Point of View December 2, 2024 – Hour 2 : Updates from the Weekend

[00:00:06] This is Point of View, Kirby Anderson.

[00:00:43] We'll be talking about what the charges are, but just to, in a sense, clear the deck and move on.

[00:00:49] And it would be quite possible for Donald Trump to do that for a couple of reasons.

[00:00:55] First of all, he will be a lame duck president.

[00:00:57] So unlike the, well, if I pardon an individual, will that affect the next election?

[00:01:03] And if you don't think that it does, let me, as the older guy around the table, maybe for you younger people,

[00:01:09] not to realize that when Gerald Ford decided to actually pardon Richard Nixon,

[00:01:15] which probably was the right thing to do just to keep the country from having to delve into all of the Watergate issues,

[00:01:23] it is quite likely that the reason Jimmy Carter won in 1976 is because of the pardon that Gerald Ford gave Richard Nixon just a few years before.

[00:01:35] So there are some implications to all of that.

[00:01:39] But nevertheless, there are some very significant charges and lest people forget.

[00:01:46] First of all, in June, a jury convicted Hunter Biden of lying to a federal licensed gun dealer,

[00:01:53] making a false claim that he was not a drug user.

[00:01:57] And he was also illegally having a gun for 11 days.

[00:02:01] Then in September, he actually pled guilty to three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses,

[00:02:10] including willfully failing to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 taxes on time,

[00:02:19] despite having access to funds to pay those,

[00:02:21] and then filing false business deductions in order to reduce substantial tax liability.

[00:02:28] Those deductions were suspended, as many people know, on exotic dancers and escorts.

[00:02:33] The list goes on.

[00:02:35] You and I, if we did any of those things, would be in a lot more trouble than the president's son.

[00:02:42] So again, a lot of people might think, OK, a pardon might be the best thing to do to just move on.

[00:02:50] Some people have said, well, this is a caring father for his son.

[00:02:55] Please, if you've looked at any of the interactions between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden,

[00:02:59] you can certainly set that aside.

[00:03:02] But let's go to the statement made yesterday.

[00:03:05] And that is President Biden said today I signed a pardon from my son Hunter from the day I took office.

[00:03:11] I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision making.

[00:03:14] I've kept my word even as I watched my son be selectively and unfairly persecuted.

[00:03:19] That's not true.

[00:03:21] Just the opposite.

[00:03:22] There, he goes on to say, I believe the justice system, but I've wrestled with this

[00:03:26] and I believe raw politics has infected this process that led to a miscarriage of justice.

[00:03:31] And once I made the decision this weekend, there's no sense in delaying it further.

[00:03:35] I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would do that.

[00:03:39] And of course, you've got all sorts of issues related to this, not the least of which is time after time after time.

[00:03:45] President Biden or his press secretary have said the president would not actually pardon Hunter Biden.

[00:03:52] And that would be enough for some of the outrage.

[00:03:56] You even have Democrats.

[00:03:57] Let me just pick on one for a moment.

[00:03:59] A Democratic member of Congress from Arizona, Greg Staten, who said, I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong.

[00:04:07] This wasn't a politically motivated prosecution.

[00:04:11] Hunter committed felonies and was convicted by a jury of his peers.

[00:04:15] That's what a Democrat was saying as well.

[00:04:18] And of course, the issue is, as I think we're going to now discover, as Jim Garrity put just the other day, this isn't about Hunter.

[00:04:27] It's about Joe.

[00:04:28] A review of White House transcripts revealed 10 times that either President Biden or White House press secretary, Corrine Jean-Pierre, emphatically assured the public that there was absolutely no chance the president would use his authority to pardon his son Hunter for these various crimes.

[00:04:43] Six felonies combined six misdemeanors.

[00:04:46] This was predictable and predicted because no matter how many times Joe Biden looked in the camera and told you his word as a Biden, the overwhelming majority of us knew that this was, to use president's terms, malarkey.

[00:05:01] And to be a Biden is to be above the law.

[00:05:04] And that's been clear for a long time.

[00:05:06] And that is illustrated by not only the fact that he violated his statement that he would not actually pardon Hunter Biden, but the length of the pardon.

[00:05:16] And that is the pardon is retroactive as well.

[00:05:21] Dan McLaughlin put it this way.

[00:05:23] If Biden didn't want Hunter to go to jail for the tax and gun convictions, he just could have commuted his sentences.

[00:05:30] But he went further with a 10 year immunity bath because there's more to hide.

[00:05:36] And so, again, Matt Vespa said it's bad that the president pardoned his son when he and his staff said repeatedly and no one said in terms.

[00:05:44] But this goes far beyond that as well.

[00:05:47] Let me quote from Katie Pavlich.

[00:05:49] I've quoted many times on this program.

[00:05:52] She said, I mean the gaslighting in dishonesty here.

[00:05:55] Hunter was nearly let completely off the hook with an unheard of plea deal.

[00:06:01] Whistle blowers who congressional investigators simply gave a platform under oath.

[00:06:08] And a judge who was paying attention noticed this special treatment.

[00:06:12] And then Emma Jo Morris said they impeached Trump because the Bidens never did anything wrong.

[00:06:17] How dare anyone ever ask?

[00:06:19] And, of course, then you have Tony Kinnett who puts it this way.

[00:06:23] All the statements you've heard from President Biden.

[00:06:26] It's transitory inflation.

[00:06:28] Afghanistan was a success.

[00:06:30] The border is secure.

[00:06:32] Robert Hur lied.

[00:06:33] Biden is fine.

[00:06:34] That was said by other people.

[00:06:36] Those videos are cheap fakes.

[00:06:38] Again, some of these are by the press secretary.

[00:06:40] Biden had jet lag.

[00:06:42] Biden had a cold.

[00:06:42] Biden isn't going to be replaced.

[00:06:44] Biden isn't going to part under.

[00:06:46] So you kind of see a pattern here.

[00:06:48] And it is best illustrated perhaps by one other individual who hardly would be considered an individual who would be likely to criticize the president.

[00:07:00] And that would be Nat Silver.

[00:07:02] Nate Silver has been an individual that I've quoted many times.

[00:07:06] He's a left of center pollster.

[00:07:09] But I've appreciated over the years the fact that even though politically we might disagree on a number of factors, I have some of his books.

[00:07:18] And I've also felt that he is an incredibly honest individual, though we would disagree on many of the moral issues we talk about here on Point of View.

[00:07:27] And it's interesting because, as one reporter said, he went on a tear against Biden.

[00:07:35] He said the White House consistently lied about this.

[00:07:39] Biden's stubborn insistence on running for re-election is perhaps the singular most important factor in Trump 2.0.

[00:07:45] And now he's kicking salt in the wound of the party brand he helped to destroy.

[00:07:51] Because Nate Silver believes that Democrats need to be in the White House.

[00:07:55] But he says this is a result.

[00:07:57] And this is what he says.

[00:07:58] Nate Silver says he's a selfish and senile old man.

[00:08:03] And if that's not enough, about a minute later, he also posted this.

[00:08:07] Nate Silver posted, don't vote for any Democrat in 2028 who doesn't repudiate the pardon within 48 hours.

[00:08:15] And so, again, this pardon has made the party look ridiculous.

[00:08:19] And it's ripped the rug of supporters who used to be supporting of Joe Biden.

[00:08:27] But, of course, he's leaving office and maybe doesn't really care.

[00:08:30] But the impact of that is immense.

[00:08:34] We need to take a break.

[00:08:35] And when we come back, let's talk about pardons for just a minute.

[00:08:38] And then we'll move on to many other topics.

[00:08:41] But this one is in the news today.

[00:08:43] It's worth talking about.

[00:08:44] That's why we're talking about it here on Point of View.

[00:08:47] We'll be right back.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:04] Now that we're in the last month of the year, let me recommend what you may want to plan to do in 2025.

[00:09:09] I would recommend you read through the Bible in one year.

[00:09:12] Here are two resources from Pastor Jack Graham that will help you do that.

[00:09:16] First, he is the author of the new book, The Jesus Book.

[00:09:18] He provides ten chapters that will help you read through the Bible.

[00:09:22] He begins by helping you understand that we can trust the Bible, then provides a big picture of the Bible.

[00:09:27] He provides chapters on how reading the Bible can provide hope and reassurance.

[00:09:32] It can also help you discern God's will for you.

[00:09:34] Pastor Graham gives you a guidance in how to read the Bible daily with a practical approach to Bible study.

[00:09:40] He quotes from an applications pyramid found in the Life Application Study Bible.

[00:09:45] As you study God's Word, you will need to focus on the people, place, plot, point, principles, present, parallels, person, and plan.

[00:09:55] He also reminds us of the Bereans who are described in Acts 17 as people who search the Scriptures daily.

[00:10:01] We need consistency in reading God's Word.

[00:10:04] A second resource comes from the podcast, The Bible in a Year with Jack Graham.

[00:10:08] It can be found on the official Bibleinayear.com podcast, which you can find with the Apple or Spotify podcast apps.

[00:10:16] In each episode, you will learn how to apply these biblical principles to your life.

[00:10:20] The audio provides you with reading from a key passage along with some dramatic material and orchestral music.

[00:10:26] That is followed by a profound commentary from Pastor Graham.

[00:10:30] Reading the Bible through the year will be a rewarding experience for you.

[00:10:33] Of course, you don't have to wait until January 1st to get started.

[00:10:36] You can start right now.

[00:10:38] Let's get started.

[00:10:39] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free booklet on a biblical view of anti-Semitism, go to viewpoints.info slash anti-Semitism.

[00:10:53] Viewpoints.info slash anti-Semitism.

[00:11:00] Point of view.

[00:11:01] Finding clarity in the chaos.

[00:11:03] I just hold you in such admiration.

[00:11:05] The way you tackle such topics that are intimidating to most of us, and yet you masterfully manage them from a biblical worldview,

[00:11:16] and you equip us to know how to process and think and filter much of the events that are happening today.

[00:11:23] So on behalf of the hundreds of millions of us, thank you so much.

[00:11:28] Finding clarity in the chaos.

[00:11:31] Point of view.

[00:11:32] Nice comments from our good friend Max Lucado.

[00:11:35] And he does appreciate the fact that we make available some of these resources.

[00:11:40] And Jack Graham was with us in studio last hour and walked out with a handful of some of the booklets that I have produced on some of the topics that he knows he's going to be teaching and preaching on,

[00:11:50] on biblical reliability, on Israel.

[00:11:52] We just passed around one that hasn't even mailed yet on post-modernism and a number of others that he grabbed.

[00:11:58] Arguments for the existence of God.

[00:12:00] And, of course, we certainly appreciate those pastors who actually address these issues from the pulpit.

[00:12:07] But we also recognize that in a typical church setting, you can't get into the kind of details we get into in some of these political issues or even these social issues.

[00:12:18] Let's take it out of politics for a minute.

[00:12:20] You're not going to hear a pastor address the issue of artificial intelligence from the pulpit.

[00:12:26] Maybe a passing comment.

[00:12:27] Or think about these issues of even things like just war.

[00:12:32] Maybe they'll get into the issue of Israel.

[00:12:34] But just in passing as it relates to the Bible.

[00:12:37] But maybe get into foreign policy issues.

[00:12:40] Those are the kind of topics we try to address every single day.

[00:12:44] And, of course, you may also recognize that your church may not address any of those political issues.

[00:12:50] My wife was talking to a couple who actually had gone to another church, which is actually taught by a very well-known pastor,

[00:12:59] and yet said that they had never talked about Israel from the pulpit.

[00:13:03] And I thought, isn't that interesting?

[00:13:04] Because of all the things that have happened since October 7th of last year until now, and never to have addressed that,

[00:13:12] I have had many people say, I've never heard my pastor address the elections,

[00:13:17] whether it's even important to vote or what principles you would use to vote.

[00:13:21] So we hope that as we are entering into the last month of the year,

[00:13:27] we are certainly dependent upon your financial gifts to keep this ministry going.

[00:13:31] But tomorrow, I thought I'd mention we have Giving Tuesday.

[00:13:34] If you receive emails from me, and I receive them to myself because I'm on the list,

[00:13:40] I know those went out a few hours ago.

[00:13:42] So check your inbox, and there's a way in which you can give to this ministry if you appreciate what we talk about.

[00:13:49] But let me come back to this issue of pardons for just a minute.

[00:13:52] If you've been listening to Point of View any length of time,

[00:13:55] you know that I've never really felt comfortable of the way in which pardons have been used.

[00:14:02] I think that pardon feature in the Constitution, and in many constitutions of various states, has been exploited.

[00:14:11] I think it has been overused.

[00:14:13] In some respects, we may say, well, we're grateful that the governor of the state of Florida at that time,

[00:14:19] and Jeb Bush pardoned Chuck Colson, which allowed him then to actually, since he was a felon, to be able to vote.

[00:14:27] And we can think of Donald Trump pardoned Denise D'Souza, who's been in the studio,

[00:14:32] a good friend of this ministry because what I think was an unfair way in which he was being prosecuted

[00:14:40] over a decision that he made which was wrong, but certainly the punishment far exceeded the crime,

[00:14:48] especially when other individuals at best pay a fine.

[00:14:52] They don't actually have to go to jail.

[00:14:54] So I recognize sometimes a pardon is worthwhile, but I also think pardons have been grossly misused,

[00:15:02] and so I come to this whole question of pardons with a recognition of the fact that it's probably something that should be used sparingly.

[00:15:12] Now, you might say, well, okay, how many pardons will we have from Joe Biden by the time he leaves office in January?

[00:15:21] And I'm thinking it's getting close to setting a record.

[00:15:25] You want to know the person who has actually issued the fewest pardons in recent memory?

[00:15:30] That would be Donald Trump.

[00:15:32] As a matter of fact, there's only one president in the modern era who's issued fewer pardons than Donald Trump,

[00:15:39] and that was George Herbert Walker Bush.

[00:15:41] So you can see that it has been something that I think has been overused by Bill Clinton.

[00:15:47] I can think of many individuals he pardoned that I don't think should have been pardoned.

[00:15:52] Certainly was overused as well by Barack Obama.

[00:15:56] Do we notice a trend here?

[00:15:58] And nevertheless, that is something to think about.

[00:16:00] Now, Donald Trump has said he was going to pardon at least two groups of individuals.

[00:16:05] One of those is Ross Ulbrich.

[00:16:08] You might say, I don't even know who that is.

[00:16:10] Well, if you're in the Bitcoin community, you would know who he is because he's an individual that was part of what was called the Silk Road.

[00:16:17] His offense many years ago was he was allowing people to use Bitcoin to buy the products on the Silk Road, which many of those, of course, were drugs.

[00:16:28] Now, some of those drugs that he was selling actually are legal in some of the states.

[00:16:33] And again, an example of a punishment that far exceeds the crime.

[00:16:39] Ross Ulbrich is one individual that Donald Trump said he would pardon.

[00:16:43] The other group would be he said he would pardon the J-6, the January 6 rioters.

[00:16:49] How many, whether he will pardon all of them the first day, I don't know.

[00:16:54] But those are the ones we've heard.

[00:16:55] There have been some other people that have speculated whether or not he might pardon Eric Adams.

[00:17:01] You might say, why? He's a Democrat and he's the mayor of New York City.

[00:17:05] Yes, but because Eric Adams has stood up for some of these issues, he's now being prosecuted by individuals that don't like the fact that he's sort of strayed from the plantation.

[00:17:16] So that's one.

[00:17:17] Julian Achange is another that they've talked about with WikiLeaks.

[00:17:21] And then maybe some of the people that have served in the first Trump cabinet, maybe a Peter Navarro or Steve Bannon.

[00:17:28] So we'll see if any of those unfold.

[00:17:30] But so far, the only ones that have been mentioned by the president are the individual involved with Silk Road or the J-6ers.

[00:17:39] And so we'll see where that goes.

[00:17:41] Still think that this idea of pardons has been used and misused and abused too many times.

[00:17:47] But let me, just before we take a break, mention one other issue.

[00:17:51] Some of you might say, what do you mean when you quoted just a few minutes ago Jim Garrity, in which he said this pardon wasn't so much about Hunter Biden as it was about Joe Biden.

[00:18:04] And the bottom line is, is that if you have paid attention to many other talk shows, we don't spend a lot of time going into all the scandals associated with the Biden family.

[00:18:15] Although we've mentioned enough that I think any fair-minded person would probably figure out that when somebody talks about the Clinton crime family or the Biden crime family, there's probably a lot more fire where there is smoke.

[00:18:33] And you can go to all sorts of sources to find those.

[00:18:37] But let me, for those of you watching online, mention three different books that are all written by an individual that we've had on this program before, Peter Schweitzer.

[00:18:46] The first book I'll mention is Red Handed, and it is one in which Peter Schweitzer talks about how American elites get rich helping China win.

[00:18:57] And if you look at this, those of you watching online, you can see that there's a picture of Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.

[00:19:05] You can then come to another one, probably the best known of the books, called Blood Money.

[00:19:10] And it's also by Peter Schweitzer, who's been on this program, Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye, Why China Kills Americans.

[00:19:18] And, of course, you can see, again, it has a picture of Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.

[00:19:24] Are you kind of getting an idea?

[00:19:26] And then I thought I'd pick one more, this one called Secret Empires, in which this one talks about how the American political class hides corruption and enriches families and friends.

[00:19:38] And this one showing, once again, that Peter Schweitzer is an equal opportunity grief giver, because you have two Republicans and then three Democrats.

[00:19:48] And you see Barack Obama and Joe Biden in those pictures.

[00:19:54] And the point I'm making is simply this.

[00:19:56] If you would even want to spend a few minutes reading one of these books, or just reading a review of these books, or for that matter, just looking at the cover of these three books by Peter Schweitzer,

[00:20:10] you can see that there is a lot associated with the Clinton family and the Obama family, and especially the Biden family.

[00:20:20] And, of course, there also is one picture here of an individual that has been associated with the Trump family.

[00:20:27] And so, again, we have many times said that we do sometimes seem to have two different systems of justice.

[00:20:36] One system of justice that you and I have to live by, and a different system of justice that works for the elites,

[00:20:44] who actually escape all sorts of scrutiny and escape, in some respects, some of the corruption and punishment for the corruption that they're engaged in.

[00:20:54] So, find a book by Peter Schweitzer.

[00:20:57] Just look at the covers of a few of the books by Peter Schweitzer,

[00:21:01] and I think you'll get an idea why almost everybody says this pardon by Joe Biden of Hunter Biden is not just to protect Hunter Biden.

[00:21:12] It's to protect the Biden family.

[00:21:15] Pretty good evidence for that.

[00:21:17] Lots of places to check that out and find that out.

[00:21:20] And so, do the research yourself.

[00:21:21] I think you'll come to the same conclusion.

[00:21:24] Let's take a break.

[00:21:25] We have a lot more to cover.

[00:21:26] We'll do that right after this.

[00:21:27] It has been a divisive year, to say the least.

[00:21:35] Presidential election years usually are.

[00:21:37] But here is the good news.

[00:21:39] You have an opportunity to join a movement that brings people together.

[00:21:45] Tomorrow, you can participate in Giving Tuesday.

[00:21:50] This is an annual event when people around the world take a moment and focus on giving something back.

[00:21:56] That spirit of generosity is especially needed in our nation right now.

[00:22:03] And so is biblical truth.

[00:22:05] And that is why we're inviting you to partner with Point of View on Giving Tuesday

[00:22:11] and help us reach our $15,000 fundraising goal.

[00:22:16] Together, we can respond to the chaos in the culture and the residual chaos of election season

[00:22:23] by providing biblical clarity to people all over the nation.

[00:22:28] Participate in Giving Tuesday with Point of View by giving at pointofview.net

[00:22:35] or give by calling 1-800-347-5151.

[00:22:40] Pointofview.net and 800-347-5151.

[00:22:47] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:51] You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:02] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:10] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:13] Back once again, let's see what we can talk about a couple of other issues.

[00:23:16] First of all, there have been some additional appointments, or at least nominations,

[00:23:21] probably a better way to say that, to the Trump cabinet.

[00:23:25] One that has caused a great deal of stir is Kash Patel.

[00:23:29] And he has been designated as the FBI director.

[00:23:33] And we'll see where that leads.

[00:23:35] As a matter of fact, we may focus some time and attention on that tomorrow.

[00:23:38] Another is Chad Chronister, who is being appointed as the administrator of the DEA, Drug Enforcement Administration.

[00:23:47] I may talk about that again tomorrow as well.

[00:23:50] But one that we have put on the website is the director of the NIH.

[00:23:55] And that would be Jay Bhattacharya.

[00:23:58] I think that's how I'm pronouncing his name, Bhattacharya.

[00:24:00] And he is somebody I want to talk about in just a few minutes because he was sort of marginalized as being a fringe scientist during, of course, the issue of COVID.

[00:24:13] And I want to get into that in some detail.

[00:24:15] So when we see some of these nominees who are seen as controversial, I like to spend some time on each one of those.

[00:24:23] So we'll get to him in just a minute.

[00:24:26] I might also mention, of course, we had in the first hour here, Jack Graham.

[00:24:29] He was talking about, of course, the relationship he has with everybody from Mike Huckabee to Scott Turner.

[00:24:36] But one we didn't get to is he's also got a very good relationship with Susie Wiles.

[00:24:41] She's the chief of staff.

[00:24:43] Now, the relation is interesting because her father actually has been at Prestonwood Baptist Church.

[00:24:52] And so as a result, he's gotten to know her as well.

[00:24:55] So we'll talk about some of that in just a minute.

[00:24:57] But one of the other articles I've posted here is important for you in terms of the fact that as Donald Trump comes to office,

[00:25:05] there's going to be a debate as to whether or not the tax cuts that he implemented in his first administration will continue because they are going to be sunsetted.

[00:25:17] So there will be a need for Congress to reestablish them.

[00:25:20] And so the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal has done the mathematics for you.

[00:25:26] If you find yourself in a debate with somebody saying, well, I think the rich need to pay their fair share.

[00:25:33] First of all, you might want to point out, as this article points out, that the top 1% of income filers in America actually provided 40.4% of the revenue.

[00:25:47] And the top 10% provided 72% of the tax revenue.

[00:25:54] So the point is, is one thing that your progressive, your liberal progressive, mostly Democrats, but sometimes Republicans, but mostly Democrats will never admit,

[00:26:04] is the income tax rate is already very progressive.

[00:26:08] And I'll give you some of those numbers in more detail in just a minute.

[00:26:12] But it's an article I posted for you to have access to the facts and figures.

[00:26:17] So you don't have to do the work.

[00:26:19] They've done the work for you.

[00:26:20] And so, again, the argument is that we need to change the top marginal tax rate because millionaires and billionaires don't pay their fair share.

[00:26:33] That's kind of a Bernie Sanders, AOC kind of comment.

[00:26:36] But when you pull out this and point out that really one filer out of 100, the top 1%, pay more than 40% of the income tax revenue,

[00:26:47] you can see they're already very progressive.

[00:26:50] Let's look at that top 1%.

[00:26:52] They make up 22% of the country's total reported earnings, but they actually pay 40% of the taxes.

[00:27:02] If you then look at the ones between the top 1% and 5%, well, again, you can see they represent almost 16% of the total earnings,

[00:27:12] but almost 21% of the tax revenue.

[00:27:15] You can continue on by looking at every one.

[00:27:19] But when you look then at the bottom 50%, the share of income, 11%, their share of taxes, 3%.

[00:27:25] So already that is the case.

[00:27:28] Didn't I see the other day that Elon Musk says that he pays annually $10 billion in taxes?

[00:27:36] And again, the question I think you want to ask is, well, how many more billions do you want him to pay?

[00:27:41] And so I thought it would be interesting for you to have access to these numbers.

[00:27:46] It only takes two pages to print out the material.

[00:27:49] And as a result, just helps you understand that when you hear this phrase, well, they need to pay their fair share.

[00:27:57] Well, given the fact that the top 1% pay more than 40% and the top 10% pay more than 70%, it's actually 72%,

[00:28:07] how much higher do you want them to pay?

[00:28:10] What amount should you pay?

[00:28:12] When you ask that question, they just sometimes wave a hand and say, well, a few more millions or a few more billions.

[00:28:19] But I think if you look at those numbers, you can see that we have, as I pointed out before,

[00:28:25] the most progressive tax rate in the world because even the so-called welfare states do that by not having it quite as progressive

[00:28:35] but putting more and more of the tax burden on the middle class.

[00:28:39] But we'll leave that for another day.

[00:28:41] One of the articles I was going to post and then because of the Biden pardon got dropped off the list,

[00:28:48] but you can find it anywhere, is the fact that there's now been a new study looking at the Department of Education.

[00:28:55] By the way, I think the Department of Education is only going to last for a fairly short period of time.

[00:29:02] Linda McMahon is the designated head of the Department of Education.

[00:29:07] We'll see how long that lasts.

[00:29:09] But the American Principles Project, which is a think tank, actually put out a study which shows that most of the time,

[00:29:19] the Department of Education's Office of Enforcement punishes Christian schools much more severely than they punish secular schools.

[00:29:30] For example, Christian colleges and universities make up only about 10% of students in the United States,

[00:29:36] but they make up almost 70% of the penalties that have been enforced by the Office of Enforcement.

[00:29:44] You can think of a couple of good examples.

[00:29:47] We've reported on this as well.

[00:29:49] There have been record fines that have been levied against Grand Canyon University and also against Liberty University,

[00:29:58] which are two of the most prominent evangelical Christian academic institutions.

[00:30:04] As a matter of fact, if you do a comparison to, okay, some of the punitive fines that were leveled against,

[00:30:11] let's pick Michigan State and Penn State.

[00:30:14] They were both kind of in the news over the weekend because of the football programs there.

[00:30:19] Those particular fines were several million dollars less than the fines that came against, say, Grand Canyon University or Liberty University.

[00:30:31] As an aggregate, all the fines that were actually taking place,

[00:30:37] the average fine against the Christian school was about $815,000 as an average.

[00:30:45] The average fine for all the public and private or secular schools, about $228,000.

[00:30:52] So it's really easy to see that whenever there has been a fine that has been levied against a Christian university or Christian college,

[00:31:03] it is oftentimes many times higher than the fine that's been levied against some of these state institutions.

[00:31:09] As the report actually states, the Biden-Harris Department of Education has been engaged in a long-running scheme

[00:31:18] to punish Christian colleges that are ideologically opposed to the left's agenda.

[00:31:25] They went on to say the unfair targeting of these institutions has been egregious and it needs to stop immediately.

[00:31:33] Again, the spokesperson for the Department of Education said,

[00:31:37] Look, a school's religious affiliation or non-profit status has absolutely no bearing on our oversight and enforcement actions.

[00:31:45] Our top priority is protecting safety and academic opportunity for all students at institutions of higher education.

[00:31:52] And so they argue that this pushes a false narrative.

[00:31:56] Well, we will see.

[00:31:57] Again, sometimes one of the remarkable things that happens when you change the administration,

[00:32:04] recognize that under Donald Trump, these institutions were not even fined.

[00:32:10] Then under the current administration, under Joe Biden, they were fined severely.

[00:32:16] And we'll see, starting January 20th, when Linda McMahon most likely takes over the Department of Education,

[00:32:23] whether those same kind of fines continue.

[00:32:26] Now, you can start with a bias that says, well, the Trump administration is trying to protect Christian schools or Christian institutions.

[00:32:34] But I think if you look at the way in which some of these have been levied,

[00:32:38] and the reason they've been levied, a lot of it seems to have a lot more to do with the fact that these are institutions

[00:32:45] that don't necessarily toe the wokeness line that is required from the Department of Education.

[00:32:52] So when it comes time to actually levy the fines, guess who actually is fined in the most stringent ways?

[00:33:01] And I think you can kind of see the implication of that.

[00:33:04] It is something that I did not post today, but you can find out there in the survey,

[00:33:09] and I think I probably will do a commentary on it, because it's an illustration, again,

[00:33:14] of sometimes what is an obvious bias against Christians or Christian education,

[00:33:21] but isn't necessarily shown up with any kind of regulations,

[00:33:26] but shows up sometimes with the fines.

[00:33:28] Interesting study, one that we'll continue to follow,

[00:33:32] and I suspect will look a lot different come January and February.

[00:33:37] Let's take a break.

[00:33:38] Come back with more right after this.

[00:33:57] Point of View.

[00:33:58] Finding clarity in the chaos.

[00:34:01] Hi, this is Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ.

[00:34:04] Kirby Anderson does a tremendous job of giving us a regular diet of evidence,

[00:34:09] of logic, of God's truth from his word,

[00:34:13] so that we can continue to do what 1 Peter 3.15 tells us,

[00:34:17] to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have,

[00:34:22] and to do it gently and with respect.

[00:34:24] So I am a huge fan of Kirby.

[00:34:27] I'm a huge fan of Point of View.

[00:34:29] I know that you probably are as well.

[00:34:31] That's why you're listening.

[00:34:32] And I hope you'll get behind them, support them,

[00:34:35] so that this ministry can continue on into the future

[00:34:38] and flourish even more next year than this year.

[00:34:41] Finding clarity in the chaos.

[00:34:44] Point of View.

[00:34:46] Good friend Lee Strobel.

[00:34:48] As a matter of fact, he's a supporter of Point of View.

[00:34:50] As a matter of fact, he ran into one of my colleagues the other day and said,

[00:34:52] I just sent a gift in to you.

[00:34:54] So, again, Lee Strobel and Leslie are supporters of Point of View,

[00:34:59] and we encourage you to be one as well.

[00:35:01] That's just a reminder that tomorrow is Giving Tuesday.

[00:35:04] You can give right now.

[00:35:05] You don't have to wait until tomorrow.

[00:35:07] You can click on that button that says Donate.

[00:35:10] We have a goal to set.

[00:35:12] And, again, I've said before, I would hope that you would support Point of View.

[00:35:16] Hope that, most importantly, you would support the radio station you're listening to right now

[00:35:21] because we wouldn't be able to communicate to you if it weren't for the radio station.

[00:35:25] And, of course, many of the other ministries we put in front of you,

[00:35:28] a PowerPoint with Jack Graham, First Liberty, with Kelly Shackelford, and others,

[00:35:33] they are deserving of your support.

[00:35:35] But I'm hoping that you might think about what you might do on Giving Tuesday,

[00:35:39] which is tomorrow, to support this ministry.

[00:35:42] Just before we take a break, let me mention a couple of things here.

[00:35:45] First of all, tomorrow we have an individual that will be with us,

[00:35:49] and that is Jeffrey Chang.

[00:35:51] We're going to be talking about his book, A Wondrous Mystery.

[00:35:55] And Mark Gerson will be with us with the African Mission Healthcare.

[00:35:59] But we'll also get into some of these other nominees, some of whom are controversial.

[00:36:04] And one of those I want to talk about right now.

[00:36:07] It's our last article we've posted by Dr. Jay Bhutacharya.

[00:36:11] And, again, Dr. Bhutacharya is a professor at Stanford,

[00:36:16] and it is just unconscionable how he, during the pandemic,

[00:36:21] was being belittled and maligned and various name-calling and the rest.

[00:36:28] An eminent individual at Stanford University.

[00:36:34] And Alicia Finley puts it this way.

[00:36:36] Say this much about Donald Trump.

[00:36:38] He has a sense of political irony.

[00:36:40] Last week, President-elect tapped Stanford University's Jay Bhutacharya

[00:36:44] to head up the National Institutes of Health.

[00:36:48] Call it revenge of the COVID lockdown skeptics.

[00:36:52] It goes on to say that Francis Collins, the NIH chief between 2009 and 2021,

[00:37:01] derided Dr. Bhutacharya as a fringe scientist for urging the government

[00:37:06] to focus on protecting the vulnerable while letting others go about their lives.

[00:37:11] Dr. Bhutacharya, Martin Kuldoff, then at Harvard,

[00:37:15] and Oxford's Senora Gupta formally expounded this idea in what was later called

[00:37:21] the Great Barrington Declaration, which came out in October of 2020.

[00:37:28] And it was far from fringe.

[00:37:31] Tens of thousands of doctors and scientists around the world signed the document.

[00:37:37] Those of you that have any remembrance of what we were going through at the time

[00:37:42] in the year 2020 here on Point of View, we were still coming in every day

[00:37:46] when everybody else was in lockdown.

[00:37:48] We were raising very good questions at the time about whether or not everybody should be vaccinated,

[00:37:54] whether it's going to work at all, whether or not even these lockdowns are going to be effective,

[00:38:00] and the rest.

[00:38:01] But again, during that time, in a Washington Post interview,

[00:38:05] Dr. Francis Collins derided the Declaration, the Great Barrington Declaration,

[00:38:13] as a fringe component of epidemiology and said,

[00:38:18] this is not mainstream science.

[00:38:19] It's dangerous.

[00:38:20] It fits into the political views of certain parts of our confused political establishment.

[00:38:25] Well, it turns out just the opposite.

[00:38:28] What did the lockdowns do?

[00:38:30] Well, let's start counting the numbers.

[00:38:32] First of all, it endangered our democracy.

[00:38:34] We, as a matter of fact, have a real question about the future administrator of drug enforcement

[00:38:41] because he actually arrested a pastor.

[00:38:44] But I guess apparently they've made up.

[00:38:47] We'll talk more about that tomorrow.

[00:38:48] It affected the economy.

[00:38:50] It just kind of destroyed the economy, as we well know.

[00:38:53] It affected children's learning.

[00:38:56] And, of course, it just basically sent confused signals all through our society.

[00:39:01] And then, if that was not bad enough, Twitter then actually blacklisted Dr. Bhattacharya in 2021

[00:39:11] after he tweeted an article written on age-based risk,

[00:39:16] noting that mass testing is by lockdown by stealth.

[00:39:21] He was right.

[00:39:22] Many school districts dropped that mandatory COVID testing policies because so many kids with mild or no symptoms were forced to stay home.

[00:39:32] Then the doctor didn't actually do this because he wanted the controversy.

[00:39:38] As a matter of fact, people who know him, she says, actually describe him as apolitical and relatively unassuming.

[00:39:45] Then in a February 2020 paper, Dr. Bhattacharya analyzed why pharmaceutical advances were slowing.

[00:39:54] And he called the phenomenon Arom's Law, which is a reverse spelling of Moore's Law.

[00:40:01] Now, again, I have to explain that for just a minute.

[00:40:04] Moore's Law is the idea that each new generation of chips expand almost exponentially.

[00:40:11] So, at a time when we're having almost exponential growth in terms of the productivity and the storage capacity of computer chips,

[00:40:23] that's called Moore's Law,

[00:40:24] we have just the opposite, which he called Arom's Law,

[00:40:28] which is the opposite in which because there is so much peer pressure,

[00:40:33] nobody wants to speak out against the pandemics,

[00:40:36] nobody wants to speak out against the lockdowns,

[00:40:38] he said the career incentives have become a Me Too incentive instead.

[00:40:45] And what happens is in a lot of those papers, citations by other scientists have become the dominant way

[00:40:52] to evaluate scientific contributions and scientists.

[00:40:56] And so as a result, this sort of conformist behavior that was bred during the COVID lockdowns,

[00:41:02] as a result, has actually stifled science.

[00:41:06] He says a young scientist without a secure job might have been reluctant to actually contradict Dr. Collins,

[00:41:15] Dr. Fauci, because that would jeopardize your NIH research funding.

[00:41:22] And so, as if that's not enough, he ends with this idea of a new study being suggested

[00:41:27] that we have machine learning and AI evaluate doctors as well.

[00:41:31] And so, again, Alicia Finley offers this particular conclusion.

[00:41:37] Your tax dollars at work.

[00:41:39] Dr. Buttigieg's top charge at the NIH will be returning the agency to its original mission of funding innovation

[00:41:48] rather than political science masquerading as real science.

[00:41:52] So, one of the so-called controversial appointments by Donald Trump is Dr. J. Buttigieg,

[00:42:01] who actually is an eminent scientist at Stanford and suffered an incredible amount of maligning, name-calling,

[00:42:10] and many would refer to him as a fringe scientist.

[00:42:15] But when he published this great Barrington Declaration, tens of thousands of doctors and scientists signed it,

[00:42:24] recognizing that there was an attempt to stifle any kind of conversation or any kind of innovation.

[00:42:33] And isn't it interesting that Donald Trump, in a sense of political irony, decided,

[00:42:37] you know, the man that was designated as the fringe scientist, let's have him head up the NIH,

[00:42:44] see if we can get it back on the right track as we go into 2025.

[00:42:49] That's all we have for today.

[00:42:50] I want to thank Megan for her help, all the work she does behind the scenes engineering the program.

[00:42:54] Steve, thank you for producing the program, and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow here on Tuesday,

[00:42:58] right here on Point of View.

[00:43:11] It has been a divisive year, to say the least.

[00:43:15] Presidential election years usually are.

[00:43:17] But here is the good news.

[00:43:20] You have an opportunity to join a movement that brings people together.

[00:43:25] Tomorrow, you can participate in Giving Tuesday.

[00:43:29] This is an annual event when people around the world take a moment and focus on giving something back.

[00:43:36] That spirit of generosity is especially needed in our nation right now.

[00:43:43] And so is biblical truth.

[00:43:45] And that is why we're inviting you to partner with Point of View on Giving Tuesday

[00:43:51] and help us reach our $15,000 fundraising goal.

[00:43:56] Together, we can respond to the chaos in the culture and the residual chaos of election season

[00:44:03] by providing biblical clarity to people all over the nation.

[00:44:08] Participate in Giving Tuesday with Point of View by giving at pointofview.net

[00:44:15] or give by calling 1-800-347-5151

[00:44:20] pointofview.net and 800-347-5151

[00:44:27] Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries