The Bill Martinez Show 09 08 26

0:00 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, America. Glad you could join us. Bill Martinez here along with Kenan Spivak, who's back with us, the founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. Kenan, how are we doing? We're doing great. Thanks for having me back. Well, great to have you here. As a consulting firm and an investment bank, I want to get your read, a true read on the economy, as opposed to the spin that the mainstream media is trying to throw upon us as we approach the midterms about 60 days out.

0:47 The economy is basically in very good shape. Manufacturing is up. Employment is up. Orders are continuing to grow. this whole debate about AI, at least for now, is adding additional money and employment into the country. It's possible in the long run it will have a different effect. Gas prices, of course, are up. And if we strip the politics from whether that's something we should be willing to live with, have to live with, and look at it just from an economic point of view, that is a negative. Gas prices are not up a lot, but they are up.

1:32 That increases the price of a lot of goods, though inflation is not rising at a particularly rapid rate, annual increase of about 3%. Also, and I think this has surprised a lot of people on the political side, though gasoline prices are up, it hasn't seemingly had much impact on the overall economy. I suppose if prices were not up, the economy might be doing a little bit better. Right. Well, I think some of the things that at least I'm optimistic about is I'm seeing the president doing something that he can. I mean, all things considered, OK, we're still dealing with Iran, even though some curious media type would ask the president if he was going to set off a nuclear bomb on Iran and You wonder, sometimes they're just so beside themselves, they disassociate with reality and common sense. But I got to give the president credit for not really going totally ballistic on that individual, although he did call her out for the silly question. But that aside, look what happened in Venezuela. I mean, this is something I don't see the Democrats ever doing. I don't know if they've ever done it in their history.

2:54 where they've leveraged a relationship in such a way to where it's win-win. And Venezuela is saying, thank you very much. I know we're communists, but, you know, we'll take the carrot. We don't want the stick. We'll take the carrot and see how that works out. And so far, so good, Kennan, I think. Yeah. You know, this president really is the business president, for good or bad, and 90% it's for good. I'll talk about the 10% where it's not. 90% it's for good. He views international relations not good. from a global human rights feel-good perspective, but as an opportunity for countries around the world to do business together, to get investment, to invest in each other, and to form alliances to grow business. And, you know, most people are motivated by money, whether they're communists or capitalists. And so he's been right. I'm going to tell you what the 10% is. It's Iran. I think he's been mistaken thinking that the Iranian IRGC and mullahs are chiefly motivated by business and money. I think in that case, they're chiefly motivated by an ideological dogma that's transcended centuries. And his approach there to thinking money and business is an inducement isn't working.

4:15 Yeah. No, I think you're exactly right. We've been saying from day one, I mean, history has shown us time and again, this is a death cult. And it's not like we've never run into death cults before. And death cults are ideologically fixed. They're not going to surrender their weapons. You've got to go and take it out of their cold hands, as one former NRA president was fond of saying. And that's what we're faced with. And I know that America, you know, they always say, and of course, you know, you've got the mainstream media leading the cheer here. You know, we don't have boots on the ground. We don't have boots on the ground. Well, let me tell you, you know, war defines itself. It's not defined by the mainstream media. I mean, we should have learned that from Vietnam and other experiences, right?

4:58 Yeah, look, we've had boots on the ground a couple of times in Iran, special forces operations, the rescue operation for our downed airmen. We may have to have limited boots on the ground. I think we would be doing better in Iran if we hadn't stopped after 38 days and gone back and forth. It's true that the blockade and the economic choking of Iran is producing results. It's plausible that over time it will achieve all the results. And I know we had a munitions problem. Still, my perception is we would have a better outcome if we'd continued kinetic operations for at least another two to three weeks.

5:45 Yeah, I agree 100% with you. When that first came up, I go, what? What are you doing? I mean, you're giving them a chance, any time of a pause when you're with an enemy, it gives them a chance to recalculate, rejuvenate, you know, and, you know, that sort of thing. And I know, you know, Pete Hex says, well, that also gives us a time too. But, you know, I think there's a price to be paid, you know, when you interrupt momentum. Yeah, we have two, we had two logistics problems. One, and I think it is true that we have a shortage of certain munitions. But second, we had a shortage in theater. of those munitions. Now, the second problem is someone's fault. Someone should be blamed for that. Some action should be taken. So I think we may have needed a pause or a slowdown to resupply in region. But apparently within a week, we had done that. And instead of resuming full operations, we know what we did instead.

6:41 You know, one of the reasons Trump stopped may have been munitions. Another reason is he didn't want, as he said, a global economic slowdown, a third may have been the midterms. And probably in those three reasons are the reason. The second reason- Probably some pushback from some Arab allies too, Kenan, you know, because you've got them, you know, I mean, hey, they're the ones that, you know, they're the neighbors, right? Yes, but, you know, and I don't have any inside information on this, but press reports at the time of the disengagement after 38 days is that a number of the Arab countries in the region disagreed with the disengagement and wanted the U.S. to go forward. Some commentators like to blame Israel for getting the U.S. into the conflict and for wanting the U.S. to continue forward. But from everything that was reported in the region, it was the Arab nations primarily who at the 38-day mark did not want the U.S. to stop. Look, I don't know what's true in terms of what any one nation did or didn't want. I think it is true in hindsight we would have been further ahead had we not stopped or slowed or more quickly resumed whatever the logistic situation would have required.

8:03 Well, you know, and here we are. I mean, we'll see what we see, I guess, when it happens. And, you know, and I think what Scott Besson has done in terms of, and you know this as an economist, what he's done to create a siege work economically against Iran. I mean, look at the real. I mean, $ 1, is it $ 2 million to $ 1? And their inflation rate's up over 100%. I mean, I guess the next thing you're going to know, sadly, it's going to be like Venezuela where they're eating out of trash trucks or something. Yeah, I don't think the government will care. And that's the difference between Venezuela and Iran. I do think it's possible.

8:49 And I don't use possible as in 2% possible. I think there is an excellent potential that over a period of many months or even years, what Trump is doing now will work. Well, first of all, Trump isn't going to be in office for many years to come. Second, it's difficult to keep up this level of military involvement for the blockade and to keep other countries on board, even the economic restrictions. So I do think we need at least a combination of combat operations and economic operations. And, you know, going back to the big picture for a moment.

9:31 I'll tell you what, before we do, though, we've got to go to a quick break. We'll go to a quick break. We'll pick it up on the other side. More from Ken and Spivak right after this. Stay with us. Thank you. Three-quarters use sports apps, while 39% report frustration with managing multiple subscriptions to follow sports they care about. AI use among fans is also growing, but trust depends on accuracy. 45% of respondents say accuracy is the top driver of trust in AI-powered insights. Sponsored by IBM. Visit www.ibm.com for more information. Do you owe the IRS $ 10, 000 or more in back taxes?

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14:14 He's the founder and chairman of the SMI Group, LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. We're talking Iran. Go ahead and continue with your thought there, Kenan. Yeah, well, I was going to pick up on something, Bill, you said earlier, and it was the point that Trump does engage as a business president. And I said that in many, many instances that works, Iran is the exception. I would rather have a let's back up. The Democrat presidents don't even know about business. Most of them have never held a job. They've been in government their entire lives. They even may have an animus to certain business approaches.

14:55 And for most of their foreign policy, the fact that they don't understand business has harmed the United States' interests. And Donald Trump's knowledge, awareness, and use of business has helped the U.S. So if Donald Trump is right 90% of the time, wrong 10% of the time. That's a whole lot better than the Democrats who are wrong 90% of the time and right 10%. And I think we can acknowledge that very few people are right 100% of the time. Yeah, no, I think that's an excellent point. And that was another point that I was going to make up is that, you know, I'm a lead follower, get the hell out of the way kind of guy. and the obstruction that's taking place all in the name of politics, which the mainstream media is carrying the load for the Democrats and the DSA because they want to do everything they can to work against this president. And in doing so, they're adding an aid and comfort to the enemy. They're giving them inspiration to continue the good fight, especially in light of this, you know, the political threats and the landscape that's here and how it's being reported on. And I mean, it's like, It's near treasonous, Kennan.

16:04 The mainstream Democrats, ignore the DSA for a moment. Mainstream Democrats so hate Donald Trump that anything bad for Donald Trump in their mind is good for Democrats, good for the United States. They clearly have opposed what we're doing. And you know, the media and the Democrats have this lie that they tell over and over again. You know, I was reading the same, it really is a lie, in a National Review column just yesterday. And So that would be from a conservative. And the lie is that Trump has never enunciated the objectives of what we're doing in Iran. He enunciated the objectives from the second or third day. And those objectives were to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon, to reduce their ballistic missile inventory, and to destroy their terror proxy network. And he also said, though it wasn't an objective... that regime change would be nice.

17:00 He said that over and over again. So anyone who says that Donald Trump hasn't enunciated his objectives is either stupid or a liar. And a lot of the people who are saying this are not stupid, so they're liars. Yeah, that's what happens. You know, as Jordan Peterson says, you become so ideologically fixed that you render yourself stupid. And I think this happens politically. Clearly, this is what we're seeing because you can't square that up because just as you said, Donald Trump, Not once, I mean, but repeatedly. And this guy holds more press conferences than anybody. I mean, I think in the first day or two, he surpassed all of Joe Biden's four years when it came to press conferences, right?

17:43 Yeah. Now, he tells us what he thinks, and you may disagree with his objectives. You may accurately note that the prioritization among the objectives hasn't always been exactly the same, but the objectives have been the same. Occasionally he throws in regime changes he did a couple of days ago. But the core objectives have been the same, have been clear, have been consistent. And some of those are objectives he's spoken about for 20 years, long before he even ran for president of the United States. And you know, Bill, you. Mentioned the DSA. The DSA is a different situation than mainstream Democrats in the sense that they don't want the U.S.

18:24 to have borders. They don't want the U.S. to be a world leader. They really do want bad things to happen to America. And they completely oppose what we're doing in Iran. And what's really kind of amazing to me is the unholy alliance we've seen between socialists slash communists and these Islamists because they really don't have an alliance. The Islamists want a theocracy. They believe in Allah. They want to throw gay people off the roof. They have women should be in robes over their heads, barefoot and pregnant.

19:05 And that's not what the socialists believe. But for now, if they can take down Western civilization, they'll worry about the next fight when they achieve the first goal. And of course, if they get the first goal, it's easy because we're not going to have a democracy where you're going to cast a vote on these things. They're just going to start throwing people off the top of buildings. Well- They'll both start throwing people off the top of buildings. The rise of political violence in the United States has been, well, the rise lately has been entirely on the left. And even if you look back historically, there's been violence on the right. The Oklahoma City bombing is the best example of violence from the right. But overwhelmingly, it's from the left or from Islam radical terrorists. And anyone who calls it Islamophobia to talk the truth is someone that should frankly just shut up.

19:57 Yeah, I agree with you. The ballroom, I mean, talk about the madness. I mean, the ballroom is just something that is just poking people these hardliners right in the eye. It just drives them nuts. And I want them to sign a contract that says that if a Democrat president comes into office, that he refuses to use that ballroom for any kind of security, that he goes out and just pitches a tent like Obama and Biden did over the years, right? And let the drones come in and check them out. Yeah, look, the ballroom is a good idea. Trump also likes to taunt his opposition. It's probably larger than it should have been to be aesthetically more pleasing and still achieve all the objectives. Trump does want everything to be bigger, larger, first, whatever.

20:47 And yes, I wish it was a bit smaller. But I think Trump has the far better of the argument as to the need for the ballroom. And Democrat presidents are going to be delighted to use it. Yeah, without a doubt. And we've got to get the interference. I mean, at every turn, I'm just, I don't know about you, Kenan, but every time I open up, I'm hearing about another activist judge stopping what the president's doing, whether it has to do with the ballroom or, you know, his name on an arts center or the Kennedy Center that has been in shambles and the Democrats have let it go. Now Trump comes in and tries to fix it up, his name's on it, and it just drives them crazy. Yeah, the Democrat judges, the activist Democrat judges, have gotten very good at running out the clock. And even though ultimately their rulings are, for the most part, state or reversed, I guess where they're not state or reversed, they're right.

21:40 But for the most part, their rulings are state or reversed because they're not right. I have a column in Real Clear Politics coming out Monday about the recent Supreme Court decision reversing Indira Talwani's decisions on election ballots. She's just issued a new injunction. She's an expert at running out the clock. She actually enjoined the federal government on a duly elected statute enacted by Congress defunding Planned Parenthood. Of course, she was reversed, but she ran out the clock on the defunding. These activist judges, again, they're very smart. They're very clever and very evil. Yeah. And how does that help? How does it help out, you know, America? when they're representing such a minority portion.

22:28 I mean, they do everything they can to invalidate the consent of the governed and our constitutional rights. Oh, but you don't understand. They're very well educated. They're very smart. They know what's better for America. And they're doing this to help America and help all those poor, and I don't mean poor economically, but mentally deficient conservatives who don't understand what Trump is doing to them. You really have to understand that they're really there to help us. And, and there is a, I guess you have to, you know, that sarcasm, of course, in a transcript, in a transcript, that may not be clear that that was sarcasm.

23:09 Well, yeah, because it's like, you know, show me once that these theories, whether, you know, they've come from Obama or these activist judges, what's the track record of success. Can they show anything? No, they can't. By the way, can communism show a track record of success? 90 to 100 million dead, countries in ruin, famines, forced relocations. No, they can't show a track record of success outside the United States or for the progressive policies we've had in the United States, not in the United States. Well, and these young kids are being duped right now. And, um, You know, and they may have to find out the hard way that gravity still exists, Ken and Spivak. We'll have to see, right?

23:53 Yeah, gravity does exist. One quick point. When you poll these young people and what they really want out of life, it's not socialism and it's not communism. It's traditional capitalism. They don't seem to know what socialism is. They like the word. They don't actually like the policies. Well, that's our next topic the next time we get together, okay? I want to get into that with you. Kenan Spivak, the founder and chairman of SMI Group, LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. Thank you, Kenan. Take care. Thanks, Bill. 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.

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27:50 That's magavitamin.com. Nutrition for patriots. Hey, we're back with you. Bill Martinez here, along with the Manhattan-based Fox News contributor, DeRoy Murdoch. Hey, DeRoy, how we doing? I'm great, Bill. How are you? Hey, doing terrific. I'm here on the east, you're west. You know, we're monitoring both ends of the insanity. And a little east to you there in Texas, you got Talafrico. I mean, I've said little about him, you know, and his stance, especially when he starts invoking Jesus and his faith and that sort of thing. But you know, I've, I've really had it with this recent one. He says, I think Jesus, and you see, this is his response to the U S Senate. He says, I think Jesus would say, depart from me for I was hungry and you cut my food assistance. I was sick and you kicked me off Medicaid and I was a stranger and you deported me and my family. And then I think he would flip over those fancy desk and demand that we take care of all our neighbors, especially the least of these. Uh, you know, I got to say this about at least my understanding of the word of God.

29:00 And when I read, uh, parts of scripture, God does not take it, uh, casually when he is misrepresented. And if you think not just read the book of Job, you know, and that'll spell it out for you very quickly. So what, what Telefrico is doing is invoking, you know, uh, Jesus's heart in a very, um, a very jaded sort of way. And, uh, God does not, he will not be mocked. I guess, you know, I wonder what Tallarico would say about Jesus's view on the continuing resolution or what his thoughts might be on it. funding for ICE or decreasing funding for ICE. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm not a religious guy, but for anybody to sit down and tell us what Jesus would or wouldn't have thought about something I think is, shall we say, at least a little bit presumptuous, if nothing else. And then certainly if you're going to make that kind of comment, I think it would be something based on something– roughly close to how we understand, uh, Christianity. I know that, uh, Tallarico more or less has said that, uh, if Jesus were on today, he'd be a planned paranoid supporter, you know, that Jesus was pro pro pro choice and for abortion. And I mean, I don't know how you look at anything in the Bible and think that the Bible is kind of a pro abortion document. I mean, I don't see that. I mean, you have to have some really very, very, very fluid sense of, uh, textual interpretation to come, come to that conclusion, but that's more or less what, uh, Reverend Tallarico's been preaching on the campaign trail for the last few months.

30:31 Right. It's disgusting, you know, these things that he spouts off. And for people who, you know, aren't familiar, I mean, it's one thing, you know, you say, okay, I'm not familiar with the Bible. I don't, you know, participate in the faith. Okay, I get that. But for those that do, you know, over 50% of the country, and it's just like, they're just allowing this, you know, this kind of uh, dribble. And I, I just saying, tell Rico you're, you're playing with danger here, uh, because God will not be mocked. And, uh, we've seen time and time again, um, that you do, you don't want to fall into the hands of an angry God who's been misrepresented. Cause I will say this as well. Jesus would walk in and saw people who could work and didn't work. And he'd be tipping their tables upside down and saying, get your butt to work.

31:18 Okay. You don't need to be dependent. You I've given you all these blessings and talents to go out there and be a successful humanoid. And, uh, you're trying to cut corners. Okay. That's unacceptable. And, and he wouldn't say that out of meanness. He would say that because he knows that a person who's productive to Roy is much sad, much more fulfilled and happy. Yeah. I think there, I believe it's a biblical passage. If not, it's sort of a maximum, which is an idol of mine is the devil's playground. Right. Um, and that, that sort of says, okay, don't loaf around all day long. And, uh, just hang out on your phone and look at OnlyFans and the betting markets and the gambling, sports gambling sites, you know, go out there and do something productive. You know, start a business, go to work, go to your job, start a new company, whatever it is, or at least do meaningful volunteer work or something. I mean, unless you're not able-bodied, in which case, fine, you know, take care of yourself. But if you are able-bodied, get out there and make something of your day and not sit around and wait for somebody to come over and take care of you. Namely, your mayor, your governor, your president, or your senator, as the case may be.

32:20 And the symbol or the argument there from Tallarico is the opposite, which is just stay home and wait for your welfare check. And that's sort of the typical liberal Democrat interpretation of what a good American life is. That's really unfortunate. And it's really kind of poison to peddle to people, frankly. Well, I'd like to see an analysis of, you know, I know we see it in big numbers, the amount of money the taxpayer pays to assist people. in food assistance, in Medicaid. It's a huge number, DeRoy. And nobody's saying thank you for that. They're just saying it's like, you know, Pat Riley referred to it as the disease of more.

33:02 You know, there's just never enough. You know, you just got to keep giving it to me. And this is what happens when you become part of the dependent class. That's never enough. It's never enough from that perspective, and it's also never enough from this perspective when Republicans say, okay, let's just agree with the Democrats. They'll say, all right, they want a billion dollars for this. We'll say, okay, we'll go along with it. We'll say $ 900 million. You say, okay, well, you say $ 950 million. They want a billion. They want to say, look, we need 5% more. They'll say, you're evil, you're racist, you're a sexist, you're a misogynist, and you're probably a Nazi. And if the Republicans say, okay, fine, well, you want a billion, we'll go 1.1 billion. They say, oh, 1.1, how about 2.3? We say, okay, 2.5. They go, well, how about 3.8? We say, all right, 4.1. They say, how about 5.2? There's absolutely no way that Republicans ever will get to the left of the Democrats on anything, because the Democrats always will scream, you said the four-letter word just a minute ago, more. They'll always want more, no matter what. So when Republicans decide, okay, let's just impersonate Democrats and call for social spending, and that kind of stuff, the Democrats never will say, wow, that's great.

34:13 Thank you for coming over. They'll say, okay, more. Whatever it is you propose, we want more. So that's always a losing game for the Republicans. Right. Well, this is how you earn $ 40 trillion in debt, right? That's one way to do it, is keep spending and spending, thinking that it's going to get us anywhere. I believe it was economist Thomas Sowell looked back some years ago. I'm sure well past this number. He was talking about the Great Society and the war on poverty and all that. And at some point, he calculated the war on poverty had spent $ 1 trillion, and the poverty rate had not gone down. It may have, in fact, gone up. So it was supposed to reduce or eliminate poverty, and poverty after $ 1 trillion actually was right where it was when the programs were started or maybe even worse. So in many cases with these programs, you spend the money. You take the cash out of taxpayers' pockets, spread it around all over the place. And very often you end up either in the same place where you started or even worse.

35:09 Another great example, it's not welfare spending as such, but it is a lot of government spending, is this train to nowhere in California where I am. And I'm here visiting my parents and my sisters, my family and friends. And here in California, I think the original plan was that the train to nowhere would go from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It would cost somewhere in the realm of about, I think, about $ 8 to $ 10 billion and would be done by now. I think it was going to be finished in 2019, 2020 when it was originally proposed. it's now not going to be done until 2040, if all goes well. Not one inch of track has been laid so far. I was going to say, exactly. And the budget has gone from, I think, $ 8 to $ 10 billion. By the time it's done, it's going to be about $ 270 billion. And we'll go from San Francisco to LA. It's going to go from Bakersfield to Merced, which is basically from one cattle ranch to one artichoke farm or something like that.

36:04 This is absurd. You know, and this is getting back to what you were saying earlier. You know, why do we even listen to these people? I mean, they tell you this is what they're going to do. You know, going back to, you know, what happened with the Great Society and we were going to do so much about the war on poverty, which was really manufactured because there really at that time wasn't a war on poverty. They just created it out of whole cloth to get people all concerned and revved up and to give them a reason to spend taxpayer money And then after all is said and done, where's the return on investment? But they've done this, DeRoy, time and time and time and time again. And they keep getting away with it.

36:47 Well, it's astonishing. And sometimes, you know, it's almost criminal. We had a program in New York City under our former previous socialist president, Bill de Blasio, who was practically a communist. And he created some program for his wife to run. And I believe it's spent somewhere in the realm of, if I remember correctly, correctly. Again, it's off the top of my head, but I think it was around $ 800 million, give or take. And it was supposed to provide mental health services and help reduce the number of people walking around the streets of New York who are clearly insane and often dangerous. You saw like this woman in New York just a couple of days ago who whipped out a couple of knives, injured someone badly and killed a young lady who was a vice president at Bank of America, right at Times Square. This happened a few days ago. Anyway, $ 800 million given to the first lady of New York City, And after a couple of years, I said, well, great. How's it going? She said, I don't know. Well, where'd the money go? Oh, how many people did you help? No idea. How's the mental health situation in New York City? Same as before or worse.

37:43 When you do that sort of thing, my sense is that money just went to help out their friends and pay off NGOs, et cetera, who've been supporting them. Well, no doubt that's the case. I mean, that's always the profile. 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.

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42:27 Yeah, there's something else on the topic of, Alex, I'll take famous first wives for 300. Exactly. We've got the first lady of California, Gavin Newsom's wife, and she's involved in some shenanigans where she was receiving taxpayer money and sharing it with her friends in NGOs. There's some question about where that money went and did some of it end up in her pocket or not. Or I imagine even if it doesn't end up in her pockets, she puts it in her friends' pockets and her friends take care of her. Hey, how'd you like to go to dinner somewhere lovely tonight? Or, hey, come on vacation with us or whatever. And of course, she doesn't see a bill for any of this sort of thing. That's the kind of thing that can happen. I don't know if that's precisely what the allegation is in this case. But over and over, we see this kind of thing.

43:08 You mentioned the leering centers. The fraud against autistic kids in Minneapolis that Nick Shirley, the fantastic 22, 23, 24-year-old YouTube journalist has discovered. That turned out to be multi-millions of dollars in fraud. People in Minneapolis are starting up these centers to help autistic kids, filing for payment for that. And the money was given to them. Turns out there are no kids in the classrooms. The classrooms are empty. These are empty buildings. This was pure fraud. we've discovered in California, hospice fraud also in the realm of millions, if not billions of dollars. There's a street in the San Fernando Valley called Van Nuys Boulevard. And within about a three or four block area, there's something like 100 hospices.

43:55 And these are people who set up these quote unquote hospices. You go inside, there are no beds, there are no patients, there are no nurses, there's nobody there. And yet they're collecting multi-millions of dollars to take care of alleged supposed hospice patients who've only got a few weeks or months to live as they're dying, dying of cancer or dying of Parkinson's, whatever it might be. And these people are just taking this money and running off with it. And again, it's one thing you say, all right, well, let's figure out a scam to take advantage of banks. So we're going to figure out some way to rip off insurance companies. And that's bad enough for people for that ought to be thrown in jail. But when you set up a scam to rob money intended for autistic kids and rob money from people who are dying of terminal diseases, have only got a few weeks or months to live, and you're thinking, hey, let's go grab some of that cash.

44:40 I mean, that is not just standard Olympic-grade greed. That is just a form of sickness and depravity and immorality and just fundamental absence of ethics being almost unspeakable. Let's rob from autistic kids. Let's steal from people in hospice. It truly is stunning. And everyone involved in that spends a lot of time in prison, focusing what they've done and being punished for doing so. Yeah. But the deal is, is that it's a slow walk. We're just not getting enough. You know, they should be pulling up paddy wagons and just throwing them in the back of these paddy wagons en masse, get them through the process, get them in jail and make a final statement on this. Because look at when Elon Musk came to town and said, there's at least a trillion dollars of fraud and waste. Well, they all batard and feathered him, had to get him.

45:30 Out of town. Now you've got a 24-year-old. Right, exactly. And you get a 24-year-old journalist who's out there reporting on this stuff, and it's still the tip of the iceberg. J.D. Vance and his committee and his group, his fraud group, now picked up where Elon Musk and Doge had to drop the ball on. I say drop the ball. The ball was taken away from them. But J.D. Vance, to his credit, is trying to do something about it. But it's not moving fast enough because you don't have cooperation, just like everything in these states, especially the blue states. They don't want to be found out. And then you have situations where some of these governors will come in and they'll admit to something and go, oh, yeah, we found a little problem here. But, you know, it's because we've been working on it for 20 years. 20 years, they barely have a little bit of fraud that they've exposed.

46:18 And it's like they want credit, you know. And, oh, my gosh, DeRoy, it's just so frustrating. And the American people are just fed up with all this stuff because here we are, $ 40 trillion in debt. We pay now, what, almost $ 1. 2 trillion just in interest payments. I mean, this is unsustainable. You're right about that. And on the first part, look, I know when you're dealing with government programs, you've got usually very large agencies with huge payrolls. A lot of this stuff doesn't work smoothly. You're using computer systems that go back decades. So it's not shocking when you have some level of inefficiency. But when you've got this level of criminality going on, that by itself is enraging. And then even beyond that, you've got situations like in California where the feds want to investigate this Medicare and Medicaid fraud, the hospice fraud, everything I've described to you. And the response from Gavin Newsom's office is, well, look, you've got full access to the records. Take a look. You can fly up here to Sacramento, go through our papers. We'll give you full access to the computers. Make sure we find out this fraud. We root it out, get the bad guys out, throw them in jail, and make sure the program is there to help people who really have terminal diseases and don't have the means to take care of themselves in hospice. We want the money to be there for the autistic kids who can't take care of themselves and need special treatment and special learning, special education, et cetera. Then you could say, all right, well, these

47:49 guys are a bit incompetent. At least they're honest. But no, you don't get that from Gavin Newsom. What you get from Gavin Newsom is, no, our records are closed. No, you may not look at our papers. No, they're sealed. We're going to take you to court. We're going to fight you tooth and nail. If you land at Sacramento Airport, we're going to surround your airplanes. You can't get off of it. I'm exaggerating a bit there. But you don't get the cooperation that you get from people who might be incompetent. But honest, you get a lack of cooperation and complete efforts to frustrate these investigations. And that says to me, these people aren't just incompetent but honest. These are corrupt people who are trying to keep their tracks covered. I think that's what's going on here. Well, he signed the Nick Shirley Act. Correct. So if you are a journalist and you try to investigate this, you're going to be in trouble with the law in California. I think that's probably a massive violation of the First Amendment. I hope Nick Shirley and others sue to get that overturned. But yeah, they don't even want journalists to come look at this stuff because I think they know that this is corrupt. This is how they pay their friends off. Their friends turn around and give them political donations, and they don't want to see that little gravy train derailed. So they're going to make it as difficult as possible to investigate these things, whether you're a journalist and they don't want you to go out and ask difficult questions, or you're J.D. Vance or the Doge people or anybody in Washington wants to come in and make sure that the taxpayer money is serving taxpayers' needs and not being sucked off, as was the case in Minneapolis, by people who are taking this autism money and literally buying real estate in Kenya. When American taxpayers say, okay, here's some money, make sure the autistic kids get everything they need to be as comfortable

49:21 as possible and learn as best they can and succeed as much as they're able to. I say, no, let's take this money, buy sports cars and literally buy sports cars and literally buy real estate in Kenya. I don't think that's what the American taxpayers expected to be done with their cash. Well, of course not. Well, you're in California, the home of Hassan Piker, who's looking for a new friend, I think. Hassan Piker has become the Jeremiah Wright of this current election cycle, right? He has. And it's quite humorous to watch because you've got Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan. And whenever he's asked about Hassan Piker, he says, look, this campaign is about the people of Michigan. It's not about the about some, some streamer in, in, in California.

50:12 It's not about some guy with a podcast, you know, Hassan who, as if he's ever heard from this guy. And then you think that to cooperate and help win a seat in, in, in Michigan that Hassan Piker would cooperate and sort of say, well, you know, I don't know anything about Hassan, about Abdul El-Sayed, you know, I wish him luck. I don't know much about that guy. And Hassan Piker has been quite the opposite. He's, come forward and said, yeah, you know, I got contacted by Hassan Piker. And he said, hey, why don't you come back to Michigan and campaign with me? Let's do some rallies together. Let's go do some events together. And he says, besides... Like a hundred events. I've had that guy on my program like a hundred times. And so every time that Piker tries to get away, every time that El-Sayed tries to get away, Piker kind of runs up and throws him in his arms and gives him a big bear hug.

51:04 which is kind of funny because Hassan Piker is about twice the size of Abdul El-Sayed. So it's almost comical. And it's funny. I think that Hassan Piker is behaving a little bit like his jilted boyfriend or something like that. He's like, oh, I never met this guy. He goes, oh, I love this guy. He's wonderful. He completes me. And it's going to be hilarious to see this little comedy unfold over the next few months as El-Sayed wants people to believe he's never met Hassan Piker and Piker treats Elside sort of like, you know, his jilted lover. It's just it's priceless. And just I'm just really glad I'm getting this priceless comedy for free. Yeah. Well, and the other thing, too, you know, the saga continues in Congress. You got House Democrats who had an opportunity to disavow socialism. You know, they just took three steps back. Mother, may I? Republicans voted unanimously for the measure.

52:01 and all but eight Democrats opposed it. What does that tell you? Exactly. Well, there was a resolution that the U.S. House has come back. They're at work as we speak, and good for them. The Senate is still on vacation for another two weeks, which is just, I screamed and yelled at you about this. Yeah, right. Five-week break rather than work on the Save America Act. I mean, it's abominable. But anyway, they had a resolution on the House floor on Monday, September 1, and it basically said that The Congress resolves that socialism is abominable. It's inimical to the American system, that capitalism is the system for America, denouncing socialism and all that. And as you say, every Republican voted in favor of that. And then every Democrat, with the exception of eight, said, no, no, we disagree with that. We think socialism is okay. We're all right with that. And they also– there's language in there saying that only American citizens should vote in U.S. elections, not– foreign citizens and language of that sort. And that was in there and they voted against all these things.

53:05 So as I've said, we've discussed this a number of times, the idea that there's this small cabal of socialists who are trying to pull the Democrat Party left. I think the Democrat Party is already there. I think most Democrats already are socialists and they may not be members of the DSA and they may not necessarily support El Sayed for Senate in Michigan for various reasons. I think a lot of these guys go, their anti-Semitism goes well beyond what a lot of Democrats can take. But in terms of their views on government spending and the role and the scope of government in our lives, I think most members of the U.S. House Democrat caucus, the Senate Democrat caucus, already are socialists, maybe not capital S socialists, but certainly small S socialists. And we saw in the vote yesterday, only eight of them oppose this measure. So I think it's fair to conclude All but eight House Democrats are socialists.

53:55 So these are the people going to the poll who will be on the ballot when Americans go to the polls on Election Day. And you can bet your odds that unless you're in one of those eight congressional districts, your Democrat member of Congress is at least as small as socialist at a minimum. Yeah, at minimum. He's the Manhattan-based Fox News contributor, DeRoy Murdoch. DeRoy, thank you as always. Appreciate it. Take care. You bet, Bill. Great to talk to you. If you're 65 or older and Medicare is your main source of insurance, pay close attention right now and listen for details on how you may save thousands of dollars on your health care costs. Did you know that Medicare can pay for things like dental visits, home delivery of drugs, even a gym membership? Call us right now and learn how to unlock all your Medicare benefits. Medicare and supplemental plans that we provide can even offer you drug coverage with zero co-pays and pay for transportation to your doctors.

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55:33 Well, good morning, America. Glad you could join us six minutes after the top of the hour right now. We've got Mirdad Mardy-Yusufani joining us. He's the director of the Iran Freedom Project with the Middle East Forum. Mardy, welcome to the show. Good to have you with us. Thank you, Bill. Thanks for having me. Lots to talk about here. I love what you're bringing up here because I agree with you. I think that what's been missing in all that's been going on with Iran, you know, bombs and now sanctions that seem to be going. I mean, last I was checking this morning, I think, what is it, over two million to one ratio against the dollar right now. You know, gas lines, it just has to be horrendous for the people, for the Iranians there.

56:18 But as we've We've been saying when you're negotiating with a death cult, for them, they look at it as, in a sense, they have nothing to lose. I mean, and I think it's hard for people in the West to understand this because we cherish life. They're not worried so much about this life because they see life beyond this, this time here, right? That's correct, Bill. I think it's very telling. Secretary Besson today or yesterday said something that really stands out, and he said that we're trying to push and we hope and we expect that the Iranians, meaning the regime, will come to their senses. Well, that's the key point. Their senses, what they sense and what their ideology tells them is not intuitive, is not based on what we believe sensibility is.

57:11 They have an ideology that believes in martyrdom. They have an ideology that dictates to them to fight to the death, to the end. And there is no exit for them. And so they will elevate, elevate the tension and try to raise the risk reward ratio as far as they see it, not how we see it here in the West. And so that is the issue. And that's a challenge. Well, and the thing that is a challenge for us here in the West, and I believe we're still carrying grief of World War II and releasing the atom bomb in Japan. I believe that that haunts us to this day when it comes to military action. And we have been careful as a country to say, hey, we don't want to go there. But the deal is, is that you can't dictate that. War has a personality and demands of its own. And I think that when you start trying to orchestrate an outcome that is out of your purview, so to speak, I think you get yourself in trouble and you get into a quagmire, which is what we've experienced since World War II. Because, I mean, whether we're talking about Japan or Germany, those were two like-minded death cults, were they not?

58:26 Well, I mean, I think at the end of the day, what you're saying, Bill, is that the cost-benefit ratio, whatever caused and enabled the end of the Pacific campaign, World War II to come to an end. That notwithstanding, what we're looking at today is the cost, the cost on certainly the United States armed forces, the cost on global economy, and as well as the cost on the Iranian people. Let's remember, do not destroy the country you claim to seek to free. That means exactly what you're saying, if we have this military option on the table right now. Unfortunately, there is a measure beyond, there is a point in measure beyond which it is counterproductive. And we want to make sure that somehow we have a deterrent effect against the regime. At the same time, make sure that Iranian people themselves do not catastrophically get cornered because at the end of the day, it'll be a lose-lose. So we need to make sure how far we need to take this far.

59:35 Well, and the thing that we've already realized, you've had, I've heard estimates anywhere from 50 to 80,000 citizens that have been murdered by the IRGC there in Iran. And that grieves most of us here in this country. And as you state, we're seeing the military pressure, but we're not seeing the political architecture. How do we raise up the political architecture. And it's got to be something more than just saying, hey, we got to get the people guns. I mean, there has to be something that we're not doing in order to, I guess, to add pressure upon this current regime that would force them out. Because having hundreds of thousands of people in the streets only invites the IRGC to mow them down again, right?

1:00:27 Well, yes, that's true. And wherever the numbers are, there are a thousand too many killed. Now, of course, the regime has been very capable of obfuscating the actual number of people it killed a few months ago. But we saw that the regime has never held back. It has consistently basically signaled to the Iranian people and the world and the region that it will do all it can to stay in power, and that means killing its own citizenry. So when the West, when the United States looks at Iran, there's a point at which we need to look at how.

1:01:07 How exactly will the Iranian people, which are our biggest and most important asset, how can they be empowered? I'm very happy to have seen that Washington has sort of avoided anointing anyone from exile to serve as success. successor to the regime because it knows that whatever actually assumes, whoever, whatever process assumes power in Iran will need to come from inside Iran. So the instinct is right there. I think the point at this point that Washington needs to look at how to amplify connectivity inside Iran among the people, how to document the crimes against humanity that the regime has committed, allow and create space for pluralistic coordination inside Iran so that the Iranian people can come together. Let's not forget the regime and its goons and its leaders have nowhere to go. They have no off exit ramp.

1:02:12 They have nowhere to go. It's very, very important when we look at the additional pressure coming on. What is the exit ramp Washington is looking to offer to the Iranian regime? At this point, it's a lose-lose. The regime has nowhere to go. It is under enormous economic pressure. As you said, the rial has collapsed. Two million. At one point, it was 70. You know, 47 years ago, when this regime took over, the rial was 75. to a dollar. Today is two million. Shortage of gas, food, water, all sorts of services have been shut down, government in terms of servicing the citizens of Iran. And so it's a matter of time where the regime itself, the state may be facing collapse, but not the political infrastructure. And that is the challenge we're facing. A state collapsing is one thing, A regime walking away and handing power is another.

1:03:16 And what's the likelihood of that regime walking away? Well, it is not likely at all because it has demonstrated as it exercised in Syria when it decided to sustain Bashar Assad, it executed and put into practice what it is doing today, meaning taking guns and clubs to the streets against the people And this is where this combination of massive military strikes and punitive measures that was delivered to the Iranian regime combined with the economic collapse brings pause and concern to us. Because when you have a population incapacitated and unable to take on a regime, we have a combination that is very, very concerning there.

1:04:10 We need to take a pause and make sure whatever comes next includes a political solution, as you said, a political architecture that allows a transition. At this point, war and missiles and dropping bombs has not proven effective, and so we need to combine and bring together a political formula whereby those opposition figures inside Iran can combine and organize their resources with the Iranian street, with the people, and hopefully convince a process whereby a transition that's acceptable can come into play.

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1:09:18 Restova works naturally with your body, helping you turn off the day's problems and gently transition to a peaceful and relaxing feeling. Restova is available exclusively at magavitamin.com. That's magavitamin.com. Visit now and learn how you can get a free bottle with your order. All orders ship quickly and include a 30-day money-back guarantee. For a better night's sleep, get your order of Restova today. and make sleepless nights a thing of the past. Get Restova exclusively at magavitamin.com. Nutrition for patriots. We're talking with Murdad Yusufiani. He's the director of the Iran Freedom Project in the Middle East Forum. 15 years as a senior strategic counselor to Iran's crown prince, an insider opposition perspective, a current analysis of the Middle East Forum, credible nonpartisan policy voice, and bridges the gap between Trump's military pressure and the need for democratic alternatives. So, Marty, where we are right now, and as much as we can feel what the Iranian people must be enduring right now, and just hoping that there's some answer to all this, to where they could realize freedom. Because as you've been reporting on this, I mean, the people there in Iran, outside of the ruling regime, they have aspirations of a

1:10:49 democratic society, do they not? Absolutely. That is what the Iranian people have communicated to the regime, to the region, to the world over the past 47 years. Just a few months ago, we saw massive demonstrations prior to that under the Women, Life, Freedom movement. We saw massive demonstrations even prior to that, the Green Revolution. So cyclically, the Iranian people have basically demonstrated the courage to show that they reject the regime. Now, we need to make sure here that it is not the Iranian people who get punished. And so outside of targeting a strategic infrastructure, which is catastrophic for the people who need to succeed and take over a vibrant country, we need to make sure that whatever we do is strategically targeting the regime's off-book networks, the regime's repression apparatus, and the IRGC's economic empire. The combination of those three elements, I think, will effectively bring sort of stop the breathing of the regime and allow the Iranian people to sort of take on and see what they can do to take over power.

1:12:11 Is it true that the soldiers are not being paid right now, Marnie? Well, I think the economic pressure that we have seen, the fall of oil sales, in fact, down to zero and the billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of the Iranian regime's assets that are frozen all over the world That is actually the pain point that the regime is facing right now. Don't listen to me. Listen to the president, Pesachian himself, just over the weekend said that it's catastrophic economic conditions. He himself said inflation is at 100%. And he himself said that they have no, you know, the piggy bank is empty. And so... I can see under those conditions payroll not to be met. Of course, what the regime has been doing is it just prints money.

1:13:03 It prints money to meet payroll, but that printing, as we all know, creates inflation and massive pressures on the people itself. What about the Ayatollah? Is he alive or dead? That's the million-dollar question. I have a sense that even if he is alive, he is not in very good condition. So, I really don't know, but it really matters not. It'll take years, if not decades, for any leader to sort of consolidate power under the best of circumstances. It took his father several years to consolidate his power, and so under these conditions, even if he was alive or even if he was functioning 100%, it'll be very, very difficult for with the economic conditions and the political pressures for him to really take charge and demonstrate his reign. So I think it's a matter of time for him to be sort of sidelined either formally by the military coup that we in effect de facto have right now by IRGC.

1:14:12 Yeah, I was going to say, who's in charge? IRGC, they have the guns, they have the butter, they have the suppressive machine. They have an economic empire that they singularly are focused on maintaining, including their heads. That's why they will not go. Well, they played the Strait of Hormuz card, and Trump has trumped them in as much as that cleared all the mines, is controlling what goes in, what goes out, just as you reported here just a moment ago. There's no Iranian oil supply. that's exiting the Strait of Hormuz right now.

1:14:53 That's right. Iran's strategic value over centuries, certainly over the past century and past 40, 50, 60 years, because of the Strait of Hormuz being the lifeline of energy to the world, has been its strategic value. I fear that the regime has overextended its hand because it was its final trump card No puns intended here, but it was its final card, and I think it's stretching it too far because Washington has demonstrated that it can somehow open up the flow of oil, albeit at reduced numbers, but it is demonstrating that it can do it in the long term. The advantage will be Washington's and not the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that is a catastrophe, an economic one as well as political that the regime will not be able to survive.

1:15:51 Well, we don't hear much these days from Oman. We did for a bit. What's their status? I'm sorry, from who? With Oman. Oman, yeah. Well, Oman is a longstanding neighbor of the Islamic Republic. It's got to balance between its neighborly needs as well as managing a hostile beast that it has sort of experienced in the past. 47 years. So it's not an easy position for Oman to be at. So it's doing its best, somehow manage the flow and protect its own interests. So it's difficult. Of course, some of the rhetoric that sometimes comes out of Washington is not helpful. But the Omanis have done their best, in my view, to play an honest broker here and have served the interest of Washington and the West for a long time now, having mediated over and over again from release of hostages and prisoners and exchanges and so forth. Uh, but it is, uh, in a situation that is not envious, uh, deal with a beast or deal with the beast.

1:16:57 Yeah. Pick, pick your beast, I guess. Exactly. Uh, Marty, we got, uh, a little more than two and a half minutes left here. Um, what needs to happen? What, what, what moves do Washington need to make now in order to, uh, to expedite the collapse of this regime? Right. Well, the dynamics are very simple. There is absolute, deep, deep mistrust between the two parties here. Going back 47 years, half a century, Washington deeply mistrusts the Islamic Republic of Iran for good reason. And counterwise, the Islamic Republic of Iran deeply mistrusts Washington for its own series of reasonings. So, there is no love lost there and the challenge here is how to overcome this mistrust. For example, that MOU which was enormously beneficial and it was an imbalance in favor of the Islamist regime was not effectuated. Why? Because the Iranian regime at the end of the day felt there must be something up and that it cannot trust Washington. Well, today We sense, we see, there are hints that the Iranian regime actually would like to possibly execute pieces, if not all of that 14-point MOU back then. So this

1:18:28 mistrust has somehow need to be overcome. If Washington is going to offer itself, find itself an exit ramp to reduce the energy pressures on the global markets, as well as if the Iranian regime wishes to sort of reduce the economic collapse that it's facing, it needs to somehow overcome that mistrust. I fear, however, that the ideological depth driving the Iranian regime is such that unless those elements that are emerging in Iran today that favor sort of a pause, an MOU, a peace of some sort. I'm not saying they're ultimately the good guys, but there are elements that are favoring a reduction of tensions. If they get the upper hand, there is a chance here. Otherwise, it's going to be escalation and more tensions and more catastrophic kinetic options on the table.

1:19:32 I understand. He's the director of Iran Freedom Project, Middle East Forum. Murdad, Marty, Yusuf Yanni. Murdad, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate the time. Thank you, Bill, for having me. Everything is expensive right now. Gas, food, you name it. You're spending more, you are making the same or less money. So what do you do? You rack up credit card debt. That's what you do. It's not your fault. It's the economy. And guess what? If you rack up too much credit card debt like some of us, you can't pay your bills. Then the credit card companies, as nice as they are, start hounding you for money. Then you start your downward spiral.

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1:23:21 That's Magavitamin.com. Visit now and learn how you can get a free bottle with your order. All orders ship quickly and include a 30-day money-back guarantee. For a better night's sleep, get your order of Restova today and make sleepless nights a thing of the past. Get Restova exclusively at magavitamin.com. Nutrition for patriots. Hey, good morning. Welcome back. Bill Martinez here along with the NFL QB formerly known as, but of course now he's a son of God and he is a speaker and author and a team builder, a man of God. And it's great to have him on with us again, as always. Jeff Kemp, how are we doing?

1:24:04 I'm good. I also remember I'm a husband to Stacy and a son to four dudes and daughters-in-law and a grandpa to 10, pretty soon 11, Bill. I can't believe it. Congratulations. That's awesome. Can't wait for you. That's great. Well, you know, the thing that's been on my heart these last few weeks is is getting back to the basics. And you and I always talk about the fundamentals. I mean, that's what you trained under as a football player. You know, when you talk about team building and all these things, it really starts with the foundation. Your foundation has to be right. If your foundation is off, then, you know, things, you just can't get the production that you expect and you get very frustrated, right?

1:24:48 Right. Everything comes back to the foundation of we humans. How are we designed? And God's got the design. And if we align with his design, then there's fruit. If we don't, it's frustrating. There may be money, there may be jobs, there may be achievement, there may be activity or popularity, but there's emptiness and there's not a satisfaction. And there's a lot of relational friction and frustration. We see it all around us. Successful people who have broken relationships, and depression. So back to the basics. What are you thinking about?

1:25:28 What is the basics? Well, to me, we go back to what God first told man to do, to be fruitful and multiply. And he had, as you said, a purpose and plan that when we are in harmony with that plan, it goes well for us. I guess he was the smartest human on the planet. It's not counting Jesus himself. But he was given wisdom from God. Solomon said, you know, the best thing we can hope for is to go out there and, you know, work hard, be productive, live life and enjoy it. And he says that's that's probably one of the best things you could do is what he was able to discern after having everything that he could possibly have and exercised. Uh, and particularly wisdom. So his final deduction is that, uh, you know, work is beneficial and we should go in and, and work hard and do a good job.

1:26:21 Yeah. But I think the whole book of Ecclesiastes, um, which talked about Solomon's pursuit of human success, he made this contrast between trying what we do in our own strength and our own mindset and our own thinking. under the sun, meaning not including the eternal, not including God and his presence as he intended for us in the garden of Eden. Meanwhile, he concludes at the end that if we do live above the sun, meaning in relationship with God as he intended, then during this short life on earth, it's great to go ahead and work and put the food on the table share a meal with your family and enjoy the fruits of labor. And that work is a good thing here. You know, we are on labor day. Um, but work was meant to be part of God's work. Remember we were joining his work in the garden. Then we left the garden and said, we want to do it on our own. And work became our own thing, a way to prove ourselves, you know, a way to make a name, a way to create financial security. So I can trust in myself instead of trusting God. God wants our work to be the way Jesus did it. Remember he said, my father is always at work and so am I doing his work. And I only do it when he tells me to do it.

1:27:52 And I can do nothing apart from my father. That means Jesus aligned with, depended on, abided in and worked alongside the father. I call it receiving, you know, receiving the work from the father. So as you and I do this radio show right now, um, I think we're receiving God's spirit to guide us and we love doing it and we want to do it diligently, but we're doing it above. The sun, meaning we're including God in it. So that's the basics. Do your work with God as the one who gets the glory and the power. To do it well. Yeah. Otherwise, as you said, the contrast is if you stay below the sun, then it's, it's all vanity. You know, it's like chasing the wind or catching the wind as Solomon would say. And you know, so how do we stay above? And you stay above by being aligned with God.

1:28:45 And some of the simple things that seem to be coming back into, and this is one of the things I want to talk to you about, is that if we're foundationally corrupt, if our foundation is not right, I mean, to me, I think this is why God gave us the law. because we needed to have those benchmarks to tell us, hey, when are we doing right? It's like, you know, if you're out driving and you don't have a 55 mile an hour speed limit, you don't know if you're operating under the law or breaking. The law, right? But it's there to remind you. So the law, God gave us the law to realize, to help us realize that in and of ourselves, we're incapable. And once you really address the law and get that foundation set in that, then you realize, I need Jesus.

1:29:32 That's great, Bill. That's so important. Religion has confused that. Protestant religion has confused that. Catholic religion has confused that. Works-based religion has confused that. The law, I was just thinking of this metaphor, it's not a stairway that we perform and keep and obey and achieve to. Climb our way to God in heaven. It's basically guardrails, A, to keep us from going off the cliff and smashing brutally, and B, guardrails we bump up against all the time that show us, guess what?

1:30:14 I cannot drive this route on my own I need God as my GPS. So, I mean, Paul explained the law is there as a tutor to show you that you're not righteous. Only Jesus is. You receive his righteousness. And that is what lets you live more in alignment with the law. But that's not what gets you to heaven. It's the relationship with Jesus. It's his righteousness and you putting your trust and faith in him. Otherwise, mankind would brag. Oh, I'm really following the law. Oh, I'm being a real good Christian. Oh, I'm a great guy. God's so happy with me. He's going to give me some credit for heaven.

1:30:54 God makes it more simple than that. It's all in Jesus. Trust him. Respect the law and let it show you where you're off base and can't do it your own. But thank him that he achieved it for you. Exactly. Because the law, as you said, it's a master. It's a master teacher to get us through where we are in this existence before, you know, coming face to face with God, because, you know, God wants us to come home and he wants to say, well done, good and faithful servant, doesn't he? You bet. You bet. How many minutes do we have left, Bill? We got two minutes. We got two minutes left. Go ahead.

1:31:36 I want to leave people with a cool reinterpretation of a story they remember. Peter and Andrew, were invited to follow Jesus and fish for men. And it says in Mark, they left their nets, they dropped their nets and they followed him. But then later in the book of Luke. Chapter five, that's the story where Jesus borrowed Peter's fishing boat and taught from the beach. And when he was done teaching, he said, hey, Peter, I know you fished all night long, but put your boat out and put your nets in the water for a catch. He said, literally, don't try. He said, put your nets and you'll get a catch. And Peter said, we fished all night. This probably won't work, but since you say it, I'll do it.

1:32:20 It turns out, I think that Peter. Had left his nets earlier and said he was going to follow Jesus. But this was the day when he actually left his boat and his whole career. It says that day after the catch of fish, he was so blown away. He said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. And then it says he and Andrew left their boat and everything and And follow Jesus. So it's almost like they were halfway in before, but after this miracle, they were all the way in and they said yes completely to God. And I think that's a great message for all of us. Let's not partially do the work and say, God, I need a little help. Let's say, I only want to do it your way. It's yes to you completely.

1:33:04 I'll leave behind anything you want and I'll follow you. And yes, Jesus will provide just like he did for Peter that day. They overloaded their boats with fish, but it's more important to catch souls than fish. Well, exactly. And the idea of taking up your cross, Jeff, taking up your cross means everything else is subordinated to the will of the father, right? Because that's what Jesus did when he took up his cross. As you said, yeah, he surrendered all to God. And that's our challenge. It's our challenge. It's our blessing. It's our invitation. He's a good God. Go ahead. He's a good God to surrender to. If he wasn't a good God, it wouldn't be fun surrendering to. But he's a wonderful, loving, gracious, generous God. Surrendering to him is the best thing we could ever do.

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1:37:36 Or visit our website at c60. com. That's 720-660-40 or c60. com. Greska's Carbon 60 for a beautiful you. c60. com. Hey, welcome back. Bill Martinez here along with Angel Perez, a Christian counselor with Focus on the Family. Angel, good morning to you. How are you? I am great. Good morning, Bill. Thank you for the opportunity. Well, what we got to talk about is a serious issue. No doubt about it that addiction comes in many forms and affects millions of Americans and growing, dare I say, both teens and adults, and while often destroying families and relationships.

1:38:26 While 40 million people, this number is huge, in the United States, suffer from substance use disorder, you know, you think alcohol or drug use, including prescriptions. This is amazing to me. Only 6.3% receive addiction treatment. It's like the rest of them are white knuckling it, huh? Oh, yeah, absolutely. A lot of people think that it's just a matter of choices. It's just a matter of willpower. And that's one of the reasons, you know, people don't seek treatment because they think that they can do it on their own. Yeah. Well, and the thing is, is it's a roller coaster ride. So you freak out when you're in the valley, but when you're in the peaks, you think, okay, I got it under control, right? And which is demonic. I mean, this is what the devil does. It deludes you and, and creates this delusion. You got it all under control.

1:39:18 It's okay. It's only one bad day, right? But maybe that one bad day, what you did in upending the family, your marriage, and maybe your relationship with people at work is pretty destructive. And you start you know, pulling those days together and people are, you know, that are dealing with addiction, they don't quite connect the dots because they're focused on the good days, not necessarily the bad days or the damage that they have done, right? Is that fair to say? Yeah. Well, there's definitely lack of awareness, right? Because their brain is hijacked. There is a neurological reality to addiction. And unfortunately, for most people struggling with addiction, they are not self-aware. They don't have situational awareness. They don't have relational awareness.

1:40:04 So yeah, that's why the intervention of other people in their lives is of utmost importance if they do want to get better. But the first step, that's why the first step, Bill, in any kind of treatment regarding addiction is admitting and accepting your reality. We have to radically accept that we indeed have a problem. Yeah, it's in a world that we've grown up where, you know, Angel, and I maybe might agree with this, is that the idea of self-responsibility has been muted over the years, right? Absolutely, absolutely. And you see, self-responsibility does not minimize God's power and God's grace, right? So we really need to understand addiction from the lenses of God's grace and personal responsibility, right?

1:40:58 Absolutely. God calls us to self-responsibility. The first verse that comes to mind is Proverbs 4, 23, right? You know, above anything else, guard your hearts because life flows from it. So we do have a responsibility before the Lord. Right. And the thing is, is that just as your mind has been bent to apprehend and to fall into these addiction traps, God has also given us the solution. Yes, ultimately in Jesus Christ. But in the process, he tells us that we can actually renew our minds. Right. Isn't that I mean, to me, that whole concept and idea is miraculous. And here in your counseling, you know, as you counsel with people, you know, with focus on the family, you see this miracle happen on a continuum.

1:41:48 I have seen it in my own life. You know, I do have a testimony. I do have a story of addiction myself. So I've experienced in my own life what Romans 12 talks about, the transformation that takes place as we renew the mind, right? As we change those negative, distorted core beliefs and replace them with God's truth. Right. So we call that in our field neuroplasticity or cognitive behavioral therapy. But the Bible, you know, has been talking about this for centuries. Right. So I do believe that real transformation begins with surrender.

1:42:36 That's what Romans chapter 12, verse one talks about to offer our bodies. as living sacrifice to the Lord. So real transformation does not begin with a strategy. It begins with surrender. Well, you know, for you, when you were trapped and bound up, did you think there was a way out? You know, what gave you hope? Because, you know, to hear more about it, I mean, this isn't something you just pop in and out of. I mean, this is a process. This could take years. I will say, Bill, I experienced a lot of hopelessness and a lot of helplessness. That was my reality. But what really gave me hope was confession. I had the opportunity to confess to a friend, and then I confessed to a pastor, and then I confessed to a really good mentor. So I really, by the grace of God, I will.

1:43:36 Say I had hope. The right people right next to me. And I took a leap of faith and took a risk, you know, because vulnerability involves risk. And I took a risk and I confessed. And at that moment of confession, I could really sense how the chains were weakened and some of them were broken. So that's James 5, 16, confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed. So healing takes place in the context of community. Right. And God in his faithfulness reminds us often in the Psalms that he will get you unsnagged from the net of the enemy, right? I mean, there you are, you're snagged by all this addiction and you think, gosh, there's no way out. And as you said, you had that moment of hopelessness and helplessness. And We can only imagine it because no matter what addiction or no addiction, we've all experienced a little bit of that. But when you are under the power of addiction, it's like it's always with you.

1:44:41 Yeah. Well, this is deeply spiritual. You know, I like to explain that addiction is a very complex phenomenon and it really impacts the mind. It impacts the brain, the body. but the soul as well. This is a counterfeit worship. This is misdirected worship. That's how I like to conceptualize it. The enemy has always had a mission, Bill, according to John 10.10, and his mission has never changed. It's to kill, to steal, and to destroy. Addiction is just one of his weapons. Right, exactly. Well, for all the things that we, you know, options, I say the options that are available, to people today, whether it's access to pornography, social media, online gambling, gaming.

1:45:32 I mean, the issue of how sexual perversion has been codified and the impact that that has on the culture, you know, and I think of as another friend of mine, George Barna has shared with us in terms of his research is approximately a third of people that you sit in the pew on Sunday's They're dealing with these issues. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's part of my story. You know, I struggled with pornography addiction for many years. And that led me to a very, very dark place in my life. And here's the thing, Bill. I was in church.

1:46:14 Yeah, right. I had a relationship with the church. I had a relationship with ministries. I was even serving in ministry. But And that's the reality of thousands and thousands of Americans today. But I do want to say that there is true hope. The hope that we have in Christ does not disappoint. And that's where I want to lead people to. You know, there's real hope in Christ. Yes, the addiction is stronger than you. It's certainly stronger than myself, but it's not stronger than God. Well, that's why. what you shared is so important. And I'm hoping people who are dealing with it or know somebody that this, that they caught this. And that is that you had mentors, you had people that you could trust, that you could come alongside, that come alongside you. and help deal with this burden. It's like, uh, in the, in the story of the gospels where that, uh, that one man was carried in by four brothers.

1:47:12 Right. And they had to get him in front of Jesus, whatever it took. I mean, okay, so we're going to climb the roof. We're going to bore a hole in the roof and get you in front of Jesus. I mean, whatever it takes. Right. Yeah. Well, I do remember one time, one of my mentors, Bill, um, really saw my condition. I was devastated. I was destroyed. The enemy had really taken advantage of me. But then he said something remarkable. He said, I know you don't have hope, but I'm going to hold it for you. I'm going to hold hope for you. So absolutely. I mean, I am so blessed. And by the grace of God, once again, I had the right people.

1:47:58 But sometimes You know, let's face it, Bill, sometimes we have to seek out. The right people. We really need people that will tell us not what we want to hear, but what we need to hear. Right. So that is true fellowship. Well, and as you said earlier, Angel, one of the strategies of the evil one is to isolate you. and it's it's interesting how the devil like you said steal kill and destroy but in that process you're easy pickings when you're on. Your own right you're easy right. Yes exactly but when you align with somebody who is praying for you and coming alongside you you start building, you know, a bit of a defense to where you can have, you know, start having more better days and less worse days. Is that fair?

1:48:47 Yeah, absolutely. You know, the isolation, it's part of the addictive cycle, right? It's relapse, right? It's shame and then isolation. And then when you're isolated, that only perpetuates the addiction, right? So We were created in community, for community, for the glory of God. And the enemy knows that when we are isolated, we are easy prey. Right. Angel Perez, we got to leave it there. He's a Christian counselor with Focus on the Family, as you know. And as you've heard, he knows it. He's lived it. He's lived out the hopelessness, and he got the help.

1:49:30 And Angel Perez is a whole different person today than he was years ago. Right, Angel? By the grace of God. And that's important to note, Bill. True recovery is not just about stopping a behavior. It's about becoming. A new person. Yes. Amen. How can people get help? Call 1-800-A-FAMILY or go to FocusOnTheFamily.com. We have a great team of Christian counselors that can guide you through the steps, and provide you with some good resources and referrals and connect you with a local counselor that specializes in addiction.

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