Point of View January 16, 2025 – Hour 1 : As The Lies Drone On

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson. Thank you for joining me, it is the Thursday edition of Point of View, and the first half hour here we are going to spend some time talking about two things. Looks like we do have a ceasefire and a hostage deal, so I want to get into that in some detail.

[00:00:32] The confirmation hearings continue and they are becoming more significant because you have not only had some of the major players going through confirmation hearings, and now even today, Treasury Secretary and a number of others. And so it does look like a couple of things. First of all, it is quite possible that all of these nominees will be confirmed. That was a little more doubtful at the start of the week. Maybe your phone calls or emails or other things have made a difference,

[00:01:00] but I've even heard a few U.S. Senators now saying that they are pretty much convinced that all of these nominees, other than maybe some that aren't cabinet nominees, because there's 15 cabinet nominees, and others cabinet level. Maybe one or two of those may not be confirmed, but we'll see where that plays out. And so that's pretty significant as well. We'll get into that in a little bit more detail. And just as a program note, even while we won't have as much time to talk about it today, tomorrow we have Pentadexter Kelly Shackelford.

[00:01:29] We'll get into all sorts of issues, ranging from the fires in Southern California to the confirmation hearings to some of the last acts by the current president, Joe Biden, and some concerns that have been surfaced about that. I did mention a little bit of that yesterday. So we'll try to cover some of those things. And then later this hour, we're going to have Robert Knight with us. We've got two of his commentaries posted, which we want to get into, which will sort of relate to some of the issues we've been talking about over this last week or so.

[00:01:59] And then next hour, Abby Olsisi will be with us. We'll talk about her film, Films for All Seasons. So let's get, first of all, to this hostage deal. And I might just quote for a second from the Wall Street Journal because the editors there say, when a president elects to use it, American power is something to behold. And that's one lesson, they say, from the deal that was reached yesterday on the Israel-Hamas hostage deal.

[00:02:26] Only days to spare before Donald Trump's inauguration. And as you might imagine, as my producer suggested, everybody's going to take credit for this, but I think some deserve more than others. But we'll leave it at that. The Israeli cabinet is meeting today to actually approve the deal, which will then begin on Sunday.

[00:02:47] And the first, if you will, tranche, your first group, would be 33 of the 94 remaining hostages will be freed, dead or alive. Sadly, I suspect there may be some bodies sent, but we'll see. Maybe we can be optimistic that all those individuals are alive, even if they've gone through just horrific circumstances. And, of course, there's real hope that of those 33, seven of the American hostages would be part of it.

[00:03:17] We will see. And so they will receive, if nothing else, emancipation from what has been the tormenting of Hamas. And, of course, all of the need to dive and duck and avoid bombs and military warfare and all the rest that's been taking place. Are there problems with it? Are there problems with it? Oh, yes, there are. Let me give you two that come to mind.

[00:03:43] First, this is done with the promise to also release about 1,000 Palestinian terrorists. Now, some of these individuals have been accused of terrorism. Many of them actually are serving life sentences in Israel because they've actually taken lives. The concern, which is, I think, quite valid, is some of these individuals are murderers and terrorists,

[00:04:08] and they will return once again to fight and will cost lives in Israel. The deals that you sometimes have to put together are not ones that you feel comfortable about, but we will see. It's a hard choice, and so that's problem number one. In order to get our hostages, they are able to get their prisoners, and we'll see where that takes us.

[00:04:33] The other is that Israel is to withdraw from most of Gaza, not all, but up to at least the quarter, Nazarene quarter, which is kind of the quarter that bisects the Gaza Strip and retreat to kind of the buffer zones. And so, again, if once Israel retreats, what will Hamas do?

[00:04:57] I might remind you, and I've pulled this from another article that came out recently, a ceasefire if you can keep it, because it reminds us that Hamas has been a very bad faith negotiator, and that is we've had, of course, these hostages held for 468 days. Well, we can applaud that, but we also have to recognize that Hamas has broken ceasefire agreements with Israel.

[00:05:22] Are you ready for this? 2003, 2007, 2008, and then nine times in 2014. So we obviously have to prepare for the possibility that maybe we get a few more hostages, maybe we actually get some level of peace, but sooner or later, Hamas will raise its head once again. That is why we have to also look at some of the statements being made, not only by Donald Trump,

[00:05:52] but by some of the people in the confirmation hearings. Donald Trump has said that he would stand with Israel, so if Israel is convinced that Hamas has broken their deal, they come back in there with the IDF. Will Donald Trump support them? I would think so, but that's up for some kind of discussion as well. But you might also just see what a few people have been saying in some of these confirmation hearings over the last couple of days.

[00:06:20] For example, on Tuesday, Pete Higseth, who is the nominee for the Secretary of Defense, told senators, I support Israel destroying and killing every member of Hamas. Okay, that's a pretty clear statement. Never heard anything like that before in the Biden administration. Yesterday, we had Marco Rubio, and I will get to that a little bit later, because Marco Rubio not only was giving his particular testimony and answering questions,

[00:06:49] but my commentary today is about Marco Rubio and China. But anyway, Marco Rubio yesterday said, How can any nation state on the planet coexist side by side with a group of savages like Hamas? So we have an opportunity to release some hostages. Then you have a period of time where Hamas is supposed to do certain things,

[00:07:13] and if Hamas does not, I think it is very reasonable to assume that Israel will go back in. And as some have asked, okay, it is a ceasefire, and it's a hostage deal if you can keep it. But again, you're negotiating with a group that hasn't done a really good job of keeping their word, and I don't think we should necessarily be surprised. Let me just mention that when we come back from the break, I do want to talk about some of the confirmation hearings

[00:07:43] and a few things that we learned about things other than just the individuals running for this office or actually being nominated for this office. We've also learned some things about what's been happening in the Justice Department and what's been happening in the State Department and all the rest. And that is a reason to point you to our website, pointofview.net. First of all, we still have our take action item. If you have not contacted you two United States senators, I will mention that again,

[00:08:10] even though I suspect most of you by now have taken the opportunity to use the take action item. But if not, it's still available for you. And next to it, as I mentioned just a minute ago, my viewpoints commentary is entitled China and Rubio because we a while back had, of course, Senator Marco Rubio on this program talking about his book, Decades of Decadence. And it was interesting the things he said on this program he said in front of the senators yesterday.

[00:08:40] We'll get into that right after these important messages. This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. How will the new administration deal with the China challenge? We can get some perspective from Senator Marco Rubio's book, Decades of Decadence.

[00:09:09] He will soon be confirmed as Secretary of State and exposes China's attacks on four key elements of American strength. Good local jobs, stable families, geographical communities, and a sovereign nation that serves as a beacon of freedom and prosperity. He explained in his book that the U.S. and other Western countries made the false assumption that nation states would be more focused on economic interests and therefore would not go to war with each other.

[00:09:34] Politicians started making decisions that benefited this system and stopped making decisions about what was good for America. This empowered China, and now we are heavily dependent upon them for all sorts of essential goods. We assume countries would be doing what was good for the global economy and international order. Senator Rubio explained in my radio interview that China didn't get that memo, and Russia didn't get that memo, and Iran didn't get that memo, and North Korea didn't get that memo. Many countries have been operating in their national interest,

[00:10:05] and bringing China in the World Trade Organization didn't change China, it changed America. We also need to address the myth that Chinese aggression is due to tensions between China and America that were created by U.S. foreign policy. It was convenient to blame Donald Trump for Chinese aggression. That argument no longer works. For the last four years, we have seen the feckless Biden foreign policy. China has become more aggressive, not less. Trump wasn't the problem. Chinese global intentions are the reason for its actions.

[00:10:33] Donald Trump and Marco Rubio seem ready to face the daunting challenge of an overly aggressive China. They need your prayers. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my Point of View. For a free copy of Kirby's booklet, A Biblical View on Critical Race Theory, go to viewpoints.info.com.

[00:10:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Once again, let's, if we can, maybe talk a little bit about some of the confirmation hearings. I'm not going to go into it in a great deal of detail, but I thought it would be appropriate just to pull out a few things that we've learned from some of the statements that have been made. And the first one is an article that I thought might be helpful to you, and that is about the Justice Department targeting Christians.

[00:11:27] In some respects, some of this has to do with Pam Bondi, who is the nominee for attorney general. But most of this actually has a lot more to do with Senator Josh Hawley, who is a Republican from the state of Missouri. During the time in which they were able to interact, and he would make a statement, then ask a question, a lot of the statements were a confirmation of things we've talked about here on Point of View.

[00:11:55] But it was good to have them said in front of the Senate meetings that were there, the judiciary in particular, but also because of the cameras rolling for a lot of other people to hear it as well. You have heard some of this on Point of View, but it is amazing to me how many times you can be talking to other individuals who do not listen to Point of View, maybe don't listen to certain talk shows, and they're finding this out for the very first time.

[00:12:24] One of the things that Senator Hawley talked about is, I'll quote him, In the last four years, this administration has carried out an unprecedented attack and campaign against people of faith. If you look at the numbers, we've never seen anything like it before in American history. It has been one of the most disgraceful chapters in the history of the Justice Department and in the history of the FBI.

[00:12:49] Kash Patel, by the way, would be the nominee for the FBI, and we will see what is said there. He broke down some of the specifics, and if you're one of those people that like to take some notes during Point of View, time to grab your pen or pencil, because here it is.

[00:13:05] After the Dobbs case, which was, of course, the one that overturned Roe v. Wade, you had, this is the numbers, 100 pregnancy care centers and over 300 churches in this country that were attacked, vandalized, firebombed. So you are dealing with 100 pregnancy centers, 300 churches.

[00:13:27] And then what was so intriguing after making that somewhat lengthy statement, Senator Josh Hawley then asked Pam Bondi if she knew how many suspects were prosecuted for these acts. We did talk about this on Point of View, but she simply said, I do not know, and he said two. We have talked about that before. Kelly Shackleford brought some of that up as well. And so that's the first really important issue.

[00:13:54] When later on, there was an interaction between the senator in Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse, and also Pam Bondi. He was saying, basically, I want to make sure that you're going to be an individual that goes after the crime and then finds the person, not go after the person, find the crime.

[00:14:14] And she used that, I mean, talk about either trying to set her up, which I know he was not, or just being that, if you will, tone deaf to then her saying, yes, that's exactly what they've done to Donald Trump. They went after him and then tried to come up with various crimes, whether it was the way he kept his business records or how he entered information into a particular campaign finance disclosure form or how he kept some of these records or whatever it might be.

[00:14:43] And so that is certainly the case. And here you have, again, this evidence that we don't have one standard of justice. We have a two-tiered standard of justice. And here you have, indeed, all sorts of individuals who were engaged in either attacking, vandalizing, firebombing, pregnancy care centers and churches. And so far, two have actually been prosecuted.

[00:15:13] And then he goes on and say, then, when you look at the other issue, he says, Biden's Justice Department, quote, couldn't lift a finger to defend these Americans. They used legislation, a law known as the FACE Act, to prosecute at least 53 different pro-life demonstrators, including people like Mark Houck from Pennsylvania, whom this Justice Department sent a SWAT team to his door in the early morning hours.

[00:15:40] If you watch the whole thing, he goes into it in some detail as well. But then, if that's not enough, Senator Hawley just wanted to at least take one more shot in the outgoing attorney general because he says, we only know of some of these situations of putting assets into the Catholic parishes, into choirs and things like that because of a brave whistleblower who came forward and released it to us.

[00:16:07] And he says, I will tell you, I've never been misled and lied to like I was by the current attorney general and the now former FBI director when they sat straight where you're sitting right now, talking to Pam Bondi, and told the committee, oh, we don't know anything about it. Oh, only one field office was involved. It was a single work of a single field office and very few individuals.

[00:16:31] As, of course, Josh Hawley, Senator Hawley points out, it was multiple field offices which were involved and multiple individuals were involved, which then, of course, gave an opportunity for Pam Bondi to say, I think what you're talking about is the ultimate weaponization.

[00:16:47] And she said, one of the first things I will do is I will personally read that memo and really assured him and the people on the committee that the days of the FBI, the days of the Justice Department being weaponized are over. And so I think what we have seen so far are, of course, a number of very intriguing kinds of testimonies. Of course, we had Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, which you'll get to in just a minute, Pam Bondi.

[00:17:17] What's going on right now? You have Russ Vaught of Office and Management and Budget, Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation, John Ratcliffe, CIA Director, Chris Wright, a number of others. So those were ones also that were being interviewed. And so we'll be following those today. Of course, Secretary, Treasurer and many others. What I thought was so interesting is the piece by Marco Rubio. And I point you also to my commentary today, which has the title China and Rubio.

[00:17:48] But here is just a few of the comments from Senator Marco Rubio, soon to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He said out of the triumphalism of the end of the long Cold War emerged a bipartisan consensus that all mankind was now destined to abandon national identity and we would become one human family and citizens of the world. He says this wasn't just a fantasy.

[00:18:16] It was a dangerous delusion. He says here in America and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed our industrial capacity and pushed critical supply chains in the hands of adversaries and rivals.

[00:18:42] He said we welcome the Chinese Communist Party into this global order and they took advantage of all of its benefits. They also ignored all of the obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked and stolen their way to a global superpower status at our expense. And the post-war global order is not just obsolete. It is now a weapon being used against us.

[00:19:09] And so, again, whether it's some of the statements from Pam Bondi about domestic issues, statements by Marco Rubio about foreign policy issues, I think we have some things to maybe feel very comfortable about. But if you go to my commentary today, I bring out some of the details that were part of our interview with Marco Rubio because he has published this book, which I highly commend to you.

[00:19:35] Probably a must-read now if you want to understand how he wants to begin to be involved in foreign policy. But the book is entitled Decades of Decadence, in which he talks about some of the Chinese attacks, which I talk about here, and many other problems that surfaced. And, again, he says that there was this assumption sort of after the end of the Cold War that everybody would certainly get along.

[00:20:03] Countries that have trade negotiations would no longer go to war with each other. But even at the time, there were individuals raising questions about Muslim militancy and Chinese assertion. So even there, that was the case. But in the radio interview, I loved what he said, you know, when we talked about the fact that everybody would do what was good for the global economy in the international order, Senator Marco Rubio on our radio program said, well, China didn't get that memo.

[00:20:33] Russia didn't get that memo. Iran didn't get that memo. And North Korea didn't get that memo. We brought China into the World Trade Organization. It didn't change China. In some respects, it changed us. And so he addresses some of those important issues. I go into my commentary to deal with at least one or two other myths that have surfaced in that regard. But as I've mentioned just the other day, if you're interested in learning more about China,

[00:21:00] that's one of the best reasons to support Point of View, because our next issue coming out is on the subject of China. It goes into incredible depth, and it's just one of the many benefits that come from supporting this ministry, along with those booklets we make available and much, much more. You can find out about that by clicking on the button that says Donate Now. And when we come back, I click on the button that says See More, because we're going to talk about some of these commentaries with Robert Knight right after this.

[00:21:30] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority. They say men can be women and women men. People are prosecuted differently or not at all, depending on their politics. Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens. It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing. Demoralizing. You feel like giving up. But we can't. We shouldn't. We must not.

[00:21:58] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II, Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. And that's what we say to you today. This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos.

[00:22:23] We can't do it alone, but together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness. Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net and 800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:57] You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson. You know, as we are making a transition from a previous administration, even sort of a farewell address we heard last night from President Joe Biden,

[00:23:21] four days from now, you will have a new president and a new inaugural address, a second inaugural address by Donald Trump. And already we've been watching many of these confirmation hearings. And as you see, we, of course, have the take action item suggesting that you might want to contact your two United States senators about what is taking place. I thought it would be good to try to look at the old and look at the new.

[00:23:46] And so there are two columns that we've posted here by our friend Robert Knight, one that came out a while back as Team Biden's lies drone on. The truth comes out. And he uses the idea of the drones at the time where we were saying, well, we don't even know they're there. And, oh, I guess they are there to all the lies that have happened. And then the desire, I think, for the American people to have honesty and transparency and the rest.

[00:24:11] And then after a minute, I want to get in maybe a few minutes, get into his newest one. America revs up for a Republican revival. Robert Knight is a good friend of the ministry. He's a regular weekly columnist for The Washington Times, a former news editor for The Los Angeles Times. I do want to ask him a little bit about those fires in Southern California. Has been involved for a number of years in a variety of different organizations and ministries,

[00:24:37] including, I might just mention, Stan, staying true to America's national destiny, as well as an individual that has had positions with American Civil Rights Union, as well as everything from Coral Ridge to Heritage Foundation Media Research Center. And as always, Robert Knight, welcome back to Point of View. Always good to be on with you, Kirby. What about all these lies, even the one last night? Now we have a what? A tech-industrial complex? And we're fearful of oligarchy.

[00:25:06] In one of the exchanges between one of the senators and Pam Bondi, a Democratic senator was concerned that the Justice Department might sometime in the future be used to weaponize and go after enemies. And I'm thinking, are you that brain-dead to not know that's what's been going on right now? Your article here is one I posted so people could read it. Because after a while, you tend to forget the number of times, whether it's Alejandro Mahores or Joe Biden or other individuals,

[00:25:36] have told us things that we knew were completely false. Yeah, the big one was that the border was secure. But here's another one. Joe Biden himself said that he had inherited 9% inflation from Donald Trump. And inflation under Mr. Trump was 1.2% when he left office. I looked it up. 1.2. And, I mean, they just don't get fact-checked by the media.

[00:26:05] And, you know, there was the Russian – I could list them very quickly for you. Please do. The Russian collusion hoax that the media participated in and won Pulitzer Prizes for, even though it was totally made up and paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign. The Hunter Biden laptop, where the security officials said it had earmarks of Russian disinformation, and they knew better. The FBI had had it for a year.

[00:26:34] Calling any questioning of the election irregularities in 2020 false, falsehoods, lies, you're not allowed to criticize anything that happened in 2020 in terms of the election. In fact, they're still at it. I read in the Washington Post this morning an article about how the Democrats are still going after a lot of Trump's aides. And they kept using the word his false allegations that, you know, the election was stolen in 2020.

[00:27:04] I'm one of those election deniers. I believe it was stolen. I believe the evidence is overwhelming that there were massive irregularities. And I put them in my book, Crooked, What Really Happened in 2020 and How to Stop Vote Fraud. How about the show trial about January 6th, the House committee that rigged the whole thing, used a Hollywood producer, wouldn't allow witnesses to appear who backed President Trump,

[00:27:34] and added sound to the footage of the January 6th riot at the Capitol. I mean, and they didn't show any of the peaceful footage that Tucker Carlson uncovered and showed. And that showed that a lot of people who were there on January 6th weren't rioting. A lot of them went into the Capitol thinking they had a right to do so. And they wandered around talking to the police.

[00:27:59] And, of course, all you see is the hotheads out front breaking windows and tussling or fighting police. You know, and that was bad. But that's not the whole story. But I could go on. But you get the point. Well, let me just mention COVID because in your article you talk about the fact that we had, of course, six feet. And we know that that was made up. And the masking and the rest.

[00:28:24] And also the question as to whether or not once you get the vaccine you would not get the virus and on and on. But one of the things that has developed is that you had this professor at Stanford, Jay Bhattacharya, who actually was one of the people that put together the Great Barrington Declaration. Well, in a way that I think shows that Donald Trump has a great sense of humor, he's decided to put Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as the head of NIH.

[00:28:51] So there is a sense in which we have been through a lot of this during the pandemic. And I'm willing to forgive initially when a virus breaks out because you don't know how lethal it's going to be or anything else. But when later on we now have the e-mails, don't we, Robert, of all sorts of individuals who knew better and were riding back and forth to each other to tamp down anything that they thought might cause a person to reevaluate the vaccine.

[00:29:21] And so as a result, they would say things that they know were a lie and say it with a straight face and only now have been uncovered. Well, even President Biden said, quote, you're not going to get COVID-19 if you have these vaccinations. Now, you know, we might give him a little grace and say that's what he was told by these health officials. And he wasn't completely all there at the time anyway.

[00:29:48] Not as bad as today, but still, he didn't have all his marbles back then. They could have told him anything. So let's not blame him this time. And let's blame the health officials who really kept the truth from the American people. And like you said, masking six feet. But just the idea, once you're vaccinated, you will neither transmit it nor get it. And that is a totally lie on both counts.

[00:30:13] Let me pick up one because last night the president made a big deal about the tech industrial complex. A couple of days before he talked about this rising oligarchy. And it is interesting that when you've had the Biden administration working hand in gloves sometimes with some of these tech agencies to try to censor individuals. Oh, there's no problem there.

[00:30:37] All of a sudden, Elon Musk buys Twitter, turns it into X, and is now occasionally hanging around Donald Trump. And now we've got to be concerned about the tech industry beginning to have a tech oligarchy. And isn't that just striking as a little bit unbelievable in terms of the fact that for years we've been told that the government hasn't been involved with these tech agencies and these tech platforms. We now have the emails and we know that they were.

[00:31:08] Yeah, and they did more than suggest. They performed social media. But people, Mark Zuckerberg has been more and more forthcoming about this. And he played a big role in Biden's election in 2020. He donated $400 million in an effort to take over election offices and turn them into Democrat get-out-the-vote operations. Now I think he might regret that. And he's trying to show it by donating a million bucks to the Trump inauguration.

[00:31:37] And he's testified before Congress and given interviews saying, you know what, we were pushed around by government agents. They told us you will remove these things or we can make life miserable for you. That shouldn't be the case in America. We have a First Amendment. But the government has a lot of power. And for Mr. Biden last night, warning of, quote, and I quote him,

[00:32:03] a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences of their abuse of power is left unchecked, unquote. That's exactly what happened in his administration. And talk about powerful people abusing power. How about George Soros? He's a Hungarian-born leftist billionaire. Yeah, he gave him a Medal of Freedom. Yeah, a Medal of Freedom. That's right. Yeah, a Medal of Freedom.

[00:32:31] And this is a guy who is hardcore leftist. He's backed every left-wing group from Black Lives Matter or the ACLU. He was instrumental in the election of prosecutors in major cities like St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, who basically have orchestrated a crime wave by failing to prosecute criminals and letting them out easy.

[00:32:58] And this is – several of them have been thrown out of office by outraged citizens. But Soros was behind that. Talk about – and concentration of power? I mean, Jeff Bezos, who has come around apparently and has donated a million bucks to Trump's inauguration, maybe trying to make amends, is the owner of the Washington Post,

[00:33:22] which has been viscerally anti-Trump for the last – well, since Trump was in the process of getting his first nomination in 2016. And – let's take a break. When we come back, I want to get into one of the other very good columns by Robert Knight. Of course, we have a link to his website in case you'd like to know more about him, get some of his books and resources. We'll take a break. Be back with more right after this.

[00:33:55] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Robert Knight with you for a few more minutes. And let me just mention, first of all, we have a link to roberthnight.com. Don't have to remember all that because we have the link on the website. He mentioned just a minute ago his book called Crooked, What Really Happened in the 2020 Election, How to Stop the Fraud. And so if you said, well, I'd like to read that, you know, because he probably is a good researcher, writes for the Washington Times,

[00:34:22] used to be with the Los Angeles Times and works with a lot of different organizations. And over the years has worked with the Media Research Center and been at the Stanford Institute, Hoover Institute, and the rest. You might want to know about that. Another book I would point you to is The Coming Communist Wave is one that came out. And I was just thinking, Robert, the other day I had a young person come up to me, and he had just discovered that back in 1963 they had actually entered into the congressional record,

[00:34:50] the 45 Communist Goals, which is, of course, more than 60 years old now. But he just now discovered that, and I thought, well, if anything, we need to give you the book that's given you a lot more updates since what happened there. So if people go to your website, you still have those books available. I think one or two are out of print, which is unfortunate. But also they can contact you if they'd like to have you come and speak or even read the rest of your commentaries, can't they? Oh, yeah. Well, Crooked is available. I just got a new shipment of them.

[00:35:20] And The Coming Communist Wave, I have some copies of that. And they're discounted now. So people can feel free to order those. And I've got several other titles up there as well. But you referenced another of my columns earlier, and that was the Republican Revival. Oh, let's see. What else it's called? Yeah. Republican Revival. American Revs Up. And we posted that one for people to read. And that one came out just after Christmas.

[00:35:48] But, again, I see, as you said, a new vibe coming. What are you thinking? Oh, yeah. There are just so many good things. People see that the courts have clipped the wings of the Environmental Protection Agency, so their extreme climate agenda is no longer any good, which will open up fossil fuels and relieve our costs at the gas pump, and for everything else, frankly.

[00:36:16] You know that inflation really didn't take off until President Biden signed all those orders on day one in 2021. That stopped new exploration of oil and gas on public lands. And so what happened was people who had capped oil wells and gas wells had reopened them at great expense. You got a lot of those in Texas, Kirby. Yes, I do.

[00:36:44] They were able to get them open, but that cost a lot of money. So it raised costs incredibly, and that fueled all that inflation we saw at the grocery store and everywhere else. And then they went on a spending spree, trillions throwing money at it, and that made it even worse. But what we see lately is people feeling this burden is lifting, that good things are happening.

[00:37:08] More Americans are optimistic, according to surveys, that their finances will improve in 2025. And I mentioned Bible sales are up 22%. Something's going on in the spiritual realm as well. I happen to think we're on the cusp of a revival. I really do. I think people have seen that the godless, leftist philosophy only leads to disaster,

[00:37:35] and that the old ways work because they are based on God's word. And that's what works for people. Let's talk about that for a minute because we've had Jack Graham on his book, The Jesus Book, and, of course, talking about the Bible. And he was the first one a number of weeks ago talking about how Bible sales were up 22%. And that is a statistic that has now seemingly continued. So there are a lot of people interested in the Bible.

[00:38:02] You have covered some of this as well, that we have seen student revivals at Asbury and Texas A&M and a variety of other places that we probably wouldn't necessarily have recognized. And so there's all sorts of things happening in that regard. But I think there's another part of it, and that is it does seem to me, Robert,

[00:38:26] that the ideas of progressivism and atheism, they've been played out, and people are seeing their failure. And a good example of that is right now there are a lot of people, I suspect, in California that would like to recall Gavin Newsom and would like to give a pink slip to the mayor, Karen Bass of Los Angeles. Your thoughts? Yeah, I think their political futures have gone up in smoke, literally.

[00:38:54] People see that they were so busy doing DEI policies and playing leftist politics that they didn't take care of the basics. You know, it's funny that over the years, you know, Democrats have run Chicago. And when the Democrat machine was at its peak, I guess, under Mayor Daley, things still worked. For some reason, they were smart enough to at least empty the garbage and, you know, take care of this crime and that kind of stuff.

[00:39:22] But today's Democrats are so busy with a radical sexual agenda and DEI and all that sort of stuff, they're not taking care of business. And it's showing, especially in California. You know, Charles Cook put this out the other day. He says, look, we put up with a fair amount if the roads are smooth, the schools are working, crime is at a lower level. And if we do have a disaster, it's treated with some kind of sane and quick response.

[00:39:49] We'll put up with a fair amount of the kind of silliness that we've seen for some time or some of the just false ideology. But as you point out, once all the things begin to fall apart and the golden state of California, you've lived in California, I was born in California, is no longer the golden state. And now education is a mess. The roads are a mess. And you can't even put out the fires.

[00:40:14] I think people eventually say maybe it's a turning point and maybe that's going to affect even the next election. What are your thoughts? Oh, I think so. And I think all the you don't have to see much more than the pictures in San Francisco of the homeless tents all along. It used to be beautiful streets and, you know, needles in the streets and human byproducts. Yes. And people realize that these liberal policies don't work.

[00:40:43] They make life miserable for everybody. And the proof and these fires have just rocketed that whole perception that the liberal governance means mismanagement. And, you know, we've turned a corner with the Trump administration coming into power on Monday and the Republican Congress already doing things. And there's a feeling that a lot of this is going to be turned around. I mean, major companies are abandoning DEI policies.

[00:41:12] Every day you read about a new one. It was John Deere and Tractor Supply and then it was Walmart. And Microsoft actually did it last year. They got rid of their DEI system. And they're quiet about it because, after all, they're based in Pacific Northwest, which is very liberal.

[00:41:31] But even they see that this is not helping them meet their business goals by buying into the extreme identity politics of the left. And one other thing I'll mention, since we have to go, is not only are you seeing the pushback in the areas of DEI and ESG and everything else, you're also seeing a pushback in terms of some of the environmental issues. And that's your most recent column.

[00:41:58] The CO2 cabal is on the move but finally getting some pushback. So I would encourage people to read that. And how can you read it? Well, of course, you can go to The Washington Times. But even better, just simply go to Robert H. Knight. And that H needs to be in there, roberthnight.com. You'll find everything that you need to know. And, Robert, as always, look forward to the next time when we spend more time talking about some of your columns. So thank you for being with us today. Thanks so much, Kirby, and God bless you.

[00:42:28] We're going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to kind of change topics a little bit, and we will be focusing on films. You know we do that from time to time. And Abby Ossisi is an author where we talk about how maybe you can use some of these films for different parts of the church calendar. Of course, many of us in the past have maybe watched a Christmas film at Christmastime, or maybe we see the Ten Commandments on TV during Easter. But she's going to get into it in a little bit more detail. I think you're going to find it fascinating.

[00:42:56] Even if you don't watch the films, you can see maybe you grab some other things to celebrate as part of the church calendar. So we'll come back and talk about that with her right after this. The Bible tells us not to worry. And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today. Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry. God gives us a next step.

[00:43:26] He says we need to pray. But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult. And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement, a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation. Each week you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans, along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others.

[00:43:53] We'll also include a short free resource for you in each email so you can learn more about the issue at hand. Will you commit to pray for America? Go to pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner at the top of the page to subscribe. Again, that's pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner.

[00:44:20] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in America. Point of View will continue after this.