Point of View December 6, 2024 – Hour 2 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson.

[00:00:20] Second Hour Today, we have in studio with us today, Keisha Russell as well as Penne Dexter, and if you would like to join with us, again, probably the best way would be to go to the website, pointofview.net, find some of the articles, if you're going to leave an email, certainly that is available as well.

[00:00:35] And some of the books and resources we're talking about here, I would highly encourage you to get a copy of.

[00:00:41] I mentioned a few of those this last hour in terms of transgenderism, even this hour we'll get into a few other issues of wokeness and the rest, and those are resources we'd love to put in your hands.

[00:00:52] This hour I thought we'd talk about, at least get some comments around the table about the Hunter Biden pardon.

[00:00:58] This is an article by Cal Thomas, a little bit later we'll talk about some of the nominees.

[00:01:01] And before the hour is up, what about this idea of DEI and wokeness?

[00:01:06] And that has been significantly changing.

[00:01:09] But, Penne, your thoughts?

[00:01:11] We've already made some comments this week, but I'd love to get both of you to maybe address this issue of, first of all, President Joe Biden saying, I'm not going to pardon my son.

[00:01:21] And then he pardons his son, and that flap alone began a whole lot of questions.

[00:01:25] But also, why such a broad pardon that doesn't just cover the last few days but goes back almost a 10-year period, which in the article by Cal Thomas suggests that maybe there's something to this idea of the Biden crime family.

[00:01:42] So what are your thoughts?

[00:01:43] Well, first of all, the lying about not only from President Biden that he would not pardon his son definitively really said that.

[00:01:52] But then it went across the administration that people would then pick up on that and say he won't.

[00:01:58] He won't pardon his son.

[00:02:01] And he did pardon his son.

[00:02:02] And the fact that he just decided over the Thanksgiving weekend, just another one of his lies, I doubt he had any intention to pardon his son.

[00:02:12] And I thought Cal Thomas in the article that we posted at pointofview.net did a good job to talk about this.

[00:02:18] First of all, he did this to protect Hunter Biden, of course.

[00:02:22] And now that we've got Kash Patel going in as FBI director, and it sounds like that is going to happen.

[00:02:30] He's got the support in the Senate that he needed to protect his son from the FBI looking into and going after Hunter.

[00:02:41] But there's so much about the Biden family, sort of the crime cartel of the Bidens that Mr. Comer, Representative Comer of the House Oversight Committee has been investigating for months.

[00:02:57] And I thought that Cal Thomas did a good job of talking about how Biden needs to do that not only to protect Hunter, but also to protect himself and his family.

[00:03:07] And so, you know, it was just he had to do this.

[00:03:12] Goodbye.

[00:03:12] I'm leaving office and I'm going to protect my family.

[00:03:15] Well, again, for people that say, wait a minute, you're being too unfair about all the investigations and all the rest.

[00:03:22] I would recommend a book by our couple of books by Peter Schweitzer.

[00:03:26] We've been on the program many times before.

[00:03:29] Matter of fact, the other day, I actually talked about three different books that have come out over the last couple of years.

[00:03:34] And each one of them had Joe Biden on the front cover.

[00:03:37] So it's an illustration of the fact that when you talk about China, when you talk about Ukraine, it's amazing how many times Hunter Biden and Joe Biden show up in that particular conversation.

[00:03:47] But some thoughts about that, Keisha?

[00:03:49] Yeah, I mean, my initial thought was liar, liar, pants on fire.

[00:03:54] But I don't I don't think anyone ever thought that he wasn't going to party.

[00:03:59] Yeah, I mean, I don't think anyone ever believed that.

[00:04:02] So I just don't understand the utility of that lie.

[00:04:05] I suppose because of what was going on with Donald Trump at that time, they had to look like they were upholding the rule of law.

[00:04:11] But here's the problem. They've lied so many times to the American public that I think I don't really think President Biden had any issue with it, because at all the lies that were told during covid about the vaccine, about masks, about all those things.

[00:04:26] And now I think they're just so brazen about their lies and about breaking their promises that they just don't even care anymore because they don't think the American people or the media especially are going to hold them accountable.

[00:04:37] And thankfully, there are some Democrats that have been talking about it and saying, OK, this is too far.

[00:04:42] You said you weren't going to do this. You said it over and over again.

[00:04:45] Now you're doing it. But they really should have been calling Biden out and his administration out for many, many years now and haven't.

[00:04:53] What about what's kind of in the news today about people, other other pardons being issued?

[00:05:02] Seems like that's coming.

[00:05:03] Folks in the in the Biden administration or people that have been friends of Joe Biden, like Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, other people that, you know, been players in really going after Donald Trump.

[00:05:17] So they kind of worry now that maybe a Trump FBI will go after them in the same way.

[00:05:24] I don't know if it would or not. I don't know if they're going to waste time and energy on that.

[00:05:29] But if they did, they want to make sure these people are protected.

[00:05:32] But that would really, really be a legacy destroyer.

[00:05:38] I think there was just broad pardons. I think already the pardon of Hunter Biden is a legacy destroyer.

[00:05:45] I don't know if he cares about that. Maybe not.

[00:05:47] Maybe he did it to destroy the Democratic Party.

[00:05:49] I mean, it almost seems like it.

[00:05:50] You know, maybe he's just really angry about what they did to him.

[00:05:53] I mean, that's one of the theories out there.

[00:05:56] They like shimmed him and threw him off the bus. Right. And then said, oh, we don't need you anymore.

[00:06:00] And so maybe he's like, you know what, I'm just going to protect me and mine and I'll see you guys later.

[00:06:05] Now, it doesn't demonstrate very much integrity, but I don't really know if that is something that we expected from him anyways.

[00:06:12] A book I've been reading lately by Glenn Beck is called Propaganda Wars.

[00:06:16] And the reason I made a laugh so hard is on the third chapter, he talks about how you can evaluate whether people are telling you the truth.

[00:06:23] And the first one is the liar, liar test. And the argument he makes is a very good one.

[00:06:29] When people have been lying to you so many different times, then you actually have to raise the bar for even greater scrutiny before you believe them.

[00:06:37] And one of the examples he uses is when all of the media and 51 former or present members of the government in the intelligence community said that Hunter Biden's laptop had all the marks of Russian disinformation.

[00:06:53] That gets into that whole issue. But he gives you seven different categories of how to evaluate whether somebody is telling you the truth.

[00:07:00] But the premise of the book, and he takes you through the industrial, the lying industrial complex and all that is, as you just said a minute ago, Keisha, they've been lying for so long about so many different things.

[00:07:14] And it's the virus. Well, it obviously came from the animal mark.

[00:07:19] The wet market didn't come from the Wuhan Institute for biology.

[00:07:23] And the virus will keep you from getting COVID and on and on and on and on.

[00:07:29] The American people don't even tend to believe them anymore, as evidenced by the election.

[00:07:36] And so it's kind of like, well, we just keep lying anyway.

[00:07:39] What do we have to lose? And it's almost like lying has become such a normal part of the administration that they aren't even embarrassed.

[00:07:49] They have virtually no shame about lying.

[00:07:51] That's how it seems to me, too. Like they I don't think they even care.

[00:07:55] They're not really, you know, answering the questions about why they think it's OK to do this now.

[00:08:00] And his flimsy response about my, you know, very privileged son is being, you know, scapegoated.

[00:08:08] And this is not fair. And he's being treated unfairly.

[00:08:11] Throwing the Justice Department under the bus.

[00:08:13] When it's his Justice Department. I mean, give me a break already.

[00:08:16] Like the whole thing is just ridiculous. He could have just said, I changed my mind and this is what I want to do.

[00:08:22] And that would have been a better excuse, even though we know you didn't change your mind.

[00:08:25] You were going to do it anyway.

[00:08:26] Yeah. Well, I want to get you both of your comments.

[00:08:28] And if you want to have some more after the break, fine.

[00:08:31] But also I want to move on to some of these nominees because this was interesting.

[00:08:36] Penna will come back after the break.

[00:08:37] Guy Benson points out that even though there's all sorts of hand wringing there in Washington, D.C.,

[00:08:43] most Americans are pretty good with the people that Donald Trump's put forward.

[00:08:48] So we'll talk about that right after this.

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

[00:09:02] The Western world is facing a birth rate crisis.

[00:09:05] Wilford Riley says that these young adults resemble captive panda bears who must be persuaded to mate.

[00:09:11] He cites a psychological study that revealed that roughly 50 percent of young men have never or almost never approached a woman to ask for a date.

[00:09:18] Even if men and women get married, they are less likely to have children.

[00:09:22] The fertility rate has been dropping for decades.

[00:09:25] That is why Edward Ring wrote a discouraging essay, Give Me Fertility or Give Me Death.

[00:09:30] Turns out that unmarried childless women are much more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate who supports abortion as reproductive health care.

[00:09:38] And a recent study by Morgan Stanley estimated that by 2030, around 45 percent of women between ages 25 and 44 are projected to be single and childless.

[00:09:48] And it's more important to recognize that these trends are not only taking place in the developed world,

[00:09:53] but much more even in the developing world.

[00:09:55] The U.S. has a fertility rate of 1.84, which is better than the 1.24 fertility rate of European countries like Italy or the 1.17 fertility rate of Singapore.

[00:10:06] Some liberal women have embraced the 4B movement that originated in South Korea that says no to sex, dating, marriage and children.

[00:10:14] This is not a good trend.

[00:10:16] The projected fertility rate of South Korean women this year has dropped to 0.68.

[00:10:21] The population of South Korea is imploding.

[00:10:24] So it's time for pastors and other church leaders to remind Christians that children are a gift from God, Psalm 127, and they are arrows in our quiver.

[00:10:33] You know, the secular world may not value marriage and family, which is why the church must teach biblical principles to the next generation.

[00:10:40] 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.

[00:10:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:11:04] Back once again, of course, we were talking about this idea of the pardon.

[00:11:07] Certainly, if you have some comments, you can let us know.

[00:11:10] But I thought we would maybe focus on now some of the Trump nominees.

[00:11:14] We will, of course, get into more of the specifics probably next week.

[00:11:18] But what I thought was so interesting, Penna, is that Guy Benson reminded us that even at a time when there's a whole lot of controversy inside the Beltway in Washington, D.C.,

[00:11:30] and there are some senators not sure they're going to vote for Pete Higseth and a variety of other individuals, maybe even Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

[00:11:39] If you poll the American people, and I was struck by this poll.

[00:11:43] First of all, I can't imagine somebody sitting down and saying, okay, do you have favorable or unfavorable comments about Marco Rubio, Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Huckabee,

[00:11:52] and Chelsea Gavin all the way down this list?

[00:11:54] But they do have that.

[00:11:56] And what's so striking is that at the top of the list are some of the ones I just mentioned who are favorable.

[00:12:03] And even the ones on the bottom of the list, we mentioned Scott Turner the other day when we had Jack Graham in studio and some others.

[00:12:10] Who people don't know.

[00:12:11] Again, 41% just don't know them.

[00:12:13] Yeah.

[00:12:14] So it's not like they have unfavorable.

[00:12:15] They just don't know who they are.

[00:12:16] And so it seems to me that the bottom line is that even with some of the so-called controversial appointments that have been made by Donald Trump,

[00:12:28] Pam Bondi or Tulsi Gabbard or Robert F. Kennedy or whatever it might be, Pete Higseth,

[00:12:35] still the American people are saying, you know, we feel pretty good about the transition.

[00:12:39] We feel pretty good about some of the people that Donald Trump has actually nominated.

[00:12:43] Yeah.

[00:12:43] I mean, looking at this chart, you know, I guess in politics I've always gone with the idea that a president pretty much should get his cabinet.

[00:12:54] And that unless there's a reason.

[00:12:58] But I thought that during the Bush years, President Bush, when he ran, especially the second time,

[00:13:03] he elevated certain people he was going to appoint in order to get elected.

[00:13:09] Yes.

[00:13:09] And Trump didn't do that.

[00:13:10] Trump didn't do that.

[00:13:11] But once he was elected, then you started seeing these names.

[00:13:15] I mean, I think Trump used the court issue maybe the first time.

[00:13:19] Yes.

[00:13:19] To his advantage.

[00:13:20] But this time, yeah, it is interesting.

[00:13:23] But for so I'm not really surprised that people approve of these people, even if, you know,

[00:13:30] if they know them and they already love Marco Rubio or whatever, then they're going to approve.

[00:13:34] But I think, you know, Trump, he was elected.

[00:13:37] He actually was elected by a little bit more of a lopsided majority, even winning the popular vote.

[00:13:44] And so the attitude of the country, I think, is let him have his nominees.

[00:13:48] And I even see that because I started hearing things about Pete Hegg said for Secretary of Defense.

[00:13:55] And so, you know, I heard some of those things, too.

[00:13:59] But I also know that he's a godly Christian man.

[00:14:02] And, you know, he's asked forgiveness for some of his past.

[00:14:06] And so I looked at that and I was favorably disposed because I think he can go in there and clean out the Defense Department and some of the wokeness that's really, really damaging.

[00:14:20] So I think he's a great nominee. And I think a lot of Americans are kind of thinking that way.

[00:14:26] Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't know much about Pete Hegg said other than what I've read.

[00:14:30] Right. But I think that, look, there are a lot of people who want these positions.

[00:14:35] And so if there's any sort of mark at all where you feel like the Senate is not going to be in favor,

[00:14:42] I'm sure he's got plenty of people who are second, third, fourth, fifth and happy to be those choices.

[00:14:48] So my belief is that, you know, he may Donald Trump may not get all of them, but I think he'll get most of them.

[00:14:57] And even if he doesn't get every single person he wants, the the runner up will still be great.

[00:15:02] So do you buy because I've been hearing a lot of people say if he if he if he if he takes that doesn't make it through the Senate or doesn't even he drops out under pressure or something.

[00:15:13] That that's not good for the other nominees that are going to come before the Senate.

[00:15:18] I've been hearing that today a lot.

[00:15:20] And so that's why Pete himself, he needs to make his own case that he's trying to do right now.

[00:15:26] And Trump needs to stay behind him.

[00:15:28] I don't know. What do you think about that?

[00:15:30] No, I think I think that is the the the best opportunity.

[00:15:35] I think that's exactly what should happen.

[00:15:37] I'm saying if it doesn't happen, if the Senate doesn't, you know, nominate him.

[00:15:43] I and I don't I don't necessarily believe that he shouldn't be.

[00:15:47] But I do think that just in case anything goes wrong there, that, you know, there are a lot of great people in our in our movement that can can help fill these roles.

[00:15:56] So, yeah, I think the requirement for Donald Trump is will he clean out the swamp in whatever area of government it is?

[00:16:05] Let's bring back come back to the point you made a minute ago that most Republican senators have said we even though we may disagree with Bill Clinton, Barack Obama,

[00:16:17] certainly Joe Biden, we think that the president who was elected should be able to have his or maybe someday her actual appointments.

[00:16:26] And so the Republicans have generally gone along.

[00:16:30] What's so interesting is Democrats haven't always I can take you all the way back to 1981 when you had a sitting senator from the state of Texas,

[00:16:40] John Tower, who was nominated to be secretary of defense.

[00:16:44] And he was not confirmed.

[00:16:47] Now, you think about what that takes.

[00:16:50] That took a lot of Democrats and an occasional Republican to go along to actually take an individual because you think about this.

[00:16:57] Your senators are voting against a person who is one of your fellow senators.

[00:17:01] And that always seemed to go the other direction.

[00:17:05] It ended up secretary of defense.

[00:17:06] Yeah.

[00:17:07] And so that, of course, we know all of the stories.

[00:17:09] But the point is, is this time Republicans who most of the time have said, well, we're willing to give Joe Biden or Barack Obama who they pick.

[00:17:18] Well, there's a number of senators this time saying, well, we're not so sure about Pete Higgseth.

[00:17:23] And so it's kind of interesting because we've always had the philosophy that if you win the election,

[00:17:28] then they should be able to pick the people that they would actually want to put in those positions.

[00:17:34] And one of the lines of Barack Obama is, hey, I won the election.

[00:17:37] So, you know, take it up with the electorate because they put me in office.

[00:17:41] But I don't see the Republicans willing to do that this time.

[00:17:44] I don't know.

[00:17:45] I don't know.

[00:17:45] Yeah.

[00:17:46] Sometimes the background is hard to know, though.

[00:17:48] You know, the story about the relationships between some of these people.

[00:17:51] Those are things that we don't know and probably are never going to know.

[00:17:55] And so I think that's part of what's going on here is that.

[00:17:57] Well, here's one question about relationships.

[00:18:00] And that is you have a U.S.

[00:18:02] senator right now that's been questioning Pete Higgseth.

[00:18:05] Yes.

[00:18:05] Joni Ernst.

[00:18:06] She sure has.

[00:18:07] Of Iowa.

[00:18:08] And she is also has been a name that's been floated for that position.

[00:18:13] And now she and some other, I think, Susan Collins.

[00:18:17] Yeah.

[00:18:17] Some of the females in the Senate are, you know, they're not committing one way or the other.

[00:18:23] And the other part of that also is that Joni Ernst herself.

[00:18:27] I don't know that she's all that conservative.

[00:18:30] I mean, she's a conservative.

[00:18:32] Yes.

[00:18:32] But there have been times when she's disappointed the conservatives.

[00:18:36] And I'm not sure she's the one that would actually go in and clean out the wokeness because she sees Pete Higgseth's opposition to females in many combat positions.

[00:18:48] She sees that, I think, as a problem.

[00:18:50] Hmm.

[00:18:51] One other one I decided to put on the table is the most popular one on the list is Marco Rubio.

[00:18:56] The third most popular one is Mike Huckabee.

[00:18:59] Yeah.

[00:18:59] And I just thought it was kind of interesting because we also, on Monday, we had Jack Graham here, talked about what could happen in Israel.

[00:19:08] Because up until recently, the possibility of having, say, an extension of the Abraham Accords or maybe something that would be beneficial to Israel was off the table.

[00:19:20] But with a Marco Rubio and a Mike Huckabee, Mike Huckabee is the first individual, non-Jewish individual, to be an ambassador to Israel.

[00:19:29] Is there not a possibility that something else could happen in the Middle East?

[00:19:33] Well, I think that's been Donald Trump's plan also from the beginning was to get more countries, for instance, Saudi Arabia, into the Abraham Accords.

[00:19:43] And so, yes, I think it's a nomination that pleases the right and pleases Christians and, you know, fans of his daughter, who is press secretary.

[00:19:53] But it's also strategically a good nomination to get some things done with regard to peace in the Middle East and trade and all of that.

[00:20:02] Well, we'll see how many of these get confirmed.

[00:20:04] But, again, if you haven't seen it, I'll just show the chart out there for those of you watching online.

[00:20:08] But you can find this article.

[00:20:10] It was striking to me because it illustrates again that sometimes all the controversies taking place inside the Beltway really aren't that controversial.

[00:20:20] And in particular, Pete Hegseth, you've got some interesting comments from Will Kane who said,

[00:20:26] I'm the guy who sat next to him for eight hours every day for five years, starting at 6 a.m.

[00:20:31] Then Rachel Campos Duffy said, now you have two people that sat next to him for eight hours a week.

[00:20:39] Again, so these are individuals that are saying, NBC, this is just a hit job.

[00:20:44] We don't agree with the things you've said.

[00:20:46] And so we'll see how much of that weighs in on the nomination.

[00:20:49] Will Chamberlain also commented on the Biden statement.

[00:20:53] I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to miscarriage of justice.

[00:20:58] Yes. Well, Chamberlain says President Trump should just copy paste this sentence into every one of the pardons of the J6 defendant.

[00:21:06] And maybe even a couple of those pro-life individuals who are serving time.

[00:21:10] And one of those that did the Silk Road and the whole issue of Bitcoin.

[00:21:13] So we'll see what kind of pardons come down.

[00:21:17] But let's take a break.

[00:21:18] We've got a lot to talk about in terms of DEI.

[00:21:21] Good article and a very good commentary by Panadexter.

[00:21:23] All that coming up right after this.

[00:21:25] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority.

[00:21:38] They say men can be women and women men.

[00:21:42] People are prosecuted differently or not at all depending on their politics.

[00:21:47] Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens.

[00:21:51] It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing.

[00:21:55] You feel like giving up.

[00:21:56] But we can't.

[00:21:58] We shouldn't.

[00:21:59] We must not.

[00:22:00] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II,

[00:22:05] Never give in.

[00:22:06] Never give in.

[00:22:07] Never, never, never.

[00:22:09] Never yield to force.

[00:22:10] Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

[00:22:14] And that's what we say to you today.

[00:22:17] This is not a time to give in.

[00:22:19] But to step up and join point of view in providing clarity in the chaos.

[00:22:24] We can't do it alone.

[00:22:27] But together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness.

[00:22:32] Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151.

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

[00:22:49] Point of view will continue after this.

[00:22:53] You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:04] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:11] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:15] Back once again in studio with us, Penna Dexter, Keisha Russell, and we are going to talk for a while about this issue of DEI for a couple of reasons.

[00:23:23] First of all, Daniel Cameron, who served before as the Attorney General of the State of Kentucky.

[00:23:29] He's the CEO of the 1792 Exchange.

[00:23:31] We'll talk more about that in just a minute.

[00:23:33] Walmart says goodbye to DEI.

[00:23:36] And I put that one together because Penna Dexter's commentary today is called DEI Diminishing.

[00:23:41] If you go to the website, pointofview.net, you'll find both of the articles.

[00:23:46] And if you click on especially the picture that we have associated with Penna Dexter's commentary,

[00:23:53] Karen put this up, and it shows this long list of various companies that used to really buy into DEI who have now backed off of that.

[00:24:05] And, Penna, the first one, let's go to Daniel Cameron's for just a minute before we get to yours

[00:24:09] because I thought that might be good to mention why this happens.

[00:24:13] And, of course, if you want to read about this in some detail, I might mention the book by Vivek Rameshwamy.

[00:24:20] Remember when I first mentioned his name, people said, how do you even know to say his name?

[00:24:24] I said, well, you're going to be hearing from him.

[00:24:25] Of course, he ran for president.

[00:24:26] But also, a number of years ago, I was actually at a shareholders meeting for ExxonMobil

[00:24:34] and actually sitting behind the individuals with the human rights campaign.

[00:24:39] And they were at the time lobbying because I think ExxonMobil was the only one that did not have some of these various LGBTQ kinds of provisions.

[00:24:49] And as a result, they have been many times developing what's called the Corporate Equality Index.

[00:24:57] And as a result, Walmart finally said, you have encouraged us to fill out these forms.

[00:25:04] We finally decided we're not going to fill out the survey anymore.

[00:25:07] Tell us more, if you might.

[00:25:08] Yeah, the survey is part of the Corporate Equality Index.

[00:25:13] And I call it a shakedown because it's really to try to get these companies, and it's been going on for decades,

[00:25:22] a couple of decades at least, to be part of this woke corporation club.

[00:25:26] And are you filling these requirements?

[00:25:29] And the requirements get more and more woke.

[00:25:33] They get more and more pro-trans.

[00:25:35] They get more and more pro-one race is oppressors.

[00:25:40] One race is the oppressed.

[00:25:41] They get much more into quotas for hiring certain classes of people.

[00:25:50] And these corporations that are meant to please their stockholders and to make money, they're placing their emphasis not on that.

[00:26:01] And it's starting to show in their financial statements.

[00:26:04] And their shareholders are not – some of them are okay with it because they're woke too.

[00:26:10] And others are not happy with it.

[00:26:12] And so this is what Walmart did.

[00:26:16] Walmart did was actually made the decision to pull out of this Corporate Equality Index.

[00:26:21] It did a lot of other things that it decided to do to lessen the influence of DEI in the company.

[00:26:27] But this is probably the biggest one that they would do that.

[00:26:30] And so they're really, you know, a giant in America, as is Boeing, which we'll talk about later, who's having –

[00:26:39] Walmart's a healthier company.

[00:26:41] But they can see the writing on the wall, as can a lot of other companies that you mentioned that are pulling out now of the whole DEI agenda.

[00:26:50] I just typed in DEI on our search engine here at Point of View.

[00:26:54] 150 articles pop up.

[00:26:56] Wow.

[00:26:56] Some by Pena, some by myself.

[00:26:58] And many others that we've posted over the years.

[00:27:01] And when you type in DEI or then ESG, which stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance – DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion –

[00:27:10] you just have so many of these woke ideas.

[00:27:13] And I thought it might just come to you, Keisha, because in some respects this isn't your field per se,

[00:27:21] but it's amazing how many times your religious liberty issues that you've been dealing with,

[00:27:26] people working for Alaska Airlines, people working for various companies have come face-to-face with these DEI requirements as well, haven't they?

[00:27:35] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:27:36] We had a client who posted some questions about how the Equality Act would impact people of faith, and she was fired for that.

[00:27:44] So I think what's happening, though, also is that, you know, the election results really told a tale about what people think about this stuff.

[00:27:52] And I think that's important for corporations to pay attention to it.

[00:27:56] I think they've waited a bit long to do that.

[00:27:59] And even Disney has tried to kind of backpedal from what it was doing, even though I think the content is still going to be very progressive with Disney.

[00:28:06] I think they're just trying to win back that conservative audience and the people who want to go to Disney World and all those things who don't want to do that anymore.

[00:28:14] And so they have to backpedal because I don't know if you remember this, but Michael Jordan was asked a long time ago to support a Democratic candidate in Chicago.

[00:28:25] And he said, why? Republicans buy shoes, too.

[00:28:28] And people were very upset about that.

[00:28:31] But it's true.

[00:28:32] Why would you alienate half of the people who support you?

[00:28:36] Yeah.

[00:28:37] Yes.

[00:28:38] You know, it's gone from affirmative action to DEI.

[00:28:43] And it's become I guess they just add more and more rules, more and more things that you have to comply with that have nothing to do with serving the public that you're out there to serve and making a profit.

[00:28:56] Yep.

[00:28:57] And again, that's part of it.

[00:28:58] The old moving the goalposts, as we used to talk about.

[00:29:00] But back to the point that Keisha made just a minute ago, over the years, we've talked with people like Tim Wildman of American Family Association.

[00:29:08] And, of course, he's, of course, the host of American Family Radio in which he many years ago said to Home Depot and Lowe's and some of them just get out of the culture wars.

[00:29:21] Yes, we would like you to be on our side, but it makes absolutely no sense that when somebody walks in to get a hammer or a lawnmower or some nails that they're confronted by all this woke stuff that actually caused some of them to do a 180 and walk right back out of the store.

[00:29:40] Why are you doing that?

[00:29:42] And the only thing we could come up with is when you're a major company, you can get away with that.

[00:29:48] Just imagine if you get a plumber that comes to your house because you've got a leaky faucet and he walks in and sees that you've got some Trump paraphernalia and says, well, I'm just not going to serve you because obviously you and I disagree.

[00:30:03] What do you mean, like FEMA?

[00:30:05] Oh, that one's a good one, too.

[00:30:07] That's the problem.

[00:30:08] You can get away with this if you're the federal government, FEMA.

[00:30:12] You can get away with this if you're Walmart.

[00:30:14] You can get away with this if you're BlackRock.

[00:30:17] Although they're turning their back on ESG as well.

[00:30:20] But if you're a small business, you cannot get away with all this woke mentality.

[00:30:26] Talk about that for a minute.

[00:30:27] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:30:27] I mean, you have to cater to your audience and to the people who are supporting you.

[00:30:31] And you've got to know that most of these people are not going to want to see this nonsense in your store.

[00:30:36] I mean, Target, I mean, that's a huge company.

[00:30:38] But you remember they had to backpedal off of their display of all the LGBTQ stuff in the children's section.

[00:30:46] You mean the chest binders?

[00:30:47] Yeah.

[00:30:48] That's all right.

[00:30:49] So I just don't understand why you would even hop on this bandwagon.

[00:30:54] And I guess I understand it's social pressure.

[00:30:57] That's what does it for pretty much everyone.

[00:31:00] But I'd like to see some of these corporations develop the backbone.

[00:31:03] Yeah.

[00:31:04] With regard to Walmart, there was a former CEO of Walmart, Bill Simon, who he was in Congress also.

[00:31:13] And he's been looking and speaking about the DEI direction of Walmart for a long time.

[00:31:18] And he said he's so relieved now that Walmart is making these steps and this turn.

[00:31:24] And he says he used the words, let's get back to running a business.

[00:31:29] And, again, I was just thinking as we're coming to a break that we broadcast all over the country.

[00:31:35] But I'm thinking about some of the radio stations that we have right there in the Midwest.

[00:31:40] One of those that's backing off is Caterpillar.

[00:31:42] Well, that's right there next to where WPEO is.

[00:31:45] And then we've got John Deere.

[00:31:47] They're backing off.

[00:31:48] And that's one over there.

[00:31:49] And just, of course, the border basically in Iowa because I've been to a lot of these places over the years.

[00:31:54] And tractor supply and those.

[00:31:56] You can kind of get a little bit of an idea why Boeing up there in Seattle, when we come back from the break,

[00:32:01] I want to talk about your commentary there.

[00:32:04] But Walmart is right there in Arkansas, right next to one of our stations there.

[00:32:09] And you just after a while just say you're actually not doing a real good job even relating to the community in which your corporate headquarters are.

[00:32:19] And so it makes sense that eventually there will be a few people in the company saying,

[00:32:24] I really don't think this is a good idea at the next board meeting.

[00:32:27] Let's just see if we can back off and no longer fill out this survey for the human rights campaign.

[00:32:33] You know, you had to turn the ship somehow to because anybody that would say that this is stupid,

[00:32:41] this is dumb even though it's very obviously stupid and dumb and not what a company should be doing.

[00:32:46] But somehow the left was able to, I think, win over the language, win over the agenda for a time.

[00:32:54] And it's probably going to take a long time to turn around the Titanic with regard to DEI, but it's starting.

[00:33:01] I might just mention for those of you that want to go and check out some of the commentary.

[00:33:05] Of course, we're going to talk about Pentadextra's commentary because you'll be able to hear it right now.

[00:33:09] DEI diminishing.

[00:33:10] But a week before she had one clothing the emperor.

[00:33:13] And we're talking about the emperor's new clothing.

[00:33:15] And the bottom line is, just as that famous story of Hans Christian Andersen,

[00:33:21] The emperor has no clothes, you needed a child to bring a little bit of perspective and common sense.

[00:33:28] Apparently there are some people in some of these boardrooms are saying this does not make sense.

[00:33:33] This is a way to basically bud light your company.

[00:33:37] That's one illustration I might use.

[00:33:39] Or Jaguar is the latest one with their commercials.

[00:33:42] But we'll come back and talk with Penna about her commentary right after this.

[00:33:57] The troubled Boeing company got a new CEO in August.

[00:34:00] Early on, Kelly Ortberg began winding down DEI at Boeing.

[00:34:05] DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, has been around for decades.

[00:34:08] Diversity requires the elevation of immutable differences like race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.

[00:34:17] Equity, often mistaken for equal opportunity, emphasizes equal outcomes.

[00:34:21] In favor of achieving these, employee merit is necessarily de-emphasized.

[00:34:26] And therein lies the seat of DEI's failure.

[00:34:29] After the death of George Floyd in 2020, Fortune 500 companies launched or beefed up their DEI initiatives.

[00:34:36] But when companies that build things take their eye off the ball, quality suffers.

[00:34:40] For Boeing, 2024 brought massive problems, including the mid-air separation of a panel from an Alaska Airlines plane.

[00:34:48] A Boeing insider told documentary filmmaker and writer Christopher Ruffo,

[00:34:53] An organization can prioritize excellence or diversity, but not both simultaneously.

[00:34:58] That's why Kelly Ortberg quietly dismantled Boeing's DEI department.

[00:35:02] Another American corporate giant, the country's number one employer, Walmart, announced it is abandoning DEI.

[00:35:09] The Washington Stand reports that when DEI warrior Robbie Starbuck began investigating Walmart's policies,

[00:35:15] company executives reached out to him.

[00:35:18] The company has announced it will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign's LGBT Shakedown Campaign,

[00:35:24] the Corporate Equality Index.

[00:35:26] It pledged to remove inappropriate sexual and or transgender products and to cancel racial equity initiatives.

[00:35:33] Walmart joins a growing list of companies rejecting DEI.

[00:35:36] American businesses are realizing that the woke DEI agenda is polarizing and stifling for businesses.

[00:35:43] Some are choosing to return to simply running a business.

[00:35:46] Chris Ruffo affirms a reckoning is underway in corporate America.

[00:35:50] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter.

[00:35:56] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:36:02] Back once again, let me just mention that you will be able to, if you've been listening on a computer,

[00:36:07] hear Penna Dexter's commentary.

[00:36:08] We always play at a quarter to the top of the hour, both hours.

[00:36:11] There's DEI diminishing.

[00:36:13] If you'd like to read about it, it's already on the website.

[00:36:16] And, of course, if you click on that, you will see that it takes you to a place which has, I think,

[00:36:21] a very good diagram of some of the different companies that are starting to begin to walk away from DEI.

[00:36:28] There's also a banner that says, never miss a viewpoint, sign up here.

[00:36:32] And Penna Dexter's commentary is posted, but actually what we do is we send it to your inbox, mine, Monday through Friday.

[00:36:40] Penna's on Saturday.

[00:36:41] But, Penna, you take us to the troubled Boeing company.

[00:36:45] And give us some more background because they are just one of many companies that are starting to say,

[00:36:52] this DEI is not helping us at all.

[00:36:54] Well, Boeing is troubled for many reasons, not just DEI.

[00:36:59] But DEI is a big culture changer in a company.

[00:37:04] And, you know, they had the famous door that came off and a lot of other just parts problems in the company

[00:37:14] and cash flow problems.

[00:37:16] And, you know, they've been sued.

[00:37:19] And so, you know, that's there.

[00:37:22] But this new CEO came in to try to save the company last summer, Kelly Ortberg.

[00:37:26] And he began really kind of quietly winding down DEI at Boeing.

[00:37:33] And, you know, sometimes when you see DEI, you think about equity.

[00:37:40] You think about equal opportunity for people.

[00:37:42] But that's not what equity is.

[00:37:44] Equity is equal outcomes.

[00:37:46] And sometimes these are done, you know, based on categories of employees.

[00:37:53] And so it doesn't include merit a lot of times.

[00:37:57] And, you know, companies need to be elevating the best people in order to produce the best product.

[00:38:03] And so I think that's the idea of this turn against DEI at Boeing.

[00:38:09] But one documentary filmmaker, and we've quoted him before.

[00:38:14] I think you've had him on, Kirby.

[00:38:16] It's Chris Rufo.

[00:38:16] And he says, an organization can prioritize excellence or diversity but not both simultaneously.

[00:38:23] He got this quote from an insider at Boeing.

[00:38:27] And this insider said, DEI is the drop in the bucket.

[00:38:30] And the whole bucket changes.

[00:38:31] It's anti-excellence because it is ill-defined.

[00:38:35] But it became part of the culture.

[00:38:37] And so now, you know, they've been successful.

[00:38:41] And they got rid of their vice president that was in charge of the whole DEI department.

[00:38:46] And that's one of the things about DEI is a lot of people are employed to implement DEI.

[00:38:51] And it becomes very expensive.

[00:38:53] And so it costs the company that way.

[00:38:56] So one other interesting quote I thought from this insider that Chris Rufo interviewed was,

[00:39:03] DEI is lazy thought leadership best practiced by companies in smooth waters with margins large enough to afford the associated inefficiency.

[00:39:13] Sometimes it's inefficient.

[00:39:14] In fact, most of the time.

[00:39:16] And I think that's kind of what leads companies sometimes is if they're having trouble with their profit margins.

[00:39:22] That's right.

[00:39:22] Yeah.

[00:39:22] Then, you know, they finally figure out that this is part of the problem.

[00:39:27] And so they turn around.

[00:39:28] And so you have if you're really super profitable, you have the luxury maybe of trying to do this and please the left and the woke, the wokesters.

[00:39:37] But now, you know, maybe necessarily even the companies that are doing fairly well, like Walmart, they're realizing they don't need to please the left or the wokesters.

[00:39:46] As a matter of fact, most of the country doesn't care about those things.

[00:39:49] They care about a good product at a good price.

[00:39:52] Yeah, that's right.

[00:39:53] And well, DEI is nothing more than like modern discrimination.

[00:39:57] I mean, there's so there's a quote from a Supreme Court case and it says the best way to stop discriminating based on race is to stop discriminating based on race.

[00:40:07] Right.

[00:40:07] But when so when the government gives license to this kind of thing, that's what you're going to see in the culture.

[00:40:12] And so when you have the president picking a vice president just because she's black or a Supreme Court justice because she's black and a woman,

[00:40:19] then you fall into these issues where the where the the American public also thinks this is the way they're supposed to behave.

[00:40:25] And so it gives license to these kinds of this kind of thinking.

[00:40:30] And so the corporations pick it up, the media picks it up and then you become, you know, ostracized if you don't believe in this stuff.

[00:40:39] But it really is just racist.

[00:40:41] And in many cases, the I is really they're really just promoting sexual resolution.

[00:40:47] I have friends who work in corporate companies and they've been wrestling with DEI for DEI for a couple of years.

[00:40:53] And a lot of them have told me this isn't even about like, OK, we don't have any Hispanic such and such.

[00:40:59] Let's see if we can find a qualified person.

[00:41:01] It's really just about indoctrinating the employees about how to treat the LGBT and particularly the T in their companies.

[00:41:11] Pronouns, bathrooms and all of that.

[00:41:13] That's right.

[00:41:13] That's what that's really what DEI is about.

[00:41:16] One of my commentaries earlier in the week was a quote from another individual that Pena wrote about, Gerald Butler.

[00:41:23] Best way to right the past wrong of treating people based on the color of their skin is to treat people based on the color of their skin.

[00:41:29] Just so crazy.

[00:41:30] But we're just about out of time.

[00:41:32] And I thought we might mention that we were concerned about dad's place.

[00:41:36] And I just went on to First Liberty.

[00:41:38] And it turns out that the attorney general of this state of Ohio, Dave Yost, actually has filed a friend of the court brief supporting that and actually trying to stay that decision, that injunction.

[00:41:51] So if we when we started out, talked about some of the bad news, I thought we'd end with some of the good news.

[00:41:57] And if you go to First Liberty dot org, you can read all about that.

[00:42:01] Yeah, definitely.

[00:42:01] And you can follow the case as we're we're fighting it.

[00:42:04] We'll also update to Scrimetti because of the Amicus brief rewrote and plenty other cases that I'm sure will be advancing up to the to the courts here soon.

[00:42:12] And again, one of the ways to keep up to date with you is that you have a First Liberty Insider F.L.I.

[00:42:19] And if you sign it for that and you get some of the press releases and some of the materials, you don't have to wait till Friday.

[00:42:25] But oftentimes the best way to learn about some of that is on Friday, because I think you were here when Kelly said, actually, nobody has heard this yet.

[00:42:33] We haven't announced anywhere, but he announced it on point of view.

[00:42:36] So sometimes the best way to be up to date is to listen to point of view, but also you can go to First Liberty.

[00:42:42] And I think that is just a good illustration of some of these really important issues in regard.

[00:42:48] But anyway, as I go around the roundtable, what do you think?

[00:42:51] Do many of these nominees, you think they are going to make it to actually serve in the Trump administration?

[00:42:57] Any thoughts?

[00:42:57] I think most of them will.

[00:42:58] I think I mean, Pete Hegseth, you know, my jury is out on that.

[00:43:02] But just because like kind of as I watched Donald Trump go through his months and months of persecution and get more popular, I feel like this this media, all the things that are coming at Pete Hegseth is making him want to fight for his nomination.

[00:43:21] And if he does fight for his nomination, I think Donald Trump will also fight for it.

[00:43:26] And perhaps it will cause some of the U.S. senators to see that he really has the he has the health of the Department of Defense at at heart.

[00:43:37] And, you know, we've just been talking about wokeism.

[00:43:40] It's a huge problem in throughout the military and the Department of Defense.

[00:43:45] And it needs to be fixed.

[00:43:46] And this is a man that, you know, his heart is to fix it.

[00:43:50] So we'll see.

[00:43:51] Yeah.

[00:43:51] We talked about that with Michael Berry when he's been here in the past.

[00:43:54] Yeah, we certainly hope so, because I think he would fix those problems.

[00:43:57] Our Navy SEALs case is sort of a demonstration of why we really need that.

[00:44:04] So certainly hope everything goes well there.

[00:44:06] But I do know that no matter what, we still won and that I'm good with that.

[00:44:11] We still have all three.

[00:44:13] It will be a good cabinet.

[00:44:15] It will be great.

[00:44:16] Yeah.

[00:44:16] Yeah.

[00:44:16] I mean, I think I think it's going to be fine.

[00:44:18] I think it's going to be fine.

[00:44:19] So I'm wishing Pete Hegseth all the best and all of the rest of the nominees.

[00:44:23] So we'll see what happens.

[00:44:24] We will see.

[00:44:25] We're just bad out of time.

[00:44:26] Let me just mention real quickly that next week on Tuesday, we'll have a Millennial Roundtable.

[00:44:31] And, of course, you knew Chelsea, good friend of yours as well.

[00:44:34] And then, of course, we'll all through the week cover some of that.

[00:44:37] The next week, Penna will be hosting and sitting here.

[00:44:39] And I think before we end this month, I think we get Kelly and Penna back in studio one more time.

[00:44:45] One last time, Uncommon Courage coming out in January.

[00:44:49] Just checked it out.

[00:44:50] You can get it both in paperback and Kindle.

[00:44:52] Now, you'll get a pre-order, but that's the way to get it as soon as it's hot off the press.

[00:44:57] And we're going to get you back here to talk about that, don't you think?

[00:44:59] Excited about that.

[00:45:00] So, again, enjoy the weekend.

[00:45:02] First of all, I want to thank Megan for her help engineering the program.

[00:45:06] Karen, thank you for sitting in for Steve producing the program.

[00:45:09] We'll see you back here tomorrow right here on Point of View.

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