Is Middel East Peace Still Possible

0:05 Thank you. Are you ready yeah okay let's do it bill martinez live a program about current events our culture our values our politics and our future and now bill martinez. Hey good morning six minutes after the top of the hour right now i'm bill martinez he's bill pascoe tpp's man in washington hey mr bill how we. Doing i'm doing fine how you doing today bill oh. I just uh i'm i'm brain bruised man all these election ads i can't wait till they're over I. Think America joins you in that. It has been a true deluge of advertisements. I'm even seeing them in Northern Virginia.

0:50 And we don't normally get a lot of advertisements in Northern Virginia. Let's face it. Nobody is talking about the U.S. Senate race. We've actually got a senator running for re-election. His name is Mark Warner. He's been in office for a couple of decades now. He's our former governor. And he's I don't think the Republican running against him, there is a Republican on the ballot. I can't tell you his name. I haven't seen an advertisement. I haven't received a piece of mail. I haven't gotten a phone call. I haven't gotten a knock on the door. I'm a, as you might imagine, I am a reliable Republican voter. The Republicans ought to know who I am, where I live, and they ought to be reaching out to me. I've heard nothing from them. And yet he is all over the airwaves. Um, I don't know why he's spending money.

1:36 You would think if he wanted to be more helpful to his Democrat colleagues, he could be spending money in competitive Senate races. They've got any number to choose from around the country. He could help in Michigan or New Hampshire. He could help in Mississippi or Kansas. Places the Democrats haven't been competitive in decades appear to be competitive. on the brink of possibly maybe showing an update. Now, I've got some interesting news. I can tell you, I can't tell you the source, but I can tell you that over at the Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the party body that is exclusively concerned with electing Republicans to the United States Senate, they firmly believe that that all of the polling that we've been reading about is wrong.

2:28 Are you surprised? They think that Republicans are doing much better. Republican candidates are doing much better than the polls would suggest. They believe that the pollsters are oversampling independents. Now, this could be crucial. If there's actually an industry-wide error, where all the pollsters are creating models. You know, let's take a step back and think, what is a poll? What is the value of a poll? It is a snapshot in time. That's the first thing. It's not a predictor of behavior. We can't do that. All we can do is we can ask people today, if the election, and that's the way the question is always framed. If the election were held today, how would you vote? Would you vote for the Republican candidate, Joe Smith, or the Democratic candidate, John Williams?

3:11 Whatever. And so when you collect all that data, What's important is how well your sample reflects the actual universe of voters. And we know that partisan affiliation is still the strongest predictor of voting behavior. If you're a Republican, the odds are very good you're going to vote for the Republican candidate. If you're a Democrat, the odds are very good you're going to vote for a Democratic candidate. So when you put together your sample, you want to make sure that you've got the right number of Democrats in your sample and the right number of Republicans in your sample. And crucially, You need to have the right number of independents in your sample. Now, what we've been seeing over the last several cycles is that the number of people who affiliate with either the Republican or the Democratic Party is shrinking relative to the number of people who say they don't affiliate with either party. We've got a whole bunch of independents that we didn't have 30 years ago. 30 years ago, the number of independents was.

4:12 I'm sorry? What do we have, too, about 15, 20 percent of independents now? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. In some states, we've got a majority of voters are now registering as independents. In California, there are more independents than there are Democrats, for crying out loud. And yet we think of California as a Democrat state. It's a solid Democrat state. But in fact, and it is a solid Democrat state because now we're going to get I'm going to get a little complicated on you. You can't look at just what the registration figures are. You've got to look at the turnout figures. A lot of those people, they'll leave one of the parties. They say, I'm no longer a Democrat. I can't take those people anymore. But I'm not a Republican, so I'm an independent now. And then what happens is they don't vote. They get so turned off to politics, they move out of the party, and then they don't vote. Well, guess what? If they don't vote as a practical political operative, I'm not worried about them because they're not part of the electorate that I'm trying to sway. I only win...

5:06 my candidate only wins if we get to 50% plus one of the people who actually show up to vote, right? Exactly. Okay. So what the, what the senatorial committee thinks is going on is that Pollsters are oversampling independents, that there are too many independents in the samples. And right now, independents are skewing heavily towards the Democratic candidates. So they might have, the pollster might have the right number of Democrats and Republicans in the sample, but if he doesn't have the right number of independents in the sample and they're skewing to the Democrat candidate... That means that the entire sample is going to be skewed to the Democrat candidate. And that shows up as, oh, it's much more competitive in Mississippi and Kansas and Alaska, states that are reliably Republican states historically. But right now they appear to be competitive for the Democrats. This could be very interesting. Very, very interesting.

5:59 How much of it do you think? OK, you're talking statistical deviation and there could be some innocence in that. But do you have any sense of manipulation? Oh, gosh. Look, this goes to a question. I know. Here's the thing. The people who would be manipulating, the people who would be in charge of the news organizations that publish these surveys, they are so liberal. I don't think they realize that they would be manipulating. And so in that sense, I'm going to give them a pass. I don't think there's a plot. I don't think they woke up one morning three months ago or six months ago and said, you know how we're going to hurt Republicans and help Democrats? We're going to deliberately skew our surveys.

6:46 I don't think they did that. I think what's much more likely... is that they are just so liberal. You know, the famed Pauline Kael, the New York Times movie critic back in the 60s who said, you know, how did Richard Nixon win the election? I don't know anybody who voted for Richard Nixon. Well, that doesn't surprise me that you didn't know anybody who voted for Richard Nixon because you're a liberal who lives on the west side of Manhattan, for crying out loud. I wouldn't expect you to have a lot of Republicans in your friendship circle. But that's their attitude. I don't know anybody who's a Republican. So to them, their left-wing view that we recognize on a scale of 0 to 10, they might be a 3.

7:31 They might be pretty hard left. They think that's the center of the country. It's not the center of the country. They live in these gated communities in Los Angeles, or they live on the upper west side of Manhattan. They drink $ 17 coffee, and they think that that's normal. So I don't think it's deliberate, but it is nevertheless a bias that comes into everything they do. And we, as we're sitting here just a few days out, we have to run, you know, Charlie Kirk used to say, I want every Republican and every Republican operative and every Republican volunteer and every Republican voter to act as if they're three points behind. And he was absolutely right about that.

8:23 You want to act as if you're three points behind. That's close enough that working a little harder... for just a few more days, can make the difference. You're not ahead. You can't coast. You can't be complacent. You can't sit on the sofa and say, we got this in the bag. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's not where we are. If we win, if we hold on the way we ought to hold on, it will be because we worked our butts off this last week. And let's look forward to relaxing next week. Not yet. We're not there yet. Right, exactly. Let's go to quick break. We'll pick it up on the other side. More from Bill Pascoe after this. Stay with us.

9:11 A new study finds a major increase in STEM learning in after-school programs, but gaps remain. Today, 92% of parents with children in after-school say STEM is available, up from 69% a decade ago. That's 6.4 million kids now getting STEM in after-school. Emma Binet, Overdeck Family Foundation. This study underscores the remarkable work out-of-school time programs do to help students discover the joy in learning while preparing them to succeed now and into the future. The study finds rural and low-income students are less likely to get frequent STEM opportunities, with rural programs also offering fewer opportunities in computer science and technology. Jody Grant, Executive Director of the After-School Alliance. STEM literacy is no longer optional.

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12:49 Always at great rates. Call ASAP Trips and we'll have your ticket in your inbox in 15 minutes. Call this number now. 800-506-4885 Hey, welcome back. Bill Martinez here with TPP's Man in Washington. He's got his thumb right on the pulse of what's going on, especially with these midterms. And yes, we're in the final stretch here. And this is not the time to grow weary. You got to leave it all on the field, right, Bill?

13:31 You do have to leave it all on the field. That means you got more text messages to send. You've got more phone calls to make, more doors to knock on. more people to talk to, whether it's your friends, your family. Make sure your family votes, for crying out loud. Start there. Start with the closest circle of all. Make sure your family is voting. Even if your family is spread across the country, you may have family members who live in one of the battleground states where it's going to come down to just a few hundred or maybe a few thousand votes. If you look at the polling, I think there are nine races for the United States Senate where right now the difference between the candidate in front and the candidate behind is inside the margin of error.

14:18 Right. And that means it doesn't make any difference if they say the race is 45 to 42 or 48 to 45. If it's inside the margin of error, it's a tie game. It's a toss up. And that means it's all going to come down. to who gets their voters to the polls. And, you know, we've now got early voting going on. We don't have to worry about the six weeks of early voting we had in Virginia. Well, guess what? We've got five weeks in the rearview mirror. We've got time to make up for it because we've still got almost a week left to go. We need to get out, knock on doors, make phone calls, send the text messages. You know, there's a great program. In case your listeners and your viewers have not yet found friendshelpfriendsvote.com. Let me direct them to friendshelpfriendsvote.com. If they're on the conservative side of the spectrum, this is what you do. You go to friendshelpfriendsvote.com. You download an app. That app will ask you, what state are you in? You set up the workspace for that state.

15:25 It's very simple. And then what it'll do is it'll scan your contacts, the people who are already in your contacts list. It'll say, guess what? You've got 32 friends who live in whatever that state is. Might be Minnesota, might be Michigan, might be New Hampshire, might be Maine, any one of these states. You then give it the go-ahead and it will form a message. It's already got a pre-approved message. You can edit the message. You can tweak the message. You can put in a new top if you want or change the language, massage it however you want. And then you hit send and boom, all of a sudden you've just sent 32 text messages. to friends of yours who recognize that it's coming from you. Exactly.

16:05 Right. Right. It's not it's not a spam. It's not how many spam text messages do I get every single day? I just delete them, delete them, delete. I don't even I don't even open them. And I spent I spend hours a day. Just deleting all these spams and messages. That's a great reference. Friends help friends vote dot com. I love that. Great idea. Because, you know, the thing is, it's amazing to me. And I'm thinking about this. I'm thinking, has America suffered from amnesia? I mean, we had four awful years of Biden, eight horrendous years with Obama. And and now the hard left is coming in and saying, you thought that was bad.

16:46 You know, we're going to we're going to really make it worse. It's almost like it kind of reminds you in the Old Testament where there's a changing of the guard after Solomon was replaced by his son. And his son asked his, he asked first the older wise people what he should do. And he says, well, you know, you cut taxes, you know, you'd be a little bit nicer to the people and they'll love you forever. And then he goes, okay, well, then he talks to his buddies, you know, the younger group and they say, you tell him your father was a weakling and you're going to make it worse and you're going to make it hell on them. And then they end up going, okay, we're out of here, you know, forget it. And you get the big, you know, big split there in Israel. But here it's like, you know, it's like the same thing here.

17:27 It's like, People are going, it was terrible under Biden, or at least they forgot. The media wants us to forget because they've gaslit us so much. They're complaining about gas right now, but it's like, don't you remember what it was like under Biden? Don't you remember all the weaponization that was taking place? These days, they're going to be coming back with a vengeance if the Democrats get control again. That's what you want for this country? Absolutely. Let's start with just one thing, taxes. You and I think of taxation as a means to fund the government. And we want to see taxes, only as many taxes collected as are necessary to fund the government. There is a purpose for taxation. We recognize it. We justify it.

18:08 But only as many taxes as are necessary to fund the important programs that the government pays for. Okay. The left sees taxes very differently. They don't see it as about collecting the means that we're going to use to pay for government programs. They see taxes as the proper use of the coercive power of the government to redistribute income so that we can quote-unquote level the playing field. As if that's a desirable outcome, a level playing field. No, that's not a desirable outcome. You can level the playing field very easily just by taking away everything that everybody has. Leave everybody with nothing, and we've all got a level playing field. That's not what we want. We disagree with that, but that's what the left wants. If they get into power, the first thing they're going to do is raise taxes.

19:00 And here's the key. California. has been the lead on every major political movement. You remember back in the 1970s, it was the taxpayer revolt. It was Howard Jarvis and Proposition 13. Remember? And that led Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1980, and it led the Republicans into a low-tax regime for the next couple of decades that created tens of millions of new jobs. All right? Right now, what's on the ballot in California this time? Proposition 40, a one-time wealth tax. We have never levied a tax against wealth. We tax income in this country, not wealth. In California, they're talking about a 5% tax against people who have a billion dollars in net wealth. Well, guess what? There are a lot of people in California who are entrepreneurs who have put their sweat equity into building companies. They may have stock, but they don't have the cash that goes with it because they never sold the stock. Now you're talking about forcing them to sell ownership stakes in their company. They may dilute their ownership stakes.

20:15 They may decide, you know what, California isn't a place I want to do business anymore. The Hoover Institution has done a study that suggests that over the next 25 years, this could cost trillions of dollars to the California government and the California economy. People leaving. Yes, the world's richest man used to be a California taxpayer. He decided he would rather move to Texas, where they've got a low tax regime and where they don't play these games where we're going to tax your wealth. Uh-uh. No, no, no, no, no, no. So California this time... may be leading a tax revolt of a different kind, unfortunately. But the point is, that's what they want to do. If given control again, Democrats in Washington will do exactly what Democrats in California are doing. They will try to raise taxes. It won't just be income taxes. It'll be taxes on everything. And that's, you know, as we're approaching Halloween, I'm trying to figure out which thought scares me more.

21:15 You know, walking down the street, seeing little kids dressed as witches and warlocks and monsters or the prospect that, gee, next week there's going to be elections that could return Democrats to power if we're not careful. That is a scary thought. Well, and here it is. You know, they're championing the cause of affordability. And what they're offering are more ideas and policies that would create less affordability. Oh, a lot less affordability. Let's make it easier for the government to afford things. That's what the Democrats want to do. It's ludicrous. And it's not just taxes. They've got a fundamentally different view of the reason, the purpose for taxation. They've also got a fundamentally different view of the purpose of, oh, I don't know, say the criminal justice system. Again, they're all about leveling the playing field.

22:11 You were talking a few moments ago about weaponization. Oh, yeah. They weaponized things. They weaponized the Department of Justice. You better believe that, for instance, let me give you a for instance. Let's say somehow or other Democrats pick up enough seats in the Senate that they can take back control of the Senate. Well, what does that do to President Trump's ability to confirm anybody's for any position for the last two years that he's in office. He won't get a judge confirmed. He won't get an ambassador confirmed. We had Senator Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan a week and a half ago talking to a University of Chicago crowd saying that she wants to send the word out to every young person in America. You better think carefully about whether or not you want to work for the Trump administration because we might decide to come after you.

23:01 We got to leave it there. Bill Pascoe, TPP's man in Washington. Thank you, Bill. Take care. Always good to be with you both. Always. How would you like to save money on nearly all your prescription drugs? We've set up a special toll-free number for the RxOutreach program. They're a nonprofit company whose mission it is to make prescription drugs more affordable to the masses. They don't take insurance, and in many cases, your prescriptions are even cheaper than your co-pays. They carry thousands of different prescription drugs, so whatever you're taking, there's a good chance they have it. No coupons are required and this is not a discount card. It is pure savings on your prescription drugs. They specialize in generic meds for any chronic health needs you have. Call with your prescription and find out for free how little you can pay for your prescription drugs. Remember, we don't take insurance, so call right now.

23:55 800-705-6581. 800-705-6581. 800-705-6581. That's 800-705-6581. Have you written a book or do you have a manuscript ready and just need to find the right publisher? Christian Faith Publishing supports authors like yourself to bring their books to life. And right now we're offering you a free writer's guide designed to steer you towards book completion. Christian Faith Publishing evaluates each manuscript we receive. If your book earns approval, we take care of everything. Editing, designing, printing, promotion, and widespread online and in-store distribution. Picture your book gracing the shelves of specialty Christian bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and numerous other retail destinations. It's time to get that manuscript published and to work with a publisher who shares your values of integrity and honesty. You can get your book published. Get your manuscript reviewed and a free writer's guide today.

24:56 800-439-1588 800-439-1588 800-439-1588 That's 800-439-1588. We call ourselves ASAP Travel for one reason. We can help you book a ticket ASAP. For those of you that don't know, that means as soon as possible. That means no wait time. You get through right away. No searching online. Our specialty is the lowest available fares on the big name airlines. You know them. We can't tell you their names. You can fly domestically or internationally and save more money than you could if you called the airlines directly. Our proprietary software goes underneath the hood of the major airline booking systems and finds you the best rates available. So if you're ready to make your travel plans right now, business or vacation travel, we have all the major airlines.

25:48 Always at great rates. Call ASAP Trips and we'll have your ticket in your inbox in 15 minutes. Call this number now. 800-506-4885 800-506-4885 800-506-4885 That's 800-506-4885. Well, we're back with you. Glad you could join us. Bill Martinez here. For more information on the show, you can check it out at BillMartinezLive.com. John Hertig, a pharmacist and patient safety expert, is going to be joining us in a few minutes to talk about one in five consumers have been deceived into buying counterfeit medication, which is alarming and widespread health threat, chances are that you don't have to go far today to find someone who has fallen victim to illegal sellers. John, welcome to the show.

26:44 Good to have you with us. I mean, this is reality today, huh? It is. And Bill, thank you for having me. It's an unfortunate reality. The threat is very serious and these counterfeit or knockoff medications are pervasive. They're really everywhere. You've got unverified online shops and telehealth platforms, wellness clinics, medical spas that may contain unknown ingredients from unknown sources. You've got AI involved with this, and they're sometimes using people that you would relate to and find credible. All these bad actors are exploiting demand by marketing illicit products ranging from, as we talked about before, mass-compounded GLP-1s, very popular to medicines like Adderall and ketamine, right?

27:30 That's right. And compounded products really have served a vital patient role for thousands of years as part of pharmacy. They're really intended to meet a very specific documented need that cannot be made by that FDA approved drug. But really, they need to be prepared by appropriate licensed pharmacists in accordance with applicable requirements. only in these very specific cases. But what we're seeing is this explosion in mass marketed compounding, which really isn't the intent and can lead to safety issues. You're checking it, but it's been going unchecked for way too long. And this is posing this growing public health threat. It is.

28:10 And I think we've seen this explosion with GLP-1 specifically that's driven by marketing, whether it's social media, telehealth, teleplatforms. I think patients need to understand that these unapproved GLP-1s, the FDA has expressed concern with them. We see twice as many hospitalizations with compounded drugs. We see eight and a half times adverse drug events because they really aren't FDA approved and not meant to be sold at this massive scale. It does put our patients at risk. Well, tell us about RETA TrueTribe. I mean, this is coming into the news. Why are the alarms sounding over this drug? It's one of the things that keeps me up at night, Bill. I mean, Red Atrutide is a very promising but experimental drug, meaning it has not even been approved by the FDA to be reviewed for safety and effectiveness, but you can get it online. And when you're getting it online, you're not getting that active ingredient that's meant for humans. What you're getting is research grade, and you're getting this research grade product that may have been compounded in an area that's very under-regulated.

29:14 That has no safeguards. It puts our patients at risk and really should not be taken by patients right now. When you say research grade, you mean that it's still kind of, I mean, basically they're turning us into lab rats, right? Because they're experimenting. But I mean, how do they check, you know, if in fact that they're using research grade, they're only going to follow up after, you know, maybe a hospital gets involved and you happen to be a victim. right? That's right. Yeah, everyone's being turned into guinea pigs here. And follow up, I doubt there's any follow up. When we're talking about research grade, it's meant for research in a lab not to be ingested or injected. So our patients that are buying this, even unknowingly, are putting themselves at significant risk.

29:57 Is redditrutide a GLP-1 derivative? It's similar, yeah. It actually acts on three hormone receptors. It's shown great promise in regulating appetite and metabolism. I think we're very hopeful that redditrutide will be successful, but we're just not there yet. So going back in terms of compounded GLP-1s, should patients stop taking GLP-1s that have been compounded? I think it puts you at greater risk. But look, you need to have a bona fide, meaning real relationship with your physician and your pharmacist. I mean, I think everything starts there and having that type of conversation. Be very wary of the ads that you see. Be very wary of websites that don't ask for a prescription that.

30:42 Seem just a little too easy. That's when our patients tend to fall into traps with these compounded products. And I'm hearing stories here that, you know, the products or the elements that are involved in some of these compounded GLP, when you break it down, it's then something that's been prescribed. I mean, there's additives in there. And I guess you could say, you know, pharmaceutical fillers, if you may. You know, John, I mean, this is pretty crazy, isn't it? It's wild. I mean, these consumers should be skeptical of these products. not only the misleading claims, but also you're right. There's so much variability because there's a lack of quality control. So in one batch, you may have decent product and another, you may have no product and another, you may have a product you didn't even want.

31:27 And so that, that variability in. Quality leads to safety issues, and we are seeing that with harm in our patients. Do you have any kind of measure on that in terms of the consequences and harm that you're talking about here? We've seen a significant uptake in reports to poison control centers across the country, and that's in addition to some of these other reports of just significant increases in adverse drug events with compounded products and also. An increase in uptake in hospitalizations worldwide. With those products as well, which is no surprise given the lack of quality. Well, he's a pharmacist and patient safety expert, John Hertig. And John, thank you for coming on and telling us about this and putting up the warnings here because I'll tell you, we were just talking about this last night.

32:13 The level of scamming that's out there is just unbelievable. And these scammers, it's kind of like surf's up. We used to say, you know, in California, you know, you look for there was this wave and this generation of energy and you would get out in front of it. Well, these scammers see what's going on and they see GLP and the demand for it. And for a while it was choked off. And now, you know, with some of, you know, the government intervention, GLP ones are a lot more affordable these days because But these scammers, you know, it's all about supply and demand and they're running to it, aren't they? That's right, Bill. And thank you for the opportunity to share this really important message. Unfortunately, scammers are out there and they're looking to make a quick buck and they're taking advantage of our consumers, of your friends and your family in order to make that money. And access without the evidence, without the quality, without the safety isn't access at all.

33:04 It's a problem. It's risk. What's the estimate now? Over 80% of America is regarded as being obese, or is that too high a number? I know it's well over 50, but there are a lot of people that want to lose weight here in America, right? That's the bottom line. That is the bottom line. The demand is really high, and rightfully so, because these products, the legitimate ones, can have a significant positive impact on health. I mean, we're not only talking about obesity, but diabetes, related cardiovascular risk, There's so much promise with these products, which, as you said, Bill, leads to the demand. The issue is we want to make sure that you're getting a legitimate product that's been proven safe and effective, that's backed by evidence and not from some of these nefarious scammers who are looking to make a quick buck off a bad product.

33:50 Well, exactly. You know, we don't want to participate in their scam. scamorama here that they're perpetrating upon the American consumer. So we need to wise up. So what do you recommend here? What do we need to do? Well, one is using platforms like this is really helpful to educate. That's what we're trying to do. And it goes back to having a really good relationship with your physician, with your pharmacist, with your health care team. Lean on them. Ask questions. Be engaged in your care. That's where all this really does start. And then after that, there are some really good resources. that you can go to as a consumer to get more information and news. One of those is safe and effective meds.org. The other is collaborative ebm.org and get yourself some, some good news, your resources, and lean on your physician and your pharmacist.

34:41 No, I like the importance of leaning on our physician because sometimes, I mean, we have experts right there, a doctor that you see. I mean, he's going to be able to tell you or she's going to tell you, you know, the plus and minus of it and the risk as well. But you have to listen. And sometimes, you know, we get ahead of ourselves, you know, because we're so, you know, we've been trying to lose weight forever. And all of a sudden we hear this super drug and you listen to some sort of advertisement, you know, online or otherwise. And you think, okay, that could be the answer for me. And you jump to it, and next thing you know, you're complicating your life, right? That's exactly right. I encourage my friends, my family, my patients to be a healthy skeptic, right?

35:22 So be a skeptic. Of those products that you see that are promising dramatic results. Certainly avoid products marketed as research grade. If it's too, like anything else, it's an old adage, right? If it's too good to be true, it's likely not true. So ask your pharmacist or health provider if you have those questions and really do lean on them. Well, exactly. You know, we don't want to participate in their scam. scamorama here that they're perpetrating upon the American consumer. Well, Dr. John Herdick has been our guest. He's the founder of Herdick Healthcare Advising and adjunct faculty at Purdue University. He lectures around the world and you can tell he knows what he's talking about.

36:03 Dr. Herdick, thank you so much for being with us. Take care. Thank you so much. This report is sponsored by IBM. As AI becomes more common in the workplace, HR leaders and employees have different views on the skills needed most. A new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value finds that 71% of CHROs identify the ability to supervise, validate, and override AI outputs as the workforce's most essential skill. But less than one-third of employees prioritize judgment. At the same time, 60% of employees worry AI is eroding their skills. with critical thinking cited most often as declining. Aparna Nair, Chief Talent, Leadership and Culture Officer, IBM.

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39:51 U.S. Tax Shield offers a price protection guaranteed quote to get you protected today. U.S. Tax Shield is A-plus rated with the Better Business Bureau, so call now. 800-536-4436. That's 800-536-4436. U.S. Tax Shield. 800-536-4436. Hey, welcome back. Bill Martinez here along with my good buddy, Adam Holtz. Man, you're looking good today, buddy. Well, thank you. Thank you. You know, dark colors are slimming, so we go with those. It's always good. Hey, let's talk a little bit about the political thing. I mean, here we are screaming toward the elections. The World Series is over. You know, and we just can't wait to get all the election propaganda out of the way. I mean, it's almost like we need some sort of mass therapy or something to kind of neutralize, you know, the mind and the brain. And, you know, it's like, what was that men in black?

40:47 They had that little spray thing. Yeah. Yeah. Erase all your memories. Well, yeah. I mean, because, well, yeah, I think one side more than the other wants to erase our memories. I mean, with some of the stuff that's out there, it's almost like you could do it just to show point counterpoint on the things that are said out there. It's like, in what world are you talking about that that exists? In fact, especially when we have video and And, uh, you know, evidence of you saying just the opposite. Right. No, that's exactly right. And I, I think the volume of, well, of everything, the volume of vitriol, the volume of communication, I'm just getting bombarded with every channel, you know, email, text, video commercials on TV. For those of us who still actually watch live television. And when we do a little bit, um, I'm weary of it, and if you stop and think about the amount of money that is spent on these campaigns, it just makes you sort of ill. Obviously, there's a lot at stake, but yeah, I'm ready to be through it. Obviously, you and I have our political predilections, and I think the challenge for us as believers is to be informed and to be engaged and to remember that no matter what happens, good or bad from our perspective, it's not

42:20 the final word, you know, that we do have a bigger perspective. And I think it's important to keep in mind either way, whether the results break in a way that we like or whether it feels like the end of the world, we as Christians should be the ones who know that regardless of what happens in it's not the end of the world and that God is still sovereign over. Again, that's not to minimize the importance of significant issues that are in play here, but, uh. But I think that some people of faith, Adam have that attitude. They, they look at the bigger picture and say, well, I'm already in heaven. So why am I worrying about what, you know, well, that's right. We can be too checked out there. And there's that tension between needing to be, um, actively engaged and, um, yeah, to be critically aware of what's happening because these things do affect us. And I think all you have to do is look at France and say, man, they may be lost. It may be beyond the tipping point. And it's primarily socialist policies. You know, I read a fascinating article this weekend about Saying, you know, here you have the, you know, the the alleged presenting issues of of. students protesting over conditions in school. And we all know that that's a polite fiction, right? That, uh, you know, maybe

43:52 that was one small spark among the conflict, you know, the conflagration, uh, but there are bigger, bigger agendas at work than kids protesting the conditions in schools. That's, that's just not, it's not reality. Yeah. That's not the root. Yeah, exactly. Uh, but this article basically just said, look, you can look at France by any measure, uh, of socialistic policy and what they have promised and their inability to deliver. And the reason that France has the economy that it has is because socialism doesn't work. They can't pay for it. And then when you combine that with this absolutely open embrace of both Islam and of you know, millions and millions.

44:43 They're open borders. They're open borders. And, you know, what's the old saying? When somebody tells you what they're going to do, believe them. And we have a group of people that have basically said, this is our intent. And our intent is not to assimilate into your Western values. Our intent is to establish a new caliphate right here. We're going to own you or kill you. And it's not ambiguous. Yeah, just be prepared to be subjected and be subjects of the caliphate. That's really the bottom line in all this. And I understand there's some Muslims that say, well, that's not the case. That's not our heart. But I've always maintained that that may not be. You may be a moderate Muslim, but when the caliphate comes in and it's you or me, all of a sudden... You know, you're all dressed. The women are all dressed up. You're all conforming.

45:44 It's an easy transition for you. Right. Because you've grown up with oppression. You don't know about freedom. Right. And it's one thing to talk about somebody who may be a Muslim in the United States, you know, who converted to that as opposed to what happens when you import, you know, a native population that has that. I mean, I think that when we look at what's going on with, you know, the Somalian immigration in Minneapolis, when we look at what's happening in Dearborn, Michigan, look, this is not about multiculturalism, right? This is about gaming the system and they do it. Well, I shouldn't say they do it, but there's plenty of evidence to suggest that they have a different agenda than any kind of Western multicultural assimilation agenda.

46:45 And it seems like I don't know whether the progressive side, each side thinks it's taking advantage of the other, but I'm pretty sure I know which side is winning here. Right. Well, getting back to your earlier point here, and that is that the deception and manipulation that's taken place, How, you know, we've been so open out of the goodness of our heart. We've been very generous and open to welcome people. And it's got us in trouble because, you know, and the thing you look at, for example, in France. This didn't happen overnight. I mean, where were their elected officials?

47:26 Where were the elites of their country to see that, hey, we're going down the wrong road? I mean, how far down the road do you have to go before somebody says stop? You know, we need to reverse course here. And the thing is, is these are lessons that America needs to understand. And I think more and more Americans are waking up to that reality. But we need to be intentional and serious about it, and especially people of faith. Because people of faith know better, we know better than anyone else because of our faith in God, because of our experience with God. And so it's up to us because, you know, in many of the parables that Jesus shared, it was always about how are you taking care of the property here?

48:11 Right? That's exactly right. You know, the master of the house would go out and come back and check, say, okay, how are we doing? You know, how are the stewards of my property doing here? Yeah. And, you know, there's another angle here, and that is the complete and utter lack of coverage of what's going on in Nigeria. Oh, yeah. Of the Christians there. It's like we... we talk till we're blue in the face, you know, about the Gaza situation, but okay. If we're going to talk about genocide or, you know, allegations of it, let's talk about what's going on over here and, and nary a peep in the mainstream press. You've got to get into social media to even know what's happening over there. And it's, again, it's, Why are we naive to the outcome here?

49:09 I think what happens, Adam, in a bit is that you get a portion of America that says, we've got to quit fighting everybody's war here. But part of the problem we have is a fundamental problem. just in our own house. We need to take care of our own house. We need to get back on moral, our moral, if I can say high ground, but solid ground that comes from God and abandon that. And because we have, we've made some wrong choices and and we're in things that we shouldn't be in, although I will give this administration credit. I mean, Donald Trump's been credited with, what, bringing peace to eight different warring nations. We haven't got to Nigeria yet, I agree with you. It's been ignored. There's still some hot spots. But, I mean, this is the nature of good and evil. Evil is pervasive. It's all over. And so you sit there and go, okay, what's our next fight?

50:03 And we still are tangled with Iran right now. Right. Now, that's exactly right. And again, when we take one step back and look at things from a biblical perspective, we know that there are always going to be these conflicts. But we've got to be wise about them. And I think sometimes when I read the news, I'm like, man, there's just a willful... denial of reality here in the way things are depicted. And I think it's really difficult to look at what's happening in France and not just say, can we open our eyes here? This seems pretty self-evident that there's a group of people that isn't interested in assimilating with French or Western history or values or, you know, sort of Judeo-Christian civilization. In fact, they want to stamp it out.

51:03 Yeah, without a doubt. So, really, the warning is there. Are we going to heed the warning? Right. And like they tell you on the airplane, you know, before you put on somebody else's mask, put your own on first. It's really imperative. I believe that America gets its act together. If we are going to have any hope of another 250 years, but you know, look at by God's grace and mercy, we got to wrap things up here. So I know we were going to talk about movies, but I think we needed to talk about this. So I'll let you wrap it up. Go ahead. Well, I'll just say you can find our review of Joshua live at plugged in.com. And yeah, Great movie from Sight & Sound Productions. And, of course, you'll get reviews of everything else that's in theaters and TV, video games, books, YouTube channels, technology. We want to help you and your family navigate those areas. And, again, we are a ministry of Focus on the Family.

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