it happens, then I guess there's a reason to give some credence to it. If it can't do that, then probably it's not worth as much as it says it is.

From Chris to the all-knowing Knowles, long-time listener, first-time caller. I disagree that abortion is a right. However, it is currently a medical procedure typically performed by medical professionals. If we make it illegal to get an abortion, I'm afraid that some desperate individuals will still attempt to abort their pregnancies, do-it-yourself style. How do we move forward in our fight to end abortion while simultaneously removing the only option to safely perform the operation? Yeah, this is one of the lines that the left has used forever. They've said that before Roe v. Wade 5, 10,000 women a year died, died. from botched back alley abortions.

That's not true. The guy who came up with that statistic, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, one of the founders of the pro-abortion movement, founder of NAROL, he ended up changing his views and becoming a pro-life advocate later in his life. He said that they just made those numbers up out of whole cloth. We actually know that because we can look at the Centers for Disease Control numbers. The year before Roe versus Wade, you had something like 35 or 39 deaths from,

Back-alley abortions. Not 39,000, not 39 million, 39, period. Do you know how many deaths you had from legal abortions that year? Twenty-four. And when you look at which states had legal and illegal abortion, it turns out that the likelihood of being killed by a legal abortion or an illegal abortion was statistically almost exactly the same. That's not a real fear. Meanwhile, million babies a year are being killed through abortion. This is just not a difficult issue. And abortion, you say it's being performed by medical professionals. That's true, but that is criminal. You know, medical professionals take an oath to do no harm, and some doctors have decided to use their medical gifts to kill people, million a year. It's not a difficult

issue. From Kevin, most excellent Michael Knowles, my wife seems to be developing leftist views, such as distancing herself from our Catholic faith, pro-socialism, pro-abortion. She's also said very strange things. In a recent argument, she started, not sure if I love you, etc. Yikes. I'm interested in marriage counseling, but I'm nervous about being outnumbered. We live in Silicon Valley. She's my high school sweetheart. We've been together for 15 years. We're engaged for two and married for just over two now. She asked to wait until we finish school to get married, but we've been together uninterrupted. We also chose to wait until marriage, which I'm incredibly happy we did. Made everything incredibly special. Any insider help came for Ben, subscribe for Knowles and

Claven. Very sorry to hear that you're in this predicament. you're absolutely right to have this fear that you're going to be outnumbered in marriage counseling. You've got to remember, I'm sure there are plenty of good marriage counselors who have all sorts of different ideologies. But in order for marriage counseling to work, you need to all agree on what marriage is going in. There actually has to be some guardrails and constraints around here. Because now we've redefined marriage to mean just about anything. So the Catholic view of marriage is very different than the modern secular. view of marriage. And you've got to figure out what you're even going to try to fix. If you want to

try to create or repair some modern secular marriage, that's going to look a lot different and be a lot less satisfying than trying to repair a Catholic marriage. Okay, the Catholic view, first of all, is you can't get divorced. There is no divorce. A marriage can be annulled if it was illegitimate to begin with, but there's no divorce. And so the attitude going in is going to be a lot different than the modern marriage, which is like, you know, if you have a TIF one night, then you're going to split up. You should go to marriage counseling if your wife will do it. That can be very helpful. I would recommend, you say you're Catholic, probably you want to have a Catholic marriage, that you find a Catholic, faithfully Catholic marriage counselor.

Not a, you know, cafeteria Catholic marriage counselor, but someone who actually believes in the stuff. And if your wife is unwilling to do that, then you've got to have a conversation first about what it is you're even trying to fix. People go to do. People go to. bad intellectual roads or spiritual roads or make bad decisions at some point. So, you know, it's easy for confusion to creep in. But you first have to agree on the parameters of what it is you're trying to fix. Only then will you be able to find a path forward and some people to help you do that and go down the road of counseling and hopefully repairing your marriage. I really, I'll pray for you and hope it works out for you. Finally, last question from Aaron. Hi, when arguing

for the Second Amendment as a defense against a tyrannical government, there is one argument that I have trouble countering. The argument is, since the government has presumably all the, of the best weapons, including nuclear weapons, what good would any weapons such as an AR-15 do against that kind of force? Thanks. We've been trying to occupy Afghanistan here in the United States. We've been trying to occupy Afghanistan for 20 years. And we're about to leave because we've been mostly unsuccessful at that as a political matter. And there are military difficulties as well. Afghanistan is smaller than Texas. And the U.S. government struggles to occupy just that area. And the Afghanis don't have AR-15s most of the time. Most of the time they've got very old,

outdated weaponry. If we were in this doomsday apocalypse scenario of a tyrannical government, we take arms against the government. First of all, a ton of people. First of all, a ton of people are going to leave the government side and go fight with the people. How many people in the military do you think are going to stick with the government? Probably not very many. How many people in the police forces? Probably not very many. So you've got that issue. You've got the political issue of guiding the military because usually the problems we have waging wars in this country. They're not the military usually. It's usually the politicians who oversee the military. And also, it's a very, very big country. That's what our politicians are

finding out right now when they're trying to lock the whole thing down and tell us what to do and imprison us in our apartments, you're finding out this is a very big country. Americans have a strong spirit of not being told what to do. And let's hope they learn that lesson now so they don't have to learn it later. All right, that's our show. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Noles show. See you next week. If you enjoyed this episode, and frankly, even if you didn't, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends to subscribe. We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro Show, the Andrew Claven

show, and the Matt Walsh Show. The Michael Nulls Show is produced by Ben Davies and directed by Mike Joyner, executive producer Jeremy Boren, supervising producers, Mathis Glover, and Robert Sterling, technical producer Austin Stevens, Assistant Director Pavel Wadowski, editor and Associate producer Danny Domeico. Audio mixer, Robin Fenderson, hair and makeup, Nika Geneva, production assistant, Ryan Love. The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2020. You're about to hear a clip from episode one of the Hari Krishna murders on American Scandal. But before that, make sure to subscribe to American Scandal and other great podcasts from Wondery on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now.

It's a little past midnight on May 22, 1986. Steve Bryant walks towards his van on a quiet residential street in West Los Angeles. With his round glasses and soft, kind eyes, Steve could be a UCLA grad student. But the truth is, he's a college dropout. While he spent the last two years studying and writing, it's not about anything you'd learn in school. He's been living in his van as he criss-crosses the country, trying to get people to listen to his tale of abuse, corruption, and fraud by a worldwide religious organization.

It's an explosive story bursting with salacious details that would blow people's minds if they'll only believe him. And that's the problem. He's talked to reporters, written a book. He's talked to anyone who would listen. But most people dismiss him as a nutcase. And the ones who do believe him, insiders who saw things firsthand, are afraid to speak up. up, and the ones in power, the ones who know the truth, they want to see him silenced. When he thinks about everything that's happened, all he can do is shake his head. He was in his early 20s when he joined. He was a happy guy. He'd finally found a community where he felt like he really belonged. Now he's 33. Divorced. He's lost custody of his kids. So many battles and all of them lost. A couple of weeks ago, he finally admitted defeat. The bad guys have won. Now it's time to

just let go of the anger, let go of the hurt, move on. Tomorrow, he'll head up to the bucolic town of Mount Shasta, California, where he has a lead on a job customizing vans. He wants to start over, have a normal life. Tonight was a good night spent with old friends. He didn't have to convince them of anything. They know he's telling the truth. Their conversation was about the future, and new beginnings. The message was clear. Move on, Steve. Let it go and live your life. But he knows he's in danger. That's why he refused his friend's invitation to spend the night at their apartment. The last thing he wants to do is draw them into this mess. He'll park a few blocks away and spend the night in his van. He crawls into the back, lays on his home-built bed and

wraps himself in a blanket. It's after midnight, and he's exhausted, but his mind keeps racing. He closes eyes, willing sleep to come. But sleep is not cooperating. He throws off the blanket, crawls into the driver's seat, and rolls a joint, chanting softly as he rolls. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. Hare Krishna devotees like Steve aren't supposed to do drugs. They aren't supposed to do a lot of things, but some of them do. Some of them do terrible things. And if you speak up and challenge their authority, he shakes his head. Let it go, Steve, you're moving on. New beginnings. As he fires up the joint, there's a tap on his window.

He turns and recognizes the face in the shadows immediately. It's not someone he wants to see. Tirta or Thomas Dresher. Tietta lives in West Virginia, so he should not be here, not in L.A. and certainly not standing next to Steve's van late at night. Maybe it's Steve's mind, playing tricks. He blinks to see if Tirtie's. will disappear. But when he opens his eyes, Tirt is still there staring at him. Steve keeps

chanting. Hare Rama. Does he still believe in Krishna? After so many years of disappointment, after losing his wife, losing his children, his innocence, part of him still does. And all of him needs Lord Krishna's protection right now. Hare, Hare. Tirta raises his hand. It's holding a 45. Steve leans closer. Harirama. To listen to the rest of episode one of the Hari Krishna murders on American Scandal, click the link in the show description or subscribe to American Scandal and other great podcasts from Wondry on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening now.