The Bill Martinez Show 12 24 25

The Bill Martinez Show 12 24 25 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yeah, Okay, let's do it.

Speaker 3 (00:03):
Ill Martinas Live a program about current events, our culture,
our values, our politics, and our future.

Speaker 4 (00:11):
And now Bill Martinez.

Speaker 5 (00:15):
Hey, good morning America. Six minutes after you talk the R.
Right now, doctor Michael Butler is with us. Hey Michael,
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to you.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
And the same to you, bro. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 5 (00:24):
Hey, lots to catch up on. Donald Trump is doing
something that I got to tell you. For many years
when I was a consultant, I had worked with almost
exclusively CEOs of companies, and one of the things that
I reminded them of is that they always have to
consistently pound the drum of the mission of the organization.

(00:45):
And you know, and someone would say, why do I
have to do that? Because I get kind of bored.
I go, you may get bored, but your employees don't.
And in Donald Trump's case, you're talking three hundred and
thirty million, three hundred and forty million people. They need
to instantly hear the refrain of his agenda, what he
has accomplished, what is yet to be accomplished. So he's

(01:07):
got to constantly be casting that vision, not only because
people have a tendency to forget number one. But on
the other hand, you've got the mainstream media that still
has control of about forty percent of the ears and
eyes of America, you know, with their bias perspective, really
deceiving and misleading the American people on the economy. Is

(01:30):
that fair to assess?

Speaker 6 (01:32):
Yes, it is, And it's especially difficult now because the
government was shut down for those six weeks and there
was no data that came out about economic growth and
what's happening to inflation and even the jobs market. See
economic growth numbers are the ones that are most interesting.
In the third quarter, we should have had that number

(01:56):
out finished in September. We should have had the number
out knocked, but the government was shut down. We still
don't have the number yet, but it looks like the
third quarter had about three and a half percent annual
growth rate, up from the three percent in the first quarter,
which is good in the second.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Quarter, rather which is good the fourth quarter.

Speaker 6 (02:15):
We won't get that data at the earliest till the
end of January, but the fourth quarter would have shown
about a four percent annual growth rate.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Now the government's shut down, I'm not sure what the
impact that that's going to be.

Speaker 6 (02:28):
It will be negative on the growth rate, but the
economy is growing. Although the inflation rate we don't have
all the numbers for the consumer price index. Some of
the numbers that we do have show that inflation stays
under three percent, may have benged up slightly in the
last couple of months. So wage increases are greater than

(02:52):
the rate of inflation, which means really people are earning
more money and more money to spend, and that will
i prove the standard of living.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
So Trump's right.

Speaker 6 (03:03):
I think he's gone around the country this week to
kind of teut how his economic programs have worked so far,
and to remind people that the builder was passed in July.
The tax cuts on pips working overtime, sold security, et cetera.
They don't go into effect till January. First, they were

(03:24):
exactly twenty twenty six, so we'll see a benefit there.
And then from all of this money, Trump has been
able to get foreign companies to invest in the US.
And it's some number well into the trillions.

Speaker 5 (03:39):
Well, it's like, what seventeen nineteen trillion I've heard as much.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
As that's it's some of the numbers I've heard once.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
That happened, I mean that that's unprecedented. Michael, right.

Speaker 6 (03:49):
Yeah, that's a huge amount of money. And once it happens.
Now it's going to take a year or so for
all of that to be fully invested, but that'll create
more jobs, will create more growth for the economy, and
again should help to improve the standard of living. I
also believe that the inflation rate will be down to

(04:10):
the two percent range by the end of next year.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Now, most people.

Speaker 6 (04:14):
Don't agree with me, understand that the reason I'm saying
it is energy prices have fallen. Oil is under sixty
dollars a barrel fluction.

Speaker 5 (04:24):
I paid two point fifty nine in Florida two days ago. Michael, Yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (04:29):
Paid two eighty six the other day, and I was
very happy. The national average is now under three dollars.
Once energy prices come down, that has a large impact
on the consumer price index. Energy prices directly effect about
seven percent of the consumer price index, but indirectly it
affects over another twenty percent because it affects the cost

(04:54):
of energy to produce goods and services. So Trump is correct.
He says, if you can get energy prices down, inflation
will come down. And that's true, and I believe that
will happen next year. I think oil will be down
under fifty five dollars of barrow, perhaps as low as
fifty dollars. That'll take the national average for gasoline down

(05:17):
under two dollars and fifty cents a gallon. And once
that starts to happen and people say that they're not
spending so much on a lot of products, energy included,
they're going to start to feel better about the come Exactly.
The problem now is people just don't feel good about
it because.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
We got we had to get through this stuff. You
and I talked about it before, Michael, the last time
we were on, and that is that the economy has been
stifled because we're trying to get all this sludge and
drudge out of the pipeline that was all put there
with Democratic policies and Joe Biden. The thing is, I
think it's interesting to hear you lay this out. What

(05:58):
is somebody like Gavin Newsom to do when everybody else
is you know, they hear figures of under three dollars
and in California they're paying five dollars for a gallon
of gas. I mean, you gotta think California is going
to start revolting there.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
You would certainly think so.

Speaker 6 (06:13):
Remember when Newsom entered office, there was a large surplus
and the government budget and a surplus fund.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
It's now a.

Speaker 6 (06:20):
Deficit in the budget and they've spent all of that surplus.
So the policies that he puts into effect didn't work
in California.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
And I hope he doesn't get a life in the US.

Speaker 6 (06:33):
Because the policy certainly won't work well in.

Speaker 5 (06:36):
The How could he really seriously be considered. I mean,
like you said, I think he's over sixty billion upside
down right now in the state. You got the LA fire.
Still that's still a mess. I mean, even when Donald
Trump went down there Karen Bass, everybody's, oh, yeah, we're gonna,
you know, get the regulation out of the way, We're
going to allow people to build their homes. It is

(06:58):
a hot mess. And it's so unfortunate that that state,
and then that's not even talking about the homelessness issue,
the drug addiction issue, all these things, immigration that the
state really is a failed state.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Michael, Yeah, it certainly is.

Speaker 6 (07:16):
You know, when Trump went down and talked to Mayor Bass,
he said, I want these permits issued as soon as possible,
and she made a comment, well, we should be able
to get them within a year, and Trump said, no,
I want them issued as soon as possible.

Speaker 5 (07:31):
Like next week. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (07:33):
So here it is nearly a year later after the fire.
There's a total of one house that has been built
so far. It's actually a sample for a developer wanting
to build more houses. But that's the only house that's
been built. And it's almost a year now, and these
people can't get their homes rebuilt. The permitting process anywhere

(07:54):
is difficult. In California, it's next to impossible. They have
all these environmental right relations, certain materials you can and
can't use. You have to have solar panels, even if
you don't want them.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
So all of these.

Speaker 6 (08:07):
Regulations slow down the building of these new homes and
significantly adds to the cost. And we have not just
in California, all over the country. We have an affordability
crisis with.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Housing.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
Young people can't afford their first house and that's not
a good thing.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
Well, look at all the tax base that is eroded
as a result because they don't have homes on that property,
right exactly. I mean, you got that the impact that
has all the way down the supply chain, you know,
retail operations, everything in that area economically. I mean, Michael,
they're not even embarrassed by this. This is what blows

(08:48):
me away.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Now, this whole thing could have been avoided.

Speaker 6 (08:53):
You know that some of the water was diverted when
for environmental reasons it shouldn't have been diverted. To have
fire hydrants not half water is inexcusable.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
Well that's that's like Hawaii all over again. Anyway, we
got to go to quick break. We've got more from
doctor Michael Butler. After this stay with.

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Speaker 5 (13:46):
Welcome back, Bill Martinez here with the doctor Michael Kossler,
the economists and policy analyst Michael uh Just to kind
of wrap things up from this first segment here as
Trump goes across the country and and really is going
to cast again the vision that he casts to get

(14:07):
re elected, and that is that, hey, things are the thing?

Speaker 4 (14:11):
Is that so?

Speaker 5 (14:12):
I think so encouraging. It should be for people if
they have ears to hear, and if they haven't been
so dumbfounded by the negative reporting from the mainstream media.
Excuse me Trump, you know, he talks about affordability, but
he can back it up as opposed to Mom, Donnie
and these other Democrats. To them, affordability is just a word.

(14:32):
There's no substance. But with Trump, as you mentioned, man,
the big beautiful bills just around the corner. You can
still see things lighting up. The revenue from tariffs. He wants,
you know, he wants to send a two million dollar
check to stemy check to everybody because of all the
money that we raised from tariffs. So there's a lot

(14:54):
of you know, gold in them nar hills that are
not just necessarily buried. I think they're just around the
corner for And you.

Speaker 6 (15:01):
Know, one thing, when the government shutdown was ended, they
always signed roughly a seventy five day bill to get
us to the end of January. And at that time
they said we'll be able to negotiate something because of
the rising healthcare cost. Now, what happened with the healthcare

(15:24):
This Affordable Care Act passed and twenty ten was supposed
to bring premiums down, improve the quality of healthcare, and
increase the number of people being covered. It hasn't done
anything premiums.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
It's functionally a myth exactly. You know, it was never
designed to do what they said that was going to do.
And here all these years later, what fifteen years later,
there's clear proof that it is a big was a
big lie. It was a shell game, and we've got
to you know, Congress has got to move quick because unfortunately,

(16:03):
thank you very much, and this was the Democrats. No
Republican voted for this, remember, okay, but the fact of
the matter is this is a bipartisan problem right now,
and people need to be serious about resolving this stuff
because of what they did to the people. Just like
in the same way when you know, the Democrats said, hey,
we're there, we're watching your back, and they shut down

(16:24):
the government for forty three days. And what did they do.
It wasn't like they were writing checks are going down,
chasing money to help pay people for snap money or
any other deficiency was going on. The only person was
doing that was Donald Trump exactly.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
And the Democrats say, well, well, look, by January thirtieth,
we have to pass legislation that will fund the increased
cost of Obamacare to the people that are signed up
on the exchanges. Now that's going to cost about one
hundred and fifty billion a year. We measured these things
over ten year period. That's a trillion and a half dollars.

(17:00):
And whenever they spend money like this, although Trump is
changing this somewhat, whenever they spend money, there's no mention
of where the money.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Is coming from.

Speaker 6 (17:11):
They don't say, so we end up having to borrow it,
and that's why we have a thirty eight trillion dollar debt.
Now Trump is trying to change some of that. So
he wants to give people a two thousand dollars rebate
because tariffs may have helped with the place, etc. But
he's getting it from the tariff revenue, so that's where
the money is coming from.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Then he said, I want to start.

Speaker 6 (17:32):
These accounts where you give a thousand dollars to every
child born that they keep until they're eighteen you can
add to which I think is a great idea. But
how are you going to fund it? Michael Dell just
kicked in six point three billion dollars to pay for this.
So when Trump says I'm going to increase spending, he
finds ways to show how the spending will be financed,

(17:56):
where the money will come from.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
We have to start really.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
Doing that with everything. Every time we decide we're going
to spend money. You have a good cause and people
want to I understand all that, but then you just
have to say, where's the money coming from? Right If
you don't have an answer, it means we're borrowing it,
and we can't do that anymore exactly. Talked on this
show numerous times about the thirty eight trillion dollar debt,

(18:20):
the nearly two trillion dollar annual deficit. Although the President
is bringing that down, drop down the one point eight
billion in twenty five. Roughly, it looks like it will
come down to maybe one point four trillion in this year.
So he's trying to bring the deficit down, or we
need to do that as soon as possible. This public

(18:41):
debt is too heavy a burden for this generation. More importantly,
it's way too heavy a burden for our children and
our grandchildren. We need to address it really immediately.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
Michael, you touched on something earlier, and I wanted to
address because I thought you hit on something that we
need to consider, and that is that, no doubt, the
job's landscape is changing all right now. When this came
up under Joe Biden, he came up with some kind
of goofy story about, oh, you just go out there
and go find a job, you know kind I mean,

(19:13):
it was like, you know, good luck, you're on your own,
so to speak. In anticipation, in understanding that the market
is going to change and there's going to be new demand,
that we ought to take some of that tariff money
and invest it in re educating the labor force so
that we get in front of all this AI industrial

(19:34):
this new industrialized revolution that's going to take place, so
that way we can hit the ground running.

Speaker 6 (19:40):
What do you think, Bill, that's exactly right, all this
manufacturing that's coming back from foreign investments, at what American.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Companies are bringing back.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
In order for us to compete on a worldwide basis,
we have to keep the cost down. Now, we can't
compete with some of the countries in Asia where they
pay are people a dollar an hour because I make
thirty forty dollars an hour.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
So the only way.

Speaker 6 (20:05):
To compete is to have our production capital intensive rather
than labor intensive. Capital intensive means we have robots on
the assembly line, we use artificial intelligence, we automate wherever
we can, and that will enable us to produce at
roughly the same cost, we hope as the foreign competition

(20:26):
that has a real low labor rate. However, for people
to be able to take these new jobs, you're absolutely right,
they need to be retrained. Education is really the key
to really bring people out of poverty and any of
the disruptions in the labor market due to artificial intelligence.

(20:47):
And there will be many artificial intelligence will take the
jobs that are more routine to do. And we've lived
through things like this before, you know, in the earlies
and eighties and nineties, we said, well, the personal computers
coming out, what's going to do? What about all these
secretary pools that having corporations. When I worked in corporations now,

(21:07):
back in the seventies and eighties, if I had to
write something, I wrote it out, took it to the
secretary pool, they typed it up for me and brought
it back.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
People don't do that anymore.

Speaker 6 (21:18):
Everybody writes their own memos and their own emails right
on their own computer. There are no secretary pools any anymore.
So things have changed, re educate the people that were
working there. They now become administrative assistance. So rather than
just typing, they help all the business people, all the
people they work or become more productive.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
But that takes in their hour and their hourly wage increased. MIC.
That's the other thing people need to understand that is
it is not going to be stagnant. I mean the
kind of jobs that are around the corner are six
figure jobs, and so you have to think in terms
of that. So your technical skill level has to be
increased so that you can you know, you can earn

(22:01):
six figures because those jobs are going to be available.
But if you're but if you know you're going to
be a knucklehead and not get educated and not get trained,
then you're gonna sit there and you're going to be
you know, you're gonna be stuck in a minimum you know,
minimum job type of environment.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
You know, people have to take personal responsibility.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Amen.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
So you say that, look, I can see that my
job is going to be faded out. I'm not going
to say to the government, all have the job, you know,
give me welfare, give me food. Said what they should say,
is I need to learn how to do something else
so I can take advantage of this new economy and
the way things are are being done. Personal responsibility and
the visual responsibility is very important. The prior administration tried

(22:47):
to shift away from individual responsibility and towards social responsibility.
Don't worry, the government will take care of you. The
government will provide the health care of the government take
care of that. That's a disastrous way to go, and
it's contrary to where our system works.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
It's anti American, Michael. It turns you into socialist and
you're beholding to the government. And so as we know
what the government giveth it can take it away. Right.

Speaker 6 (23:11):
Yeah, absolutely, so people have to learn. Look, our system
encourages individual freedom, so you're free to do pretty much
what you want. As long as you don' own friendship
any anybody else's rights, you can pretty much do what
you want. Well, with that individual freedom comes individual responsibility,
So you have to take responsibility for yourself. As long

(23:32):
as you're mentally and physically able to do that, you
should take responsibility for yourself. See where it is, the
where the opportunities lie. Prepare yourself to take advantage of
those opportunities, and you'll do well in the economy, and
the economy will fare better because there's less people. We
have to we have to support it.

Speaker 5 (23:53):
You'll be happier and more fulfilled, and that's what we
want for you. Doctor Michael Butler, public policy analysts, it
CAN expert, and a professor of finance at Stockton University
in New Jersey. Michael is always great to have you
with us. I have a great holiday.

Speaker 6 (24:07):
I thank you you all right, take care, we're going again.

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Speaker 5 (28:14):
Bill Martinez here. Good to have you with us, and
we've got the author Michael Finch his brand new book,
A Time to Stand the Dire Hour to Defend American Beauty. Michael,
Welcome to show good to have you with us.

Speaker 15 (28:25):
Well, Bill, thank you. I'm very grateful for you having
me on and I'm very thankful. So I'm looking forward
to it. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
I'm excited to talk about your book, I mean, because hey,
we're talking about restoring America's beauty, I mean, what has
made America great. And it's interesting the timing of your
book in light of you know, Marxism and socialism, you know,
seems to be spreading and igniting across the country. And
it's like, whoa wait a minute here, you know, we're

(28:53):
really kind of jumping the shark here, and we're ignoring
some rich history and culture that truly has has made
America great, that started two hundred and fifty years ago.
So it's interesting right now that on the brink of
our our two hundred and fiftieth year anniversary, that our
US Constitution and all our values are being challenged right now.

Speaker 15 (29:16):
Well, I mean that's what the left is doing. I mean,
Marxism is certainly on the march in New York City.
We'll find out soon enough just how much they're embracing
Marxism to elect a Marxist mayor. But you're right, I mean,
the left is on the March, and we have to
be vigilant and fight every day for the greatness of
this country. The fact is the left doesn't like beauty.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
It hates beauty.

Speaker 15 (29:39):
And the Left has been at war with American greatness
and our history and our culture for well over half
a century. And I mean I work for the Freedom Center.
I worked for David Horowitz for over twenty three years,
and I've learned a lot from David. Of course, spent
first half his life as a committed Marxist and then
came to his census. In the second half his life.
He committed the redressing those sins and teaching us about

(30:02):
how dangerous the left is. The Left wants to destroy
our faith, our family, our culture, and our history. And
we have to fight back because they are never going
to relent. And You're right, they are on the March.
They wake up every day with these kind of passion
to create this new utopian heaven on earth. And to
create a heaven on earth, you have to destroy what
came before it. And then the self loathing of our

(30:24):
history and our culture is so destructive.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Bill.

Speaker 15 (30:28):
So that's what we need to fight and restore the
greatness of this country.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
Well, they want to delude you into thinking they're going
to create a heaven on earth. But when you look
historically at what they've done more it looks more like
hell than heaven.

Speaker 15 (30:43):
Well, hundreds of millions of people down hundreds, over one
hundred million people died in the twentieth century chasing those
because of those illusions, right, false illusions. So you're absolutely right.
It only leads to massive death and misery and depression.
I mean, it would would destroy this country, It could
destroy the world if we go down that path. But

(31:04):
like I said, over one hundred million people died sacrificed
on this altar of this utopia. We cannot let and
to think that it can happen here, I think would
be foolish. I mean, thank goodness, we have a majority
of the people. We have a faithful people. We believe
in this country, we believe in our liberty and freedom.
So we're going to fight it. But you know, they've

(31:25):
they've had some successes quote unquote, and they keep thinking, well,
we just didn't do it right. Stalin and Lennon didn't
do it right, Mau didn't do it right. Poule Pop
didn't do it right. Oh we can do it right here?
I mean, is that what the voters of New York
are thinking, that this guy's actually going to create this
wonderful utopia or is he going to drag New York down?
He's gonna make David Dinkins look like a George Washington exactly.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
Well, And the thing is, here's this young man who said,
you know, really no experience. You know, has he ever
run of business? Has he signed the you know, the
front of a paycheck? I don't see any history in that.
I mean, he you know. The thing that galls me.

(32:09):
I gotta tell you, Michael, is that here this kid
comes to America at the age of seven. He and
his parents, they are protected and covered and enjoy the
benefits of this country, and they flourish. And his way
of saying thank you is we want to deconstruct what
protected me for the last almost thirty years of my life.

Speaker 15 (32:32):
Right yeah, it's it's mind blow elon Omar. You could
the Congress congresspon in Minnesota the same thing and they go,
why did you come here? I mean, you want to
destroy what makes this country great, destroy the principles of
our founding. It's really frightening.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
You know.

Speaker 15 (32:47):
Look, I mean we could say, well, you know, woe
to be to New York. You know that you deserve
what you get. But the fact is New York is
the financial capital of the country, if not the financial
capital of the world. New York is important. Look, I mean,
we may suffer through this and wait for the next election,
but I think really tough times are coming for that
poor city and its citizens.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
Well, Michael, you're right. You know, New York like any
city Minnesota, they're all important. You can't surrender ground. This
is what is upset me about the Republican Party right now.
Is it that they're not fighting back in New York.
They've surrendered. They're not, you know, like it or not.
Kurtis Leewa has been. He's the standard bear for the

(33:29):
Republican Party, fighting against a corrupt governor, a young kid
who doesn't know what he's doing, offering all kinds of
free stuff. And I guess he hasn't even seen, you know,
the balance sheet of New York to realize they're out
of money. So where is this free stuff going to
come from?

Speaker 15 (33:47):
Well, yeah, you're going to run out of other people's money, right,
I mean, that's the really dangerous thing. And another thing that
David Horowitz kind of taught us is how seductive the
left vision is. Right, their ideology is incredibly we're going
to get rid of want and hunger and poverty and
racism and sexism. We're going to get rid of all
of that and everything will be perfect. Everyone will be equal, equally,

(34:10):
either dead or living in incredible poverty and misery, misery
the top right exactly, So you know, but it is,
it's very seductive. And people look, I mean, if we've
wanted to be God since the Garden Adam and Eve,
I mean, there's been this impulse to create this heaven
on Earth where we could replace God and become God.

(34:30):
And we're never going to eradicate that. It's going to
be here to the end of the time. So exactly, Unfortunately, Bill,
we're never going to be able to wake up and
say we won we defeated the Left. We're never we
can push back, but we're never going to defeat them.
Ronald Reagan said, we're gonna have to fight every generation. Well,
we're in that generation right now where we're fighting something
very serious and very dangerous.

Speaker 5 (34:50):
Well, it definitely is intensified because of the conditions that
were created, you know, for lots of reasons, you know
a lot of it. You know, democratic policies, Michael, they've
created this and uh so it has made New York unaffordable.
Uh it's it's caused a lot of pain. And so
these young kids all they know and of course that

(35:13):
younger generation, this younger generation has been coddled. They don't
know much about pain because God forbid, they have a booboo,
you know, because you know, the parents, the helicopter parents
that we were, you know, so protected them that we
didn't allow them to go out there and scrape their
kneecaps and uh and so here it is, all the
conditions are ripe. And that's what you see Historically, when

(35:36):
the conditions are ripe, it gives rise to Marxism and
all these other isms because they're promising relief from the pain.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Right exactly.

Speaker 15 (35:45):
But you know, the really tragedy, tragedy is that the
horrible things are going to happen in New York. I mean,
the deep policing. I mean, he hates the police, right,
I mean it's just so what's going to happen is
the people that vote for him don't live in those neighborhoods, right,
I mean, they're all up set that Trump calls in
the National Guard to Washington, d c. To kind of
police the people live in those neighborhoods. The polling is

(36:06):
like ninety percent pro Trump, right, so they need and
it is they don't want their kids being shot at
walking to school. So you know, But the people that
endorse this, these Marxists whatever wherever they call themselves, they
don't live in those neighborhoods, so they're not worried about it.
They just see this as some kind of vision and
it's going to eradicate all the horrible things of capitalism

(36:27):
and the American system. And how foolish. But again, how dangerous.
I mean, this really is dangerous. We're going down a
really scary path.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
When everything triggers you, it becomes it becomes a problem,
you know, And and sadly, and I'm sorry that they
get triggered so easily, whether it's the National Guard restoring
peace and law and order to a community that was
ninety five percent voted against Trump, now they're ninety five
percent saying thank you Trump. My kids, I can take

(36:57):
them to the park, I can my wife and I
can actually go out and have a date at a
restaurant and feel like, hey, we're going to get back
home safely and be with the kids. And Trump was
the difference. It wasn't maryel Bowser, it wasn't Chuck Schumer.

Speaker 15 (37:10):
Right right, Well, look, Trump's transformed the Republican Party. Frankly though,
he's transformed the entire country. He's transformed the citizens world exactly.
And the Demo, the far left, the radical left, is
represented by the potential new mayor of New York, Ma'm donnie.
They've taken over the Democrat Party. But what Trump has

(37:31):
done is created this new Republican Party, which is now
the middle American working Man's or working Americans Party, right,
I mean, that's the party of the working class. Hispanic Americans,
African American Americans are coming over in droves supporting Trump.
I mean, the votes increased tremendously last last year, and
it's going to tremendous. I mean, I don't know who

(37:53):
is going to be left in the Democrat Party to vote. So,
I mean, you know, I guess there's some silver lining
in this that the common sense and the basic goodness
and faithfulness of the American people understand this, and they
are coming to Donald Trump. And let's just hope that
what comes after Trump, the America First policies that take
care of the working man continue post Trump. That's really

(38:16):
going to be critical to kind of cement his legacy.
But the Democrat Party has just abandoned all common sense.
And I was never a Democrat, but you know, we
had some common sense Democrats back in the day. Some
and now I you know, scratch your head to find
one exactly.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
We're off to break and stay with us. We've got
more from Michael right after this. Stay with us.

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Speaker 5 (42:45):
We're back with your fourteen minutes before the top. They
are Bill Martinez here with Michael Finch's new book, A
Time to Stand the Dire Hour to defend America American beauty.
And I like that you mentioned beauty because beauty is
a natural, intrinsic thing that's in all our DNA. And
you can tell when somebody is is liberated and they

(43:09):
have a higher level of consciousness, and that is that
they can they can see beauty for what it is.
In fact, it was interesting here recently the left went
absolutely bonzos. When was it Sweeney came out with that
with the gene zad you know, she has good genes.
They went, they went, they could not see beauty, and

(43:32):
that's quite telling. So it's interesting that you use American
beauty because you know, people that are fair minded and liberated,
they see beauty in everything. They acknowledge it. It's easy
for them to do it. The left, if they acknowledge it,
it's like they've surrendered their brains or something, or their
political stance. It's hysterical.

Speaker 15 (43:53):
Yeah, I mean the left hates beauty. I mean that's
been written, and it's interesting. You know, Theodor Dostoevsky, the
famous Russian novelists, said that beauty will save the world. Now,
he didn't really explain exactly, but I'll take that. I'll
take him for his word for it, just on that basis. Look,
beauty and art, beauty and culture, beauty and everything is
really our kind of effort to try to kind of

(44:16):
reach the heavens and reach God.

Speaker 5 (44:17):
We can that we're going to fail, or you said that,
We're exactly right.

Speaker 15 (44:20):
But that's the effort and that's why the left hates it.
They hate I mean architecture, art. I mean to put
the across in a vat of urine and say this
is art. I mean, sorry, art is not in the
eye of the Beauty is not in the eye of
the beholder. I mean there's beautiful art and then there's
really ugly art. That's that's a fact.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Right.

Speaker 15 (44:38):
So you know when Bach wrote music, not an American
but still one of the great, obviously the great musician
of all time. Every single piece he wrote, he said
he did an honor and worship of God. It was
for God. He was trying to reach something. And the
great paintings, the great literature, the great everything, anything, anything
that represents our culture is a way to to reach

(45:00):
the heavens. And it's I mean, look, I'm a Christian.
You can be Jewish, but the Greeks and Romans were
neither Jewish nor Christian, right the original classical Greek and
classical Roman civilizations. But when they built those incredible buildings
that are still many, of course still exist in some
form today, they were trying to reach to something higher.
Even they understood. It may not have been the Christian God,

(45:23):
but they were reaching to their God. And that's true
all over the world. So this idea, once you take
God out of the equation, then beauty doesn't exist to
me either. There is no beauty. And when you lose beauty,
you've lost You've lost everything. And America has such an
incredibly rich and beautiful culture, which unfortunately, again the left
has attacked education. America is a stained, sexist, racist, imperialistic,

(45:47):
environmental destroying it's you know, we're supposed to be we
self loathed over our own history in our schools, which
is really tragic, and they attacked then the culture is
not even taught. We have this Howard's version of American
history that is running rampant in our public schools, and
we have to fight that and restore the greatness of
our history and culture.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
Well, you consider the beautiful aspects of our history, Michael,
and I would dare to say that that was probably
at times when we were closer to God.

Speaker 15 (46:19):
Oh, there's no question. And the only thing the more
I reflect on the spill, and I don't know, you know,
but I have a feeling that we're we could be
approaching another great awakening. I just I think there's a rise.
Americans are thirsting. You know, when you put them down,
you put down our history, you put down, you know,
our faith, then there's going to be a kind of
a blowback to that. And the blowback is, no, We're

(46:41):
proud of our country, we're proud of our history, and
we're proud of our faith, and we are going to
restore that. So I sense, you know, you saw with
the work that Charlie Kirk did exactly what to say,
gradually take taken away from us, but you know, he
was reaching students, young people, and a lot of it
was really about this conservative principles and capitalism and so forth.

(47:03):
Much of it, increasingly so, especially toward the end, was
about faith is Christian faith, and people are thirsting for this.
And I think there's a kind of an overwhelming response
to that. Again, whether or not they're being awakening next week,
next year, in the next ten years, I don't know.
We don't know, but you can see the signs that
Americans are thirsting for that kind of to be closer

(47:25):
to God, for the country to be closer, no question.

Speaker 5 (47:28):
Well, that's where the answers lie, Michael. They don't lie
on this plane. The answers are in heaven, and that's
why we need to seek God. Charles Finney says, a
revival happens when it's most needed. And I think what
you're seeing and discerning, I'm seeing the same thing that
America is in need of another awakening. And I've seen

(47:51):
what I call bonfires, a revival being ignited, you know,
around the country, and it's just waiting for some sort
of ignition that you know, kind of couples them in
such a way where it really really takes off. Now
when we say that too, Michael, it's not like it's
going to get you know, you're going to be a
thousand percent that's never going to happen. You know, you're

(48:12):
always going to have still, as the Bible talks about
in terms of wheats and terrs, you're gonna have the
wheat growing alongside the terrors. And so just like in
any other revival back in the seventies, you know, we
saw what happened there. You had, you know, the Jesus movement,
and then you had all the hippies and Woodstock and
all the wacky crazy stuff going on. It was a
parallel universe that was happening, and the people that sought

(48:35):
Jesus and turned to Jesus different, different outcome than those
that you know, aligned with everything that happened in Woodstock
for example.

Speaker 15 (48:46):
Well, I think, you know, a great awakening, it doesn't
even have to be the majority. It can be even
a minority that has moved in that way. I mean,
look the Declaration of Independence, the founding of this country.
The we didn't have a major, there was not all
gone of the colonists that many of them were either
indifferent or they were loyal to the crown. But we

(49:08):
moved the world because we had a core, a minority
corps that was faithful and dedicated to these principles of liberty.
So I'll take an awakening movement that reconnects us with
Jesus that can move this country and save this country. Again,
it doesn't have to be seventy percent. So we're moving
in that direction possibly, but you kind of like seeing

(49:32):
the signs. You like seeing that there's going to be
this kind of thirst to come together with God again.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
And look, look what liberty has provided for us, Michael,
historically in the two hundred and fifty years. I mean,
how this country has flourished because of that, because of freedom.
And freedom is God given, it's not given to us
by a government. And this is why America is such
a magnet because people instinctively are drawn where liberty resides.

(50:00):
And yes, you know there's been some impingement on liberty.
But again, as you say, we need to re embrace
and renew our thinking in such a way to where
we can be like our founding fathers to say, you know,
give me liberty or give me death.

Speaker 15 (50:15):
Well, absolutely, and liberty is and freedom will not exist
without virtue. So you know, a virtuous people citizenship, citizenry
is really critical otherwise you know that we're going to
lose the liberty. So the two go hand in hand,
they always have. America was founded by Christians, you know,
along the Judeo Christian ethic. Okay, that is indisputable. Again,

(50:37):
the left hates that as well. So we need that,
we need the virtue and order, virtuous citizens in order
to kind of hold on to this liberty because again
we're in a battle every day and there are many
that are attacking. It's a minority, but it's a very
strong minority, and they're driven. This is their religion. It's
another thing David taught us that it's not like they
can call themselves atheists or they don't believe. They have

(50:59):
a really religion, and that reception is this ideology to
create this heaven on earth. And if you're driven by that,
then you're gonna stop and anything that stands in your
way and that build that you and me and millions
of others are gonna have to be pushed out of
the way, either that they're going to want to re
educate us or push us out of the way. And
that's how you get the millions of dead. So that's
how serious this is. And look, we're you know, we

(51:22):
still have very strong country. We have a leader and
President Trump who believes very strongly and all the things
that we're talking about. So look, we're in a good position.
We're in a strong position, but there are a lot
of danger signs and if we slip, if we if
we let down our guard again, it won't take a generation.
We'll lose all of this.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
Yeah. What certifies our position all the more, I'm convinced, Michael,
is that we hold to the truth, okay, and truth
comes from God. And that's that's what we're anchored in. Uh,
and that's what's going to sustain us. I mean it's
interesting right now when you look at the nearest ass
of Donald Trump, you can talk about the assassination of

(52:04):
Charlie Kirk, talk about the disassemblage of the mainstream media.
I mean, it's a shell of itself right now, podcasters,
you know, exploding. You know, I still maintain Elon Musk
is my hero for nothing else, because he opened up
the gates of our first Amendment, two first speech, in

(52:28):
purchasing in purchasing Twitter. I mean, he really opened that
gate again, and we're grateful, you know. So when you
look at the alignment of these events where we are
right now, if they didn't happen, we'd really be in trouble.

Speaker 15 (52:44):
Well yeah, I mean, they took over quote unquote mainstream media.
But at this point who cares. Nobody's watching, nobody's listening
to mainstream media. The explosion of what you're doing, Bill,
the podcasters, talk radio, on and on the Internet. And
you're right, there are great champions of speech. I mean
some of them, even coming out of Silicon Valleys. Even
that the movement that there's this kind of slow change

(53:06):
in Silicon Valley and the tech world that I'm not
saying they're embracing the First Amendment, but there's movement there.
And I want to just you mentioned something about truth,
which is so important. That's why I stay optimistic, is
because we have truth on our side. And I'll bring
up another Russian writer souls in each and said live
not by lies. Well, the Left lives by a lie.

(53:27):
It is a lie. The idea that they can create
this heaven on earth that will make everything perfect and
wonderful is a lie. They know it's a lie. So
they're in pursuit of a lie. We cannot live by that.
We can live by the truth. We have truth in
God on our side. So that's again that if you
want some reassurance that all is not lost, we need

(53:48):
to hold on to That doesn't mean we don't have
to fight, but we do have truth on our side.

Speaker 5 (53:52):
Amen. His book time to stand the dire hour, and
it is a dire hour to defend American beauty. Michael,
this is a blessing, you know what you have given
to us. And thank you for your efforts to put
this out there to uh, you know, plant a flag
you know on truth and liberty for the sake of

(54:13):
all Americans. And then what we're realizing it's more than America.
I mean, our consequence and our impact universally extends. I mean,
and this is why I believe that God has blessed
us in the manner in which he has.

Speaker 15 (54:26):
Yeah, the last best hope. I really believe that. So
we lose America and I think liberty is lost. So
we have to keep this experiment going. The exceptional aspirational
culture in our history has to be restored. It's make
America great in every aspect. So, you know, God bless
everything that you were doing.

Speaker 9 (54:45):
Bill.

Speaker 15 (54:46):
I mean, we you know, we were in a battle
and we're going to We're going to win this battle.

Speaker 5 (54:50):
You got it. Michael Finch, thank you, Thank you so
much for being with his Take care we Bill talk soon.

Speaker 15 (54:54):
Thank you?

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Speaker 2 (56:02):
Getting America back on track.

Speaker 6 (56:04):
Bill Martinez livey.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
Six minutes after the top of the hour. Right now,
Bill Martinez here with Scott Powell, Scott Is, the senior
Fellow at Discovering Institute, got to talk about his book,
Rediscovering America. Well, I'll say it is powerful, a great
holiday gift, a stocking stuffer that will be the gift
that will keep on giving for anybody that reads this book.
It reminds us of the exceptionalism of our country. It's

(56:28):
not exceptional just because we say so. It's exceptional because
of the history and the facts, Right, Scott, that sounds
a great.

Speaker 20 (56:37):
Bill Well said, well, you know, well be my agent.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
Yeah, you can't help but be proud of this great
country of ours. And you know we stand on the
shoulders of giants, and we're so blessed that. You know,
from the pilgrims that came to the New World to
escape Christian persecution, religious persecution, they begged God, God, please

(57:06):
give us a place where we could worship You and
be able to freely exercise our faith. And God answered
their prayer, their prayer and fasting for twelve years.

Speaker 20 (57:17):
Scott, I know, it's quite remarkable, quite remarkable. So knowing
that about our history should give us a lot of hope.
But the substance of our hope really has to come
you know from repentance. You know, the Israelites lost God's
blessing at various times. We all are familiar with the

(57:39):
Babylonian captivity where they were literally cast out of Jerusalem
in Israel, and you know their city was destroyed, their
walls were destroyed, and they had to go into captivity. Well,
I would say that we have been in captivity just
about seventy years Americans. It's now twenty twenty five. Seventy

(58:03):
years back would be nineteen fifty five. Well, it was
right around that time, in early nineteen sixty that we
really began to take steps and do so through the
Supreme Court rulings, even to drive God out of our culture.
And as we've driven God out of our culture, we
see the results and we see the wisdom and the

(58:24):
truth of our Several of our founders, notably the first
and second Presidents, George Washington and John Adams, who commented
that our constitutional republic was suited only for a religious
and moral people. Exactly, the system would not work, The
freedoms that were given through a constitutional republic would not

(58:46):
work unless people recognize that they know that there was
a higher order, that there was God's order, exactly, and
so that's where we are, and I think we are
at a turning point. I think there is a spiritual
awakening going on. We could see what happened in the
aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination. He became a martyr, and

(59:09):
martyrdom led to a Christian revival. Well, you know, let's
hope that that has legs and continues and continues to grow,
because it's really our only hope is that we that
our culture could you know, could again restore to its
rightful place, the role of religion in our country, in

(59:31):
the culture. Not the government has no authority to tell
us what to believe. It it has it has the
responsibility to protect our rights to practice our religion as
we see fit. Religious freedom is a First Amendment right.
So that's the role of government. Protect free speech. It's
not doing a very it's not been doing a good
job of protecting free speech. It's not been doing a

(59:53):
good job of protecting the First Amendment. I mean, people
have been arrested for praying outside abortion clinics.

Speaker 5 (59:59):
That's their of course, it is exactly exactly. Well, you know,
you said so much there, and there's lots to unpack.
First of all, I want to start out with hope. Yes,
hope is the initial week of the advent season, and
what it should cause you to stop and have, Like
the Bible talks of you know, sala moment s e

(01:00:20):
l at h that we need to pause and really
think about what it means to hope and who you
hope in. Like, for example, you know, people were hoping
in the government until they government shut down for forty
three days, and so how did that hope work out
for you? They've been hoping in Obamacare and Obamacare has
been on life support for the last ten years plus

(01:00:43):
and it's failed, and so what does that do? So
your hope needs to be anchored on something and someone
that is sustainable, someone who is the same yesterday, today
and forever and the only person and being that I
know that fits that is God o himself. Is that
fair to say?

Speaker 20 (01:01:02):
That is very fair to say, that's very accurate.

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
Yes, all right, So, so hope is the issue and
the deal is you talk about, you know, seventy years
being in judgment. The thing is is I would say
that if the people understood we were in judgment, the
children of Israel understood, they were in judgment because everything,
their walls came down, they were kicked out of their country,
their religious system was all violated and desecrated. You know,

(01:01:29):
you know, their neighbors were making fun of them. They
were coming in and raping and pillaging, you know, their
once holy land. It was obvious that they were in
big trouble and they were feeling the consequences. Here in America,
we're kind of like that frog in boiling water. We're
getting cooked ever so gently, and we're in judgment, but

(01:01:50):
we don't even understand, we don't even see. If you
don't appreciate that you're in judgment, you're not going to
change your evil ways. Scott and I think this is
the casualness that America has towards. If you want to
say this is God's judgment. You know, things happen, you
know Rob Reiner's murder, Charlie Kirk's murder nine to eleven,

(01:02:12):
And it happens, and it goes, and it's just like
a news cycle. It comes and goes. Nobody sees it
as and I say nobody, by and large the culture
is not seeing it as maybe is God lifting his
hand of protection and love that was once upon this
country that we said that you know that we would
saying God bless America to well.

Speaker 20 (01:02:33):
I do think that in driving God out of our culture,
it changes the spiritual atmosphere, if you will, gone. When
we have a heavenly spiritual atmosphere, godly, godly spirit's protecting us,
if you will, and they're driven out, it leads a vacuum.
And what we've seen is really the you know, the

(01:02:56):
growth of demonic evil spiritual forces. I mean, it's obvious
that so many of us, I mean, because you can't
explain the level of evil now in any other way.
It's not explainable rationally. And so if it's not explainable rationally,
it must be because it's a powerful spiritual force that

(01:03:18):
is dividing us, that has brought us to incivility in
our cities, that has caused former generals to act treasonously
against the President of the United States, recommending that military
troops and government officials not obeyed laws that come down
from the president. And these laws that they're encouraged to

(01:03:38):
disobey are simply laws to protect the American citizens, right exactly.
That's the primary role of government.

Speaker 5 (01:03:46):
Yeah, it's called law and order really simple, right, yeah.
And the thing is, like you said, is the chaos
that has ensued since this country has turned its back
on God. You think, okay, can you start to connect
the dots here? I mean, look at where we are
right now. We've got eighty ninety different gender choices. Now

(01:04:06):
we've got people talking about that your birth you know,
you know your birth, your gender is assigned at birth.
Oh really, I mean it's just endless the kind of
chaos and the craziness that's happening in our country. You know,
let's go ahead and let's have gender diffusion or delusion.

(01:04:28):
And so let's go ahead and start removing you know,
body parts in order to you know, somehow satisfy this confusion.
And meanwhile, the science and the proof is out saying
it doesn't work. You know, that doesn't happen. In fact,
all you've done is taken a segment of society and

(01:04:48):
decided to exacerbate a suicide rate.

Speaker 20 (01:04:51):
Right, that's absolutely right, Bill, And so I think we
get back to you know, we get back to the
truth of exactly of God's creation.

Speaker 5 (01:05:01):
I mean most okay, Buck, I want you to hold
on that, because we're gonna come back we got to
go to break. We've got more from Scott after this.

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Speaker 5 (01:09:43):
And we're back with you right now, just about nineteen
minutes after the top of day. I'm mere Christmas to you.
By the way, good to happy with us. I'm Bill
Martinez's Scott Powell, Senior Fellow Discovery Institute, the author of
Rediscovering America. Check it out. He's also a member on
the Committee on This Present Danger. And as I mentioned,
a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, Scott, you said
something at the end there that the end of that

(01:10:05):
first segment is so key. All this anchors in the truth? Yes, right,
I mean if we're not anchored in the truth. And
oh yeah, by the way, where does the truth come from?
Where does the undeniable truth come from? Scott Powell?

Speaker 20 (01:10:20):
Well, it comes from one book and it's called the Bible.

Speaker 5 (01:10:23):
Yes, But who's the Who's the But? But it is
God himself.

Speaker 20 (01:10:26):
God himself reveals him through the through the Bible. We
know God's principles and his truths. And the Bible, by
the way, is more verifiable as an ancient document. The
Bible of course has stories going back to Genesis to
Moses' writings, you know, ancient writings when they didn't even

(01:10:48):
have a paper, they maybe had papyrus through it. But
how is it that we can be sure that the
Bible is is is true and more reliable than any
other ancient written document. Well, there's three things. When we
speak of the New Testament, we have the accounts of

(01:11:09):
Jesus written down by eyewitness accounts within a generation of
Jesus coming exactly, and then we have surviving documents the
other So you have, first of all, how many eyewitness
accounts are there and how quickly was it recorded in writing,
so we can trust it because in the early days,

(01:11:31):
you know, all history was oral, and as it's oral,
it can be changed easily over time. So and then thirdly,
it's when we're talking about ancient history and the veracity
of ancient history, how many how many original manuscripts if
you will, or documents have been recovered that verify this truth.

(01:11:58):
You know, we could say, if we compare Jesus to
ancient figures like Homer's Eliad that has more historic record
than any other famous writer, but it is dwarfed by

(01:12:19):
the surviving documents that have been put together that support
the Bible Old Testament. You know, there's twenty five thousand
original you know, original documents if you will, and they're
not all you know, they're over time. You know, these
these documents were they were recorded in different ways and

(01:12:40):
they broke up into pieces, and so they have to
be put together that all happened in Christian history. And
so we find that the Bible is the most reliable
document of ancient history that we know of.

Speaker 5 (01:12:56):
Well, when you consider, like you focused on the New
Testament first, there's a plethora of documentation, as you said,
and things that we're finding out and you know, and antiquity,
you know, things that come up all of a sudden,
God says, okay, check this cave out, and you start
pulling out you know, original manuscripts and Dead Sea scrolls

(01:13:16):
and things like that is just incredible. But the other thing, though,
when you look back, like you said, the documentation of
you a scripture early on, it relied a lot on
oral tradition. Yes, but you look at that and how
consistent was that oral tradition that was passed on over

(01:13:37):
thousands of years Scott. And then when you look at
it and you compare it, whether you look at it scientifically, sociologically, theologically, Wow,
it is consistent. And if you cannot see the hand
of God who has preserved this for us, you know,
for our well being. You know, it's like it's been

(01:13:58):
said many times that it's God's love letter to his creation.
And God has preserved that love letter to us not
to harm us, but to give us a future and
hope again. There's that hope again, so that we know
that we're just not here, you know in this uh,
you know great expanse of universe, waiting for another big

(01:14:20):
bang to happen, right.

Speaker 20 (01:14:22):
Of course, right, No, it's about it's about, you know,
our eternal life really and and through Jesus Christ, we
have assurance that we have an eternal life living in
the heavenly realm. And that is something that I think
everybody should desire, you know, the the to be unsure

(01:14:45):
of that. You can get that cleared up very easily.
And it's Christmas season and I would encourage people to
you know, to attend church reflect on the significance of
the birth of Jesus and his his his death and resurrection,
and what he gave to us is a path to God.
Unlike any other religious course, all other religions rely on works.

(01:15:10):
You have to be you have to perform certain rituals
and certain certain uh you know, traditions and dietary things,
and so with Jewish people and others. Right, it's all
about works. But the reality is that that we're never
good enough. We are sinful people, and we fall short.

(01:15:31):
God's solution to all of that was to take his
only son, his precious son, Jesus Christ, and to offer
him as a sacrifice, standing in our place as sinners.
It is us who should should be, you know, punished
for our sin. But Jesus stood in our place took

(01:15:53):
the punishment, a horrible punishment, you know, a beating that
all was killed him before he was put up and
nailed to the cross. But he gave his life in
order to give us life. All we need to do
is acknowledge who he is, who he was, and who
he is, because resurrection means that he lives, He lives spiritually,

(01:16:17):
he's alive. He can be alive in our life, to
acknowledge that bring him into our life and continue to
walk with him through prayer and reading, you know, reading
the Bible. There's no substitute for it. Even if you
can only spend ten minutes a day, it's the most
important ten minutes you'll ever spend.

Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
Right exactly each Well. Well, the thing is is that,
as you say, Scott, a lot of these religions because
they focus on works short you know, kind of short
circuits the process. Yeah, because the process really starts with faith.
You've got to have faith first of all. It's something
that wakes you up at three o'clock in the morning
and says, hey, you need to know you need to

(01:17:00):
know the Son of God. You need to know about
this Jesus guy. This is why so many Muslims, you know,
we were talking about the other day, a lot of
conversions happening in the Muslim world. People are dreaming, They
dream dreams. God uses dreams to speak to them, and
that seed of faith is deposited into their spirit and
and and it's it's counterintuitive, especially when you're used to

(01:17:23):
working thinking. You got to work your way into heaven.
You know, you start building, you know, towers of babel
all over again. You're gonna you're gonna do it on
your own, you know, build your own babble, your own
tower to heaven.

Speaker 9 (01:17:33):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
And and that short circus the process. So, first of
all starts with faith. Faith is what what caused Peter.
When Jesus asked them, who do they say? I am?
Peter said boldly, you know you're Jesus, You're you're You're
the Messiah. And Jesus said, hey, you you only know
that because the Father told you. That is the seed

(01:17:54):
of faith that was planted in Peter, that was demonstrated.
And then Jesus said, hey, because you told me who
I am, I'm gonna tell you who you are. And
it went to you know, pronounce his purpose to him
shortly after that. So it starts with faith. What happens
after faith is it blossoms into belief. You begin to
believe it, and you say and and then people say, well, Scott,

(01:18:17):
you know, why why do you believe that? And you're
still working through it, and you go, I just I
just believe it. I'm not you know, I'm really not sure,
but it's just something I believe. It sets in my
heart and my spirit. I know it to be to
be true, and then what happens when you believe, Then
you begin to gain understanding. And when you gain understanding,
as Augustine says, it's irrefutable. And now the seed of

(01:18:43):
faith that God planted, that began to blossom into into
belief and now understanding is just a gorgeous offering and bouquet,
you know, to the Father to say thank you Lord.

Speaker 20 (01:18:57):
Yes, isn't it? Isn't It's significant that Christmas is celebrated
in many non Christian countries. I mean, Japan is a
good example that that really turned down Christianity, and yet
Christmas is one of their biggest holidays. Why it's the
power of Jesus Christ.

Speaker 5 (01:19:19):
You've got even Jews, Jews singing Christmas carols. I love that, Yes, exactly,
dear boy.

Speaker 9 (01:19:25):
So.

Speaker 20 (01:19:26):
And time is broken into before Christ and after Christ
for all nations of the world that have no connection
to Judaism or Christianity, but they nonetheless have accepted that
it's either before Christ or after Christ. And then you
have the fact that you know, there's no other there's

(01:19:47):
no other person that was prophesied so many times ahead
of time. Even there's very few people that were prophesied
that they would come at a later time. Exactly eighteen
prophets prophecies in the Bible, tracing all the way back
to David, a thousand years before Christ. And what was

(01:20:10):
his prophecy? He actually described the horrible punishment of crucifixion
before crucifixion even existed anywhere.

Speaker 5 (01:20:22):
Exactly.

Speaker 20 (01:20:22):
So, how is that all possible? How is it possible
that that, you know, Christ was prophesied to, you know,
to be born in Bethlehem.

Speaker 5 (01:20:31):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 20 (01:20:33):
It's actually named the town of Bethlam is named as
the place that the Messiah would come. Yeah, one hundreds five,
six hundred years before Christ was born.

Speaker 5 (01:20:44):
Yeah, And you could keep going down and Bedlam is
known as is the bread basket, and here it is
the Bread of life is born. That's right there, right
in the city of Bread, Bethlehem. Hundreds of Old Testament prophecies,
with estimates typically ranging from three hundred to four hundred
prophecies fulfilled by one man, that's right, one god man,

(01:21:09):
Jesus Christ himself. And we pray that this would be
a season of special joy and revelation for you, for
those of you who are being woken up in the
middle of the night, and the seed of faith is
being deposited into you. May it come and be realized
to its fruition as purpose by God Almighty himself, because

(01:21:33):
that seed was not dropped into your spirit by accident,
was it.

Speaker 13 (01:21:36):
Scott.

Speaker 20 (01:21:37):
That's right. You're here listening to Bill Martinez and Scott
Powell because you were destined to be here at this time.
And so there are people out there listening now that
can make this, you know, make this commitment which will
give you assurance of eternal life and really help you
in every aspect of the remaining years that you have

(01:21:59):
to live.

Speaker 5 (01:22:00):
And make this a very Mary, Mary, Mary, Christmas, Mary
Christmas for you and your family. He's a senior fellow
at Discovery Institute, author of the book Rediscovering America, available
at Amazon. Get it if you haven't already, and share it,
and oh, you know, might as well get two or
three because that's a good way to share it as well.
Scott Palell, Thank you, Scott, Take care, God bless you.

Speaker 20 (01:22:20):
Mery Christmas, Merry Christmas to you.

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Speaker 5 (01:26:29):
Hey, good morning, welcome back. Great to have you with
us sharing a part of your day. For more info
on the show, Bill Martinez Live dot com. Mary Andro
She's going to join us in just a moment. She's
a financial expert at Bank of America and she's got
a lot of great holiday chips for us to make
the most of your budget for a shifting holiday season. Maryanne,
Welcome to show, Marianne. I want to call you Mary Anne,

(01:26:50):
but it's Mary Hines. Thank you for being with us, appreciate.

Speaker 17 (01:26:54):
It, Thanks for having me well.

Speaker 5 (01:26:58):
As Americans are dealing with the holidays, you know some
strategy holiday strategy should come into play, and you know
we've got you here to help us navigate some of
these headwinds.

Speaker 17 (01:27:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:27:13):
Absolutely, many consumers are very concerned about continued inflation and
pending tariffs, So got to make the most of your
holiday budget this year. And definitely things like discount stores
can really help offset those costs. And in our survey,
eighty seven percent of Americans plan on shopping at discount
stores as holiday season.

Speaker 5 (01:27:35):
Well, we've got some good signs already. It seems that
the American people are still fairly optimistic. I mean, Black
Friday look pretty good. Cyber Monday also came in with
some strong numbers. So it's good that people still have
this hope and positive attitude in some regards for the economy.
But we just need to be smart.

Speaker 21 (01:27:57):
About it, right, Yeah, absolute we saw three percent increase
and spend in the month of November in the retail category,
which is really strong. It's just indicative that while things
are more expensive and there's uncertainty, people are having to
make choices, but they're doing it in a really responsible way.

(01:28:18):
So that's where things like secondhand stores warehouse stores can
really help. And when we look at our data, we're
seeing a ten percent increase and lower ticket items and
a two percent decline and high ticket items like furniture
and luxury goods.

Speaker 5 (01:28:35):
Mary Hines, can you elaborate a little bit more on
these trends that you just referred to that are you
know that are there and that are you know, having
an impact on holiday spending.

Speaker 21 (01:28:48):
Yeah, well, definitely in the discount stores space, we're seeing
a huge increase year over year and second hand store
so thrift shops, things like the Real Real, which is
indicative not only people wanting to make their money go further,
but just showing that younger generations are shopping differently than
in the past and it's perfectly okay to buy a

(01:29:08):
used item. Also seeing a lot of people use AI
in order to come up with gift ideas as well
as find the best price for those gifts.

Speaker 17 (01:29:18):
Fifty one percent of the people that.

Speaker 21 (01:29:19):
We surveyed indicated they'd be using AI this holiday season.
And when you look at the younger generations, seventy one
percent plan on using AI to make the most of
their holiday purchases.

Speaker 5 (01:29:31):
Well, I think it's interesting that you bring up, you know,
the character buying habits of you know, the younger generation, Uh,
because they are coming in with a lot of force
and power you know, for our economy, aren't they.

Speaker 17 (01:29:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 21 (01:29:47):
Absolutely, But you're also seeing the impact social media is
having on the purchase decisions of these younger generations. So
I mentioned Dukes that's when you get something that is
similar in quality and design as a higher priced branded item,
and they're often duke videos on TikTok that then go
viral and people would rather have the dupe, which is

(01:30:08):
at a lower price than the more expensive item, which
is very much in contrast to older generations.

Speaker 5 (01:30:14):
Right exactly. And it's interesting that that has become a factor.
You know, I'm watching in the background and seeing ice
skaters in the background, and reminds us that, you know,
every year, for many years, we would go to New York,
and New York was famous for dupes on every corner, right.

Speaker 17 (01:30:34):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and these are.

Speaker 21 (01:30:37):
Necessarily knockoffs where it looks like the branded item, exactly,
but it's more of a similar item at a much
lower cost. That's really taking off now. Certainly people are
still getting the full knockoffs. I see people on the
corner every day on my way to the subway, exactly, right.

Speaker 5 (01:30:55):
Yeah. But still the bottom line is even the younger
generation still appreciates value. Value is still there, right.

Speaker 20 (01:31:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:31:03):
And I not only appreciate value, they wear it with
a badge of honor, like it's cool, I got this,
this is vintage. I got it at a second hand
store versus being embarrassed about that. So it's definitely a
different mindset on let's make the most of the money
that we have and make.

Speaker 17 (01:31:19):
It go further.

Speaker 21 (01:31:20):
Because while we are sitting strong spend growth year over
a year, things are more expensive and that's why those
trade offs are important for you to still get everyone
on your list the right gift.

Speaker 5 (01:31:33):
Well exactly because you know, the reality is is we're
still having to navigate around some of these headwinds. You know,
inflation is still there, some of the things that we expected.
You know, we're told now by the economists that we
may have to wait until the second quarter. But you know,
there's some I think there's some positive signs here that
are giving people hope for this holiday season, don't you think.

Speaker 17 (01:31:57):
Oh absolutely.

Speaker 21 (01:31:58):
I mean when you think of the things that are
more expensive, it's kind of the necessities utilities, property taxes, insurance,
and so that leaves them less money for holiday spending,
but they're using that money really wisely going to warehouse stores.
But they can buy and bulk and get things at
a lower cost for things like shopping stuffers and food

(01:32:22):
for holiday dinners and things. And then you know, when
they get to the retail purchases, those other discount big
box retailer stores like Target, Walmart, and Amazon just continue
to grow on popularity exactly.

Speaker 5 (01:32:36):
We're talking to Mary Heinz Drokes. She's the head of
Consumer Small Business Products and Analytics at Bank of America.
She oversees strategy and management for a wide range of
lending and deposit products, along with consumer investments and the
Preferred Rewards program. Mary Hines, you know, I was just
reading the other day that it looks like there's to

(01:33:00):
be a lot of money coming back by way of
our income tax And do you think that some of
the consumers are looking at that positive report and saying, Okay,
maybe I can spend a little bit more this holiday
season because my income tax return is going to be
a lot higher because the government's talking billions of dollars

(01:33:21):
being distributed.

Speaker 17 (01:33:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (01:33:24):
Well, certainly for lower income Americans, they're likely to get
more in their tax refunds as no tax on tips.
If you bought an Arta alone, you're getting a rebate
there and that'll come in in February. So maybe that's
propelling some of the spend left. But also what is
most important in any economy is employment. And Americans are

(01:33:45):
still employed. They're still seeing wage growth. It's moderated this year,
but it's still higher year over year, and I think
that's creating the optimism we see with consumers. It'll be
interesting to see what kind of purchasing we see once
those tax refunds to come in, starting, you know, as
early as February.

Speaker 5 (01:34:03):
Well, I'll take a little bit of hope for you know,
right now, and I think most people are feeling the
same way.

Speaker 21 (01:34:09):
Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, I mean, the consumer is resilient.
We have retail spend growth year every year. That's an
incredibly good sign for the economy.

Speaker 5 (01:34:19):
Well, let's talk about some other smart ways to manage
our spending this holiday season.

Speaker 21 (01:34:26):
Well, it's really important that you create a list for
all of your holiday purchases, the gifts for people, how
much do you want to spend, all the other things
you do for the holidays, wrapping paper, scotch tape, and
then stick to that budget. It's really easy, especial FLEA
with things like social media and retargeting, to get lured
into making purchases you didn't attend.

Speaker 17 (01:34:48):
And that's where when you're making your purchases.

Speaker 21 (01:34:50):
Using the secondhand stores warehouse stores can really help you
stick to that.

Speaker 5 (01:34:55):
List right exactly as you say, you know, it's the
season you know, for buying and selling and giving and
receiving in that, and I get that, and you can
get caught up in it, and then next thing you know,
you've blown past your budget. So hey, but it's also
a season to enjoy and say, hey, look at it,
I'm done, all the gifts are wrapped. Let's enjoy family time. Right.

Speaker 21 (01:35:19):
Oh absolutely, I mean it is the best season of
the year, and so you want to make sure that
you do it in a responsible way so you can
truly enjoy it and not feel financial stress.

Speaker 5 (01:35:29):
Well, let's talk about credit card rewards. We haven't touched
on that. H We've got some good news there. Tell
us what consumers can do to make the most of
credit card rewards.

Speaker 17 (01:35:39):
Yeah, I mean credit card.

Speaker 21 (01:35:41):
When you're making your holiday purchase, using a credit card
that comes with rewards is a great way to extend
your purchasing power. You can either use those rewards to
buy additional gifts or use them to help offset your
bill when it comes in in January. I always use
my customized past rewards from Bank of America, where new

(01:36:01):
clients get six percent back in the category of their choice.
I choose online spending because that's where I do all
of my holiday spending and it's just a great way
for me to use that cash back I earn to
pay down my bill in January.

Speaker 5 (01:36:17):
Well, as we wrap things up, Marines, where can consumers
go for more information and also what can consumers do
to get ahead of their twenty twenty six financial resolutions.

Speaker 21 (01:36:31):
Well, you can always go to Bankoamerica dot com for
more information and on we also have a site better
Money Habits dot com and it can really help you
with budgeting tips. And one of the ones that we
most highly recommend as you go into the new year
is establish your budget for the year. Allocate fifty percent
of your income to those the things that you have

(01:36:54):
to pay for insurance, rent, gas, groceries, thirty percent to
the thing that you enjoy doing going out to eat, traveling, shopping,
and then twenty percent goes into savings.

Speaker 17 (01:37:06):
And if you can stick.

Speaker 21 (01:37:07):
To that for the entire year of twenty twenty six,
you're going to be in great financial health.

Speaker 5 (01:37:13):
Well that's some great advice. Thank you so much. Mary
Hines Drugge She's the head of Consumer in Small Business
Products and Analytics at Bank of America. Thank you, Mary Heines,
Take care.

Speaker 17 (01:37:23):
Thanks Bell, Take care.

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Speaker 5 (01:41:29):
Good morning, welcome back, Good to have you with us.
Bill Martinez here, and Elon Bento is with us. He's
the writer and co director of this new documentary, The
True Cost of Defense. Elon, welcome to the show. Good
to have you with us.

Speaker 1 (01:41:43):
Thanks very much.

Speaker 9 (01:41:43):
Bill.

Speaker 5 (01:41:44):
Well, you're the writer co director of the True Cost
of Defense. It's an our documentary. As I mentioned, it
peels back layers of the US defense budget, revealing its deep,
deepest cost, the human one. What brought this, Elon to
your attention? To you and your production partner, Kit Berry, sure.

Speaker 1 (01:42:06):
You know, like many people, Kip and I have looked
at these pie charts of the defense budgets, but in
all these different slices, each with different categories, and we
were curious what really went into those categories. That's sort
of what sparked it. And then we expanded our focus
beyond what is strictly the defense budget out into things

(01:42:28):
that are peripheral to the defense budget but are closely
bound with our military, things like the veteran affairs budget,
money that is donated to charitable organizations and support of
veterans and military families, things like that, and you see
that the total cost goes up quite a bit. And

(01:42:51):
from there we just wanted to dig into what is
being spent on what and why.

Speaker 5 (01:42:56):
When you broke the budget down and realized that maybe
the top line what's being reported is about bullets and guns,
not necessarily the human cost, and certainly the post war
human cost, right.

Speaker 1 (01:43:12):
That's right. A lot of people tend to fixate on
things like fighter jets and aircraft carriers, which are expensive,
but those costs pale in comparison to, as you said,
the recruiting and the training and housing and maintaining the
military and then all the costs that go into post

(01:43:34):
retirements or you know, meeving the military healthcare and pensions
and things like that. And so we spent a lot
of time doing that. We went to Sacramento, California, and
spent time with some Marine recruiters, went to Fort Sill,
some Army basic training, went to different duty stations. Saw

(01:43:58):
spend time with deployed troops abroad and uh and then
spend time with veterans severely injured and otherwise to discuss
their their pensions and medical care and what they felt
was was good and what they felt uh, you know
came up short.

Speaker 5 (01:44:17):
Elan when you uh, as you did your investigation and
all these interviews in putting this documentary together, the true
cost of defense?

Speaker 2 (01:44:26):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (01:44:27):
Was there a bigger number that you came up with
as opposed to what's being reported uh to the American
people in terms of the cost of our defense.

Speaker 1 (01:44:39):
Sure. I mean when you take into things, uh, you know,
money spent by the State Department, money spent by the
Department of Energy, the v a charitable donate, you know,
donations to charities, all of these things, everything having to
do with the military. You know, you start to approach

(01:45:02):
one and a half trillion dollars, and it's all sort
of part of the same picture. So having the military
that the US has ultimately costs quite a bit more
than just that that eight hundred plus billion.

Speaker 5 (01:45:20):
Right exactly, because the goal is is in order to
protect the freedom in this great American idea, it comes
at a grave cost. And we've demonstrated that, you know,
time and again, have we not.

Speaker 1 (01:45:35):
Yeah, that's right. I mean, ultimately, a message that we
came across multiple times was when you look at our
budget and the amount of money that the US spends,
especially compared to kind of near peers, China, Russia, the
goal is not parody, you know, the goal is sort

(01:45:58):
of overwhelming superiority. And the reason for that is not
just to win wars, but to deter them. Ultimately far
costlier in terms of money and lives to fight a
war than it is to maintain a military that can
help the United States avoid one.

Speaker 13 (01:46:19):
Entirely, right.

Speaker 5 (01:46:21):
And I think this is what we're realizing, you know,
currently with as many wars that are out there, and
I think you know, it's estimated there's nineteen wars right
now happening around the world of course, a lot of
eyes on Ukraine and Russia, and we see the costs
there in humanity, not to mention just the raw cost

(01:46:43):
you know, bullets and armaments and all that that just
keeps mounting up. And to your point, going to war
is a very expensive proposition.

Speaker 1 (01:46:56):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, look at obviously you see different
numbers when it comes to lives lost over in Ukraine,
but it is and should be unimaginable to Americans to
lose that many lives fighting a war. And that's certainly
what a war that the US could be involved in

(01:47:21):
could look like, right, And so if a lot of
money can be spent to try and save that off,
it seems like a good investment.

Speaker 5 (01:47:33):
Yeah, without a doubt, because i mean, look at there's
been a lot of conversation about the military industrial complex,
and you know what they're there for. It's, you know,
they're there to execute wars, to spend you know, military budgets.
You know. But like you said, if we can avoid

(01:47:54):
a war and we do this, you know, by having
the build up that we have to deter people from
wanting to go to war with America. And if if
we have like this current president is doing leveraging America's
influence to keep people from going to war. I got
I gotta believe that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (01:48:14):
Well, avoiding war is definitely a good thing. I think
everyone would would certainly agree with that. We did spend
you know, you mentioned the military industrial complex, and we
do have a section on procurement developments things pertaining to
the defense industry, and we tried to look at that
also from all sorts of angles. One, you know, uh,

(01:48:39):
hearing the arguments for and against the amount of spending,
and and and the fact that most of it gets
funneled one way or another through a handful of companies,
which is a relatively new development over the course of
American history. But also looking at the communities impacted by
these jobs. You know, in certain places in Norfolk, Virginia,

(01:49:01):
all sorts of places across the country. You've got generations
of people that have earned money for their families and
had it flow into their communities because they work in
these jobs. And so you can see how the reduction

(01:49:22):
of military spending also would really impact just your average Americans.
So that's an interesting thing to consider as well. It's
not just the boeings and rapeons that stand to lose
something from reduced military spending, all the folks that work
for them, some two million people work in the aerospace
and shipbuilding industries.

Speaker 5 (01:49:42):
Well. The documentary is currently streaming on YouTube and rolling
out on public TV stations nationwide. True Cost of Defense
explores the costly, human and financial side of keeping the
US and its allies safe. What do you want the
audience to take away from the eelon after they viewed this?

Speaker 1 (01:50:02):
Sure, you know, we didn't go into this project with
the hope of initiating some sort of policy change. Our
our overriding goal was to inform the American public as
much as possible about defense ending so that they could
be more adequately prepared to enact whatever change they want

(01:50:25):
when it comes to their vote.

Speaker 5 (01:50:30):
Did you conclude that we're spending the right amount of money?
I mean, because you've done I mean, this is such
a great job in what you've done in this documentary
and laying out you know, the true cost of defense.
And as you said, you know, you took a look
at the supply chain how this affects you know, millions

(01:50:52):
of people that support the UH you know, support our
military and our defense.

Speaker 1 (01:50:59):
Well, you know, as an American, you hope that when
you dig into the defense industry and the military itself,
that you find that it is being competently run by
competent folks. And I was pleased, at least in our experience,
to find that we were very impressed. We were impressed

(01:51:21):
by the enlisted personnel, the young people operate and you know,
making the military run. We were impressed by the technology
that we witnessed and the maintaining of that technology. So
as ultimately a layman, it was hard for me to
point my finger at anything and say this is a

(01:51:43):
waste of money, especially when it comes to people. And
I was very impressed by the standards maintained by those
marine recruiters we spent time with. I was impressed by
the recruits themselves all the way through the you know
young tank commander that we saw in Poland, she was

(01:52:05):
in her early twenties, and yes, she was extremely sharp
and impressive and so across the board.

Speaker 5 (01:52:14):
Well, and I love the part that you brought out
elon that she had her tank, her tank that she
trained with, was was shipped to Poland and was ready
to go. I mean, it's it is impressive to think
about how our military operates. There's lots of layers that
are involved here. We've got to leave it there. Elon
Bento is the writer and co director of the True

(01:52:36):
Cost of Defense. It's a one hour documentary that is
on YouTube right now and you'll be able to see
it on public TV as well. Is there a website
that people can go to Elon for more information?

Speaker 1 (01:52:50):
Yeah, if you go to free to Choosemedia dot org,
you can see the documentary there, or you can just
look up The True Cost of Defense on YouTube.

Speaker 5 (01:53:03):
Well, very good. Elon Benzol, thank you so much for
being with us. He's the writer and code director of
The True Cost of Defense. Thank you, Elon, thank great job.
Appreciate it. Take care.

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