Point of View May 1, 2024 – Hour 2 : More God, More Peace

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

[00:00:11] And now, Kirby Anderson.

[00:00:19] Take an hour today we have with us our good friend Dr. Jerry Newcomb and we're going to

[00:00:24] talk about National Day of Prayer.

[00:00:26] And history and all the things that you always enjoy hearing from him.

[00:00:29] Then the last part of this hour, I should say, we'll spend some time focusing on a couple

[00:00:35] of issues, one of which is the Supreme Court decisions coming down on homelessness.

[00:00:40] And especially for some of you that are in California and Arizona, also Oregon and

[00:00:45] Idaho, some of these very important rulings are going to affect you.

[00:00:49] So we'll talk about what that might mean in just a minute.

[00:00:52] Jerry Newcomb, of course, is the executive director of the Providence Forum.

[00:00:56] He's also the senior producer and the on-air host of Trues That Transform, which of course

[00:01:01] is the broadcast of DJ Kedestrian Ministries.

[00:01:04] And of course, he's a graduate at Wheaton Graduate School, has his doctorate from Knox Theological

[00:01:10] Seminary.

[00:01:11] And Jerry, just always great to have you on the program with us.

[00:01:14] Oh, thank you, Kirby.

[00:01:15] Likewise.

[00:01:16] You know, the other day I was looking at this piece by Ira Stoll, and the reason

[00:01:20] for it is we've been talking about Jonathan Haidt's new book, The Anxious Generation,

[00:01:25] and we've been finding out how much has happened in terms of suicide ideation and anxiety

[00:01:32] and depression because of smartphones.

[00:01:34] But Ira Stoll actually said there might be another non-technology contributor to mental

[00:01:40] health crisis, and that is the lack of church attendance.

[00:01:44] And so I then published a very good piece by this guy, Jerry Newcomb, More God, More

[00:01:49] Peace, because you'd been reading the same piece.

[00:01:51] And it is, I think, striking about the fact that we now have individuals looking at church

[00:01:58] attendance and reminding us that indeed there is certainly one contributor to some

[00:02:04] of the social problems and psychological and mental problems.

[00:02:08] That is smartphones and of course even social media.

[00:02:12] But another is we have a society that as church attendance goes down, certainly

[00:02:19] mental health issues go up.

[00:02:22] And that's what you wrote about in a piece that we posted just two days ago.

[00:02:24] Wow.

[00:02:25] Well, as a matter of fact, I've got it right in front of me.

[00:02:29] One of the things that this gentleman writes or mentions is that there was a review

[00:02:33] a couple years ago of 215 different studies, each having more than a thousand participants.

[00:02:41] I mean, in other words, very reliable.

[00:02:44] And here's what they found, quote, weekly religious service attendance is longitudinally

[00:02:50] associated with lower mortality risk.

[00:02:52] So in other words, lowers your death rate per capita, lower depression, less suicide,

[00:02:59] better cardiovascular disease survival, better health behaviors and greater marital

[00:03:05] stability, happiness and purpose in life.

[00:03:09] End quote.

[00:03:11] Well, other than that, the point is that going to church actually adds to the longevity

[00:03:20] and the quality of one's life.

[00:03:22] And you know what's so interesting is that dimension of 2022 studies, you know,

[00:03:29] more than 200 of them finding essentially the same results through the years.

[00:03:34] Studies have found almost very consistently.

[00:03:37] No, not almost consistently.

[00:03:39] They have found consistently over and over and over.

[00:03:41] I remember there was an article in Focus on the Family probably 30 years ago and the

[00:03:45] title was something like, want to live longer?

[00:03:48] Go to church.

[00:03:49] Well, and again, that individual, Iris Stoll, was saying that as he talked to mental

[00:03:55] health people, there are some reasons for that just on the social level.

[00:03:59] And one of them is a supportive community, something we were talking about just a minute

[00:04:03] ago with Brandon Washington in his book, as well as just getting people out of bed,

[00:04:08] going out of the house, actually having some kind of meaning to their life.

[00:04:12] And those are the social benefits.

[00:04:14] By the time you add the spiritual benefits of committing your life to Jesus Christ,

[00:04:19] spending time in Bible study and prayer, we really do need to encourage people to

[00:04:25] go to church if for no other reason than for their mental and spiritual health.

[00:04:31] That's so true.

[00:04:32] And I think that point about meaningfulness, purpose in life, it's a really,

[00:04:37] really important point.

[00:04:39] You know, you've often heard about some statistics which show that sometimes when

[00:04:43] people retire, let's say after real busy, productive, professional life, they

[00:04:49] retire and within a year or two that they die.

[00:04:53] It was like, oh, so in other words, their purpose for living was whatever

[00:04:58] they were doing at the office or in their particular work.

[00:05:02] And I think as Christians, it's really great to make sure that we is really

[00:05:08] important that we align our purpose along with what God wants us to do.

[00:05:13] There's a reason God has put us on this earth.

[00:05:15] And knowing that really just does help make life more exciting and, you know,

[00:05:22] more fulfilling.

[00:05:23] In fact, I love what the pilgrims said when they were blown off course and

[00:05:27] they wrote up the first example of a kind of an agreement for self-government

[00:05:33] under God, the Mayflower Compact.

[00:05:35] They said we came for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian

[00:05:40] faith.

[00:05:41] So I would say to any, especially professing Christian, if you sometimes

[00:05:45] feel like you're a rudderless soul or whatever, you have no real purpose in

[00:05:49] life, how about that one?

[00:05:51] For the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.

[00:05:55] I think we could all, you know, if you are in Christ, that is absolutely a worthy

[00:06:01] goal and well worded.

[00:06:03] And that's from 1620.

[00:06:04] And it put them in good standing and they were kind of outcast from society,

[00:06:09] but they helped change world history by their coming here so they could just

[00:06:15] worship Jesus in the purity of their conscience.

[00:06:18] Just a great story.

[00:06:19] And of course, so many great stories that people can find at

[00:06:22] providenceforum.org.

[00:06:24] So we have that link there.

[00:06:25] Of course, we have a link to this one, More God, More Peace, which is a piece

[00:06:29] by Jerry Newcomb.

[00:06:30] So you can certainly follow that as well.

[00:06:32] But while we're on the pilgrims and we come back, we'll talk about some

[00:06:34] others. Prayer was very important.

[00:06:36] I mean, this idea of the pilgrims thankfulness as well as gratitude,

[00:06:43] but also prayers of petition, praying for rain at a time when there was

[00:06:48] drought.

[00:06:49] So many times in the Plymouth colony, prayer was absolutely essential.

[00:06:54] And that's why tomorrow we are encouraging people to get involved in some

[00:06:57] National Day of Prayer event.

[00:07:00] Yes, amen.

[00:07:01] So again, when we'll take a break, let's come back and get into some other

[00:07:05] aspects of this, because Jerry, one of the things I wanted to maybe focus on

[00:07:09] is the fact that as we go through history and I've given some messages on

[00:07:12] this, and I'm sure you have as well, how many times prayer was important?

[00:07:16] We've talked about the pilgrims, we can talk about the Puritans, we can

[00:07:19] talk about the first gathering together of the Continental Congress.

[00:07:24] Certainly we can talk about the time in which Abraham Lincoln or even before

[00:07:28] that, George Washington and then later Abraham Lincoln called the nation to

[00:07:31] prayer. So as we talk about some of this, we'll learn some history as we

[00:07:35] always do from you.

[00:07:37] And also, I just wanted you to when we come back, talk a little bit about

[00:07:40] some of the resources that are available because we desperately need

[00:07:45] and you know as much as anybody what we need to do to educate the next

[00:07:49] generation. A lot of our listeners who might be adults, they may have

[00:07:54] children or even grandchildren.

[00:07:56] And yet they're saying, I really don't feel capable of teaching about

[00:08:00] America's godly heritage because I really don't know much about it.

[00:08:04] I didn't get much of it in school and I don't really know how to teach

[00:08:08] that. So I want to come back to some of the resources that you have that

[00:08:11] make it so much easier to turn on a video, to watch a program and learn

[00:08:16] a little bit about that. So Jerry Newcomb is our guest today.

[00:08:19] We're talking about some great resources that might be helpful not only

[00:08:23] for tomorrow on the National Day of Prayer, but as we go through this

[00:08:27] year, I think there's some obvious teaching times like the Fourth of

[00:08:31] July and Thanksgiving and other times in which you can teach history

[00:08:35] to your children and grandchildren.

[00:08:37] We want to equip you to do that and we'll take a break.

[00:08:40] Be back right after this.

[00:08:41] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:03] What impact will robots and artificial intelligence have on jobs?

[00:09:06] In previous commentaries, I've discussed some of these questions

[00:09:09] and concerns. If you don't want to be replaced by a robot, we are

[00:09:12] told choose a service job like cutting hair or serving food.

[00:09:16] A recent article about fast food robots dismantles that advice.

[00:09:20] Ryan Mills begins with a story of a restaurant providing high quality,

[00:09:24] affordable Mediterranean dishes at a food truck park in San Francisco.

[00:09:28] It was created by three Stanford grad students.

[00:09:31] Each day, a small team prepares the ingredients than the robots take over.

[00:09:35] One review said the bad news artificial intelligence is going to kill us.

[00:09:39] The good news is AI can sure serve up some tasty Mediterranean

[00:09:43] at a beautiful price.

[00:09:45] The co-founder described their invention as something that would happen

[00:09:48] if a vending machine and a restaurant had a baby.

[00:09:51] There are some other examples.

[00:09:52] Sweet Green, an L.A.

[00:09:54] salad chain, debuted its fully automated infinite kitchen at a restaurant in Illinois.

[00:09:59] Salad bowls move down a conveyor belt and the robot automatically portions out

[00:10:04] the ingredients. A Cal Express burger joint has a robot that cooks burgers and fries.

[00:10:09] The kiosks powered by artificial intelligence allow customers to order and pay.

[00:10:14] Many believe this may be the first restaurant where all the cooking and ordering

[00:10:18] are fully automated.

[00:10:20] The inventor says the robots don't call in sick.

[00:10:22] They don't get drunk the night before work and come in with a hangover.

[00:10:26] Now, other restaurants are experimenting with robots to deliver food and robot

[00:10:30] bartenders and baristas are in the works.

[00:10:32] We will likely see more and more robots as states raise the minimum wage

[00:10:37] and labor cost increase.

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

[00:10:41] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting point of view dot net.

[00:10:53] That's point of view dot net.

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

[00:11:03] Back once again, we are talking with Jerry Newcomb.

[00:11:05] And first of all, let's talk about some of the resources available through

[00:11:10] You for some time have been taking various interviews, cutting them together,

[00:11:15] pasting them in different ways.

[00:11:17] And they're just some great resources that are available to our listeners.

[00:11:20] So talk about what people can obtain when they go to your forum projects

[00:11:25] that you have there at Providence Forum.

[00:11:28] Sure.

[00:11:28] Absolutely.

[00:11:29] I'm there right now, providenceforum.org.

[00:11:32] And I always try to make it virtually the first post you'll see.

[00:11:36] It's it's something called the Foundation of American Liberty film series

[00:11:41] on America's Christian roots.

[00:11:43] I update this regularly.

[00:11:44] There are seven films that I have made an hour long each.

[00:11:48] And in addition to each film, there's lots of bonus material.

[00:11:52] So for example, I know DVDs are not used by everybody these days, but

[00:11:57] the DVD copies have the hour long documentary of each episode plus.

[00:12:02] These, these additional commentaries.

[00:12:04] And then what I've done is I've tried to carve these down into a little bite

[00:12:08] size shape.

[00:12:09] So we even have a YouTube page, YouTube space, Providence Forum.

[00:12:16] And you can see all these different videos that we have, including several

[00:12:20] with the founder of Providence Forum, Dr.

[00:12:22] Peter Lillback, who donated it to us.

[00:12:26] But because he only had about 20 to 30 of them, we added several more.

[00:12:31] So I don't, I don't even know.

[00:12:32] I've lost count how many there are, but just a little segments just showing you

[00:12:36] the history of of our nation and how God and the Christian faith and the

[00:12:42] Bible played a key role.

[00:12:44] Well, again, you have them like a city on a hill, beginning of wisdom endowed

[00:12:48] by their creator.

[00:12:48] We the people, George Washington, the road to independence.

[00:12:52] Let's talk about that because just a minute ago we were talking about the

[00:12:55] importance of prayer with the pilgrims, a city on a hill.

[00:12:58] That's the Puritans.

[00:12:59] And then, of course, the early years before we had, of course, an American

[00:13:04] Revolution, we still had so many times in which individuals came to this

[00:13:10] country in part because they were looking for religious liberty and they

[00:13:14] certainly understood the value of praying for this nation.

[00:13:19] Oh, absolutely.

[00:13:21] Prayer was extremely important.

[00:13:23] And in fact, if you look at the settling era and also look at their charters,

[00:13:29] you can see the Christian faith is mentioned explicitly in many of the

[00:13:34] examples.

[00:13:35] And in fact, you went to Yale, I understand for graduate studies.

[00:13:39] Is that correct?

[00:13:40] Yes.

[00:13:40] Okay.

[00:13:41] Well, Yale University would kind of liberal now in some places, but

[00:13:45] nonetheless, yeah, nonetheless, they have something called the Avalon project.

[00:13:51] The Avalon project is really wonderful.

[00:13:54] What it is, is basically they have preserved the online copies of key

[00:14:01] documents in Western civilization, including the American documents.

[00:14:06] So a lot of times you can find the various documents.

[00:14:11] For example, if you just search under Mayflower Compact and you wanted the

[00:14:16] text that the pilgrims wrote.

[00:14:18] Okay.

[00:14:18] So it would show up there.

[00:14:20] It would also show up by the way.

[00:14:22] I really appreciate lately, the library of Congress in the last 15, 20 years.

[00:14:28] They have all these different documents online.

[00:14:32] It's so great.

[00:14:33] It's so great to have the internet and have these resources available to us

[00:14:37] because a lot of what's happened is the children today, a lot of children

[00:14:41] in school have been taught things that just are so contrary to the true

[00:14:45] history of America.

[00:14:47] Obviously there was slavery and other evils like that, but the bottom line

[00:14:52] is they created a nation that ultimately was in a collision course, if

[00:14:59] you will, with such things as slavery.

[00:15:01] And slavery was not unique to America.

[00:15:03] What was unique was working so hard to uproot it.

[00:15:08] And our British friends beat us to it in some ways, obviously with

[00:15:13] the Christian crusade against slavery from William Wilberforce, but that

[00:15:18] took them 50 years.

[00:15:20] And part one was abolish the slave trade.

[00:15:25] Then part two was free all the slaves and that happened, but it

[00:15:29] again took about 50 years.

[00:15:31] Well, before Wilberforce was even successful in either part of those

[00:15:36] two part goals, the American founders in writing the constitution said that

[00:15:43] within 20 years of this going into effect or being ratified within 20

[00:15:47] years, the slave trade will be abolished.

[00:15:50] That's in our constitution and it was, but the issue is that, okay, so

[00:15:55] by the year 1808 it gets abolished, but there were still so many slaves

[00:16:01] or enslaved people, that's the new political correct term on American

[00:16:05] soil.

[00:16:05] And then there was technologies that started to increase the demand.

[00:16:09] So it didn't have the full impact.

[00:16:12] It probably would have, you know, at an earlier iteration.

[00:16:18] Bottom line is we ended up fighting a civil war killing about what?

[00:16:23] 700,000 Americans and the ultimate issue and the ultimate resolution was

[00:16:28] to uproot slavery.

[00:16:29] Then we had to deal with the Jim Crow laws.

[00:16:31] But again, that was dealt with successfully because we have the

[00:16:36] foundation and the foundation says we're endowed by our creator.

[00:16:41] We're made by our creator and he is the one who has made us equal and has

[00:16:46] endowed us with certain unalienable rights.

[00:16:48] And among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[00:16:52] So the foundation is there even though many Americans, especially young ones

[00:16:56] who don't know about this stuff, they are a war with America as founded.

[00:17:01] And it's really quite a shame, but we've got the truth on our side.

[00:17:05] And so at providenceforum.org, we're just trying to show people, you

[00:17:09] know, all the different truths and I'll give you an example if you wish.

[00:17:13] Sure.

[00:17:13] Well, I wonder why since we're almost out of time, I wanted to at least have

[00:17:17] you talk about George Washington because you and Peter Lillebeck, who

[00:17:21] we just mentioned his name a minute ago, created a number one bestseller

[00:17:25] and it's called George Washington's Sacred Fire.

[00:17:28] And Jerry, there are just a lot of people that still are convinced

[00:17:32] that he was a deist or a Unitarian.

[00:17:34] He wasn't really a Christian.

[00:17:37] He really didn't have any interest in praying, even though we have

[00:17:40] pictures and paintings and all sorts of things and diaries of all that.

[00:17:44] So have we in some respects not understood the real historical

[00:17:49] background of George Washington himself?

[00:17:52] Yeah.

[00:17:52] If George Washington was not a dedicated Christian, then he

[00:17:56] was a tremendous actor.

[00:17:58] And now he didn't go around talking about Jesus all the time, but he did

[00:18:02] talk about the Lord, you know, in very important times.

[00:18:06] So for example, when, when the war was over, he, or at least there was

[00:18:11] a piece he wrote to all the different governors and he said that it's

[00:18:17] called the circular to the States, June 1783, at the very end, he said,

[00:18:21] I now make it my prayer that will all essentially imitate Christ.

[00:18:26] He, the words he uses are the phrase is the divine author of our blessed

[00:18:31] religion.

[00:18:34] And if we don't do that, that is, if we don't imitate Christ, we can

[00:18:39] never hope to be a happy nation.

[00:18:41] If you look at the, you know, scan the horizon today, are we

[00:18:45] imitating Jesus Christ?

[00:18:47] No.

[00:18:48] Are we a happy nation?

[00:18:49] No.

[00:18:51] I mean, this is so clear to me.

[00:18:53] And if you look at Washington's life and, you know, examples of

[00:18:59] prayers and stuff with, he was very devout.

[00:19:02] He had a little pocket size copy tailor made for him of the book of

[00:19:08] common prayer of his own denomination, the Anglican church, they is the

[00:19:13] Episcopal church, and it was the 1662 version, which we said in that book.

[00:19:19] Back in 2006, that's when the book was published.

[00:19:22] We said that that book, that copy, the 1662 book of common prayer from

[00:19:27] the Anglican church was more sound theologically than 95% of books that

[00:19:34] you would find in a Christian bookstore today.

[00:19:37] And that shows you how old that statement is because there aren't

[00:19:39] Christian bookstores, you know, now all that stuff is online, but I

[00:19:43] think this is really, really important.

[00:19:46] And then just quick example, they have the inauguration.

[00:19:50] Okay.

[00:19:51] They have the inauguration in the inaugural religious.

[00:19:53] He says we must thank God because he's the one that allowed us to

[00:19:56] become independent.

[00:19:58] Then he leads all the government leaders over nearby.

[00:20:02] This is in New York city, the capital at the time to St.

[00:20:05] Paul's chapel.

[00:20:06] They have a two hour Christian worship service, including the holy

[00:20:11] Eucharist and Washington participated in that, you know, praying for the

[00:20:15] new nation and God's wisdom and help to guide us as we, you know, move

[00:20:22] in Felicity, as he would put it, you know, trying to do the right thing under God

[00:20:27] self rule under God.

[00:20:29] That's the essence of the American experiment and George Washington

[00:20:32] helped us achieve that Liberty so we could experience that self rule under God.

[00:20:37] That's so good.

[00:20:38] Again, we have information about a Providence forum.

[00:20:42] Take advantage of the resources that are there to scroll all the way down.

[00:20:45] You'll find that, of course, we have a link to Jerry Newcombe's

[00:20:49] website as well.

[00:20:50] And of course we've posted his piece.

[00:20:52] Came out just a couple of days ago and I posted it then and I posted again

[00:20:55] today, more God, more peace.

[00:20:57] That's why church attendance is so important.

[00:20:59] Jerry's always great to be with you and as always look forward

[00:21:02] to the next opportunity.

[00:21:04] Okay.

[00:21:05] Thank you, Kirby.

[00:21:06] All the best.

[00:21:07] We're going to take a break and just think about that at two hour prayer

[00:21:10] meeting from these people that are supposed to be non-Christians.

[00:21:13] Those non-Christians sure were religious, weren't they?

[00:21:15] You know, they had one of the prayer meetings before the continental

[00:21:19] convention that lasted all day.

[00:21:21] Boy, those atheists, they sure did a lot of praying.

[00:21:24] Maybe they were Christians.

[00:21:25] We'll be right back.

[00:21:31] In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not

[00:21:36] with guns and bombs, but words and ideas.

[00:21:40] London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism and legendary

[00:21:45] Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon.

[00:21:48] London was in many ways, the center of the world economically,

[00:21:51] militarily and intellectually.

[00:21:54] Mark sought to destroy religion, the family and everything.

[00:21:58] The Bible supports Spurgeon stood against him warning of socialism's dangers.

[00:22:04] Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth.

[00:22:08] It is truth for all of life.

[00:22:11] Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to

[00:22:13] stand against darkness today?

[00:22:16] Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered

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[00:22:36] So visit point of view dot net slash signup right now, point

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[00:22:43] Point of view will continue after this.

[00:22:58] You are listening to point of view.

[00:23:03] The opinions expressed on point of view do not necessarily reflect

[00:23:06] the views of the management or staff of this station.

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

[00:23:14] Back for the final half hour.

[00:23:15] Let me just mention as a program note tomorrow we have John lot

[00:23:18] with us.

[00:23:19] You know him primarily as an individual of the years that

[00:23:21] has talked about the Second Amendment, but also has been

[00:23:25] doing a lot of research in crime and has uncovered I know

[00:23:28] this will surprise you that the mainstream media has been

[00:23:31] doing a really poor job made her in fact a really inaccurate

[00:23:36] and maybe even deceptive job about crime statistics.

[00:23:40] So we're going to get into a little bit that with him and

[00:23:43] then Carl Vatters will be with us.

[00:23:45] We'll be talking about his de-sizing the church getting into

[00:23:48] some church issues again that I think you'll find helpful.

[00:23:50] But I believe we want to start out that first maybe half hour

[00:23:54] by getting into a little more detail on what's going on on

[00:23:57] these campuses and each day of course we'll cover it.

[00:24:00] I suspect it's going to be around for some time.

[00:24:02] So rather than devoting whole programs to it I'll sort of

[00:24:06] give you a little bit of an update each day and maybe

[00:24:08] we'll talk a little bit more about what can be done.

[00:24:10] With that in mind one of the things that I felt necessary is

[00:24:16] over the last couple of years it was important for us maybe

[00:24:19] to cover more on issues like economics.

[00:24:22] We'll be talking about that in just a few minutes in the

[00:24:24] piece that I've posted by Stephen Moore about how to

[00:24:27] shrink the federal budget and on emotional issues we've

[00:24:31] talked about that.

[00:24:32] But another one I don't think we ever up until about a

[00:24:35] year or two talked about homelessness.

[00:24:37] Now we have a booklet I've written on this and the next

[00:24:40] article is important for a couple of reasons.

[00:24:44] First the Supreme Court is considering these two cases

[00:24:47] although the primary one is the one out of Oregon but

[00:24:50] there was also one out of Idaho on the issue of

[00:24:53] homelessness.

[00:24:54] But I also want to cover it not only because of that but

[00:24:57] because as I've had a chance to travel around I've run into

[00:25:01] more homelessness in many of the cities and communities

[00:25:05] where we broadcast.

[00:25:07] And so it's becoming a bigger issue.

[00:25:10] Let me just maybe talk about one particular area and this

[00:25:15] would be in Sacramento California.

[00:25:17] It'll be very obvious why I'm using California at the

[00:25:20] moment.

[00:25:21] But here Ryan Mills says in one neighborhood a homeless

[00:25:24] man on a skateboard chased people with a chainsaw.

[00:25:28] Others threatened residents with guns and attacked them

[00:25:31] with knives garden shears and broken wine bottles.

[00:25:35] One of the individuals there was actually diagnosed with

[00:25:40] post traumatic syndrome in other neighborhoods children's

[00:25:43] soccer games were canceled because dirty needles littered

[00:25:47] the field and you have homeless people harass workers

[00:25:52] and smash windows in downtown businesses.

[00:25:56] They accumulate mounds of trash attracting rats and

[00:25:59] other vermin.

[00:26:00] They use local rivers to wash themselves and they also

[00:26:04] relieve themselves and dump trash in the rivers.

[00:26:07] And of course what you have is then residents who

[00:26:11] complained about this were told by city staffers to get

[00:26:15] used to it or to move or to step over the needles or

[00:26:18] be thankful that they're privileged enough to have

[00:26:21] homes.

[00:26:22] What we're talking about is a lawsuit that has been

[00:26:25] brought by a district attorney.

[00:26:28] Sien Ho who is a Democrat in Sacramento.

[00:26:32] This may be a very important one because as you'll find

[00:26:36] out in just a minute even if the Supreme Court rules

[00:26:40] correctly and I believe that they will on the Martin

[00:26:43] versus Boise and Johnson versus Grants past cases all

[00:26:47] that's simply going to say is is you have the

[00:26:50] freedom to clean up the homeless but you don't have

[00:26:53] the motivation to do so.

[00:26:56] And so this is why this collection of stories from

[00:27:01] the district attorney who by the way is a Democrat

[00:27:04] and individual that has been dealing with this has

[00:27:07] accused California's cities about the fact that

[00:27:13] these unhoused residents actually live in

[00:27:16] conditions typical of third world countries.

[00:27:19] He also said that the biggest problem is that

[00:27:23] these city leaders and again we've talked about

[00:27:26] San Francisco and Berkeley and of course this

[00:27:29] one is Sacramento and I'm just using a few

[00:27:32] California ones in just a few minutes we'll pick out

[00:27:34] some other states but I just thought I'd focus on

[00:27:36] that because that's his lawsuit out of Sacramento.

[00:27:40] He says it's just not compassionate to die on

[00:27:42] the streets.

[00:27:43] So in some respects the city leaders are stuck

[00:27:45] between their compassion for homeless residents

[00:27:48] and allowing this chaos to continue.

[00:27:51] So right now you have these two cases although

[00:27:55] they're primarily known as the grants past case

[00:27:57] because they put the two together and those are

[00:28:01] decisions that have come down from the Ninth

[00:28:03] Circuit Court which is in San Francisco.

[00:28:06] And they basically said that you cannot actually

[00:28:10] clean up these homeless shelters because and this

[00:28:14] is according to the Ninth Circuit Court if you

[00:28:16] can believe this by prosecuting people for

[00:28:19] sleeping or camping in public when they have no

[00:28:22] home or shelter.

[00:28:23] Well that's a violation of the Eighth Amendment's

[00:28:26] prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

[00:28:30] I will guarantee you having read some of the

[00:28:33] founding documents and I know Jerry Newcomb

[00:28:35] would agree as well having read those founding

[00:28:37] documents and the Federalist Papers and the

[00:28:39] notes the Constitution Commissioning like that

[00:28:42] they were not thinking of homeless people

[00:28:44] when they actually dealt with the eighth

[00:28:47] amendment of the Constitution.

[00:28:50] But nevertheless that's where we are.

[00:28:52] So earlier this year the Supreme Court agreed

[00:28:54] to hear the grants past case and most people

[00:28:58] believe that the court probably will either

[00:29:00] overturn or severely limit the ruling from

[00:29:04] the Ninth Circuit Court giving local governments

[00:29:07] the go ahead to deal with a homeless problem.

[00:29:11] But the problem is that just gives them the

[00:29:13] freedom to do so but it doesn't necessarily

[00:29:17] give them the motivation to do so.

[00:29:20] And so let me now since I've been picking

[00:29:22] on California maybe I'll pick on Phoenix for a

[00:29:25] few minutes and we'll go to Arizona and the

[00:29:27] Phoenix is another place where again city

[00:29:30] leaders have said that they want to be

[00:29:32] compassionate about those individuals that are

[00:29:36] living there.

[00:29:37] And so as a result they argument being made

[00:29:42] right now is even if indeed the grants

[00:29:45] past case is overturned and it's either

[00:29:47] going to be overturned or at least

[00:29:49] severely limited there is a real need to have

[00:29:53] some lawsuits ready for Berkeley for San

[00:29:56] Francisco for Seattle and even for what is

[00:30:00] happening in Phoenix.

[00:30:02] Again you start looking at some of the things

[00:30:05] that are unfolding it is really pretty

[00:30:08] amazing that this has happened again just to

[00:30:12] give you an idea.

[00:30:13] One of the quotes here in the lawsuit talks

[00:30:16] about a homeless man swinging his sword on a

[00:30:19] resident's front porch a drug dealer walking

[00:30:22] around cracking a whip and threatening people

[00:30:26] downtown employees forced to hide in their

[00:30:28] business bathrooms cars set on fire

[00:30:32] neighborhoods filled with garbage lots of

[00:30:34] garbage.

[00:30:36] I can't read some of this but let me just

[00:30:38] mention one one female lying in the street

[00:30:41] didn't have any clothes on another man

[00:30:43] knocking over mailboxes and yelling and

[00:30:45] screaming.

[00:30:46] And last year let's focus now just on Phoenix

[00:30:49] for a moment the Arizona Superior Court judge

[00:30:53] found that Phoenix leaders were illegally

[00:30:55] maintaining a public nuisance and a biohazard

[00:31:00] in the what's called the homeless zone which

[00:31:03] is just a massive encampment where people

[00:31:06] smoked and injected drugs openly engaged in

[00:31:09] prostitution freely and filled storm drains

[00:31:13] with human waste rotten food garbage that

[00:31:15] flowed into the local river.

[00:31:17] Multiple burned bodies including the body of

[00:31:19] a newborn were found in and around the camp.

[00:31:22] And so how are we going to deal with some

[00:31:26] of that.

[00:31:27] This article goes into some detail first of

[00:31:29] all to declare these zones these homeless

[00:31:33] zones as an environmental disaster.

[00:31:36] We do have environmental laws that actually

[00:31:38] could be used to compel local governments

[00:31:41] to address homeless camps that are strewn

[00:31:44] with litter and junk and human race and drug

[00:31:47] paraphernalia and all the rest.

[00:31:50] A lot of environmental laws are pretty

[00:31:51] strict and that is the case.

[00:31:53] And of course the district attorney at one

[00:31:57] point oftentimes ask people in the Central

[00:31:59] Valley how many of you have wanted to swim

[00:32:03] in the American River or the Sacramento

[00:32:05] River.

[00:32:06] No hands go up.

[00:32:07] Does anybody here want to kayak does anybody

[00:32:10] want to eat fish from the river.

[00:32:11] Of course none of the hands go up.

[00:32:13] He says this is a jewel we're known as the

[00:32:15] river city yet nobody wants to enjoy that

[00:32:17] public jewel and resource.

[00:32:20] So one idea is to use environmental law.

[00:32:23] The second is to use the Americans with

[00:32:25] disabilities law.

[00:32:28] This one comes from a lawyer in Portland

[00:32:30] Oregon who actually began to realize that

[00:32:33] he could sue because they were violating

[00:32:36] the Americans with Disability Act and

[00:32:38] Rehabilitation Act because you had blind

[00:32:41] and disabled residents who were so

[00:32:43] intimidated by the camps that they

[00:32:46] wouldn't leave their apartments.

[00:32:48] And so brought together a class action

[00:32:50] lawsuit against the city this time in

[00:32:53] Portland so that they would be forced to

[00:32:56] keep the sidewalks clear of debris and

[00:32:59] tent encampments.

[00:33:01] And so it does seem to me that there is

[00:33:03] a good possibility that this case in the

[00:33:05] Supreme Court will be overturned or

[00:33:08] limited.

[00:33:09] But the real question is what is next.

[00:33:12] And some of these new lawsuits and even

[00:33:15] some of the laws on the books might be a

[00:33:17] way to address this issue.

[00:33:19] So if you have a homeless problem in

[00:33:21] your community can I encourage you to

[00:33:24] get this article it is written by Ryan

[00:33:26] Mills.

[00:33:27] It goes on for about eight pages and I

[00:33:30] think you're going to find it to be a

[00:33:31] kind of a good manual on what you or

[00:33:34] maybe your city council can do to

[00:33:38] address the issue of homelessness.

[00:33:39] And it's our first article on the

[00:33:41] website.

[00:33:42] We'll take a break.

[00:33:43] Come back and talk about how to

[00:33:44] shrink the federal budget right after

[00:33:46] this.

[00:33:56] You're listening to Point of View your

[00:33:58] listener supported source for truth.

[00:34:01] Back once again this show we can for

[00:34:02] just a few minutes talk about some

[00:34:05] reforms to shrink the federal budget.

[00:34:07] Are any of these going to be

[00:34:08] implemented anytime soon?

[00:34:10] Probably not.

[00:34:11] But I think illustrates a very

[00:34:13] important point.

[00:34:15] Lots of times when we see so much

[00:34:17] spending and we're putting more and

[00:34:19] more debt on the backs of our

[00:34:20] children and grandchildren there's

[00:34:22] always the reaction well what would

[00:34:24] you do to solve that.

[00:34:25] Well here's four ideas some of

[00:34:27] which have been implemented in the

[00:34:29] past could be implemented in the

[00:34:31] future.

[00:34:32] I don't have a lot of hope right

[00:34:33] now because neither Joe Biden nor

[00:34:37] former president Donald Trump have

[00:34:39] shown much interest in trying to

[00:34:41] close the various loopholes to

[00:34:44] shrink the size and scope of the

[00:34:46] federal government.

[00:34:47] Although I think the former

[00:34:48] president running for reelection

[00:34:50] has at least some ideas related

[00:34:52] to reforming some of the

[00:34:54] regulations which would help but

[00:34:57] there is going to be a need for

[00:34:59] Congress even more so than the

[00:35:01] president to actually show some

[00:35:03] willingness to shrink the

[00:35:05] federal government.

[00:35:06] First of all let's talk about

[00:35:07] why am I even talking about

[00:35:09] this.

[00:35:10] Well Stephen Moore who's been on

[00:35:11] the program with us before said

[00:35:13] this year Congress hit a new low

[00:35:15] even with record high deficits of

[00:35:17] nearly two trillion dollars a

[00:35:19] year.

[00:35:20] Get that in your head.

[00:35:21] We used to talk about the fact

[00:35:22] that the accumulated national

[00:35:25] debt from George Washington to

[00:35:26] Ronald Reagan was a trillion

[00:35:28] dollars.

[00:35:29] It didn't even reach two

[00:35:30] trillion dollars until George

[00:35:31] Herbert Walker Bush was in

[00:35:33] office and here just the

[00:35:34] deficit in one year is going

[00:35:36] to be two trillion dollars.

[00:35:38] But anyway I digress.

[00:35:40] He then goes on to say

[00:35:40] Democrats and Republicans on

[00:35:42] Capitol Hill held hands in a

[00:35:44] bipartisan agreement to spend

[00:35:45] ninety five billion dollars on

[00:35:47] foreign aid bill for Ukraine

[00:35:49] and Israel without one penny

[00:35:51] being paid for by offsetting

[00:35:53] spending cuts even though you

[00:35:55] have a what he calls a flabby

[00:35:57] budget that now exceeds seven

[00:36:00] billion dollars.

[00:36:02] And so just in the first three

[00:36:03] months of this year Congress

[00:36:05] borrowed another half a

[00:36:06] trillion dollars that's five

[00:36:08] hundred billion dollars.

[00:36:09] And he says the members of

[00:36:10] Congress should be wearing a

[00:36:11] t-shirt that read stop us

[00:36:14] before we spend again.

[00:36:16] OK here's your four.

[00:36:17] You want to write them down.

[00:36:18] You can write them down if you

[00:36:19] want to read them.

[00:36:20] That is on the website.

[00:36:22] First of all presidential

[00:36:23] impoundment authority.

[00:36:25] That's a big set of words for

[00:36:26] simply saying that the

[00:36:28] president like the CEO of a

[00:36:29] company doesn't have to spend

[00:36:31] the money that has been

[00:36:32] allocated and every president

[00:36:34] from Thomas Jefferson who used

[00:36:36] the power to stop shipbuilding

[00:36:37] for the military to Abraham

[00:36:39] Lincoln to even Franklin

[00:36:41] Delano Roosevelt who used the

[00:36:43] authority to end New Deal

[00:36:44] programs as the country ended

[00:36:46] World War Two to Richard

[00:36:47] Nixon.

[00:36:48] There would be an opportunity

[00:36:50] for the current next president.

[00:36:52] I think the current president

[00:36:53] has no interest.

[00:36:54] Maybe a future president would

[00:36:57] be willing to do that.

[00:36:58] I would have to point out

[00:36:59] that he doesn't mention the

[00:37:00] fact that when Richard Nixon

[00:37:02] did it Congress ruled again.

[00:37:04] I mean not Congress Supreme

[00:37:05] Court ruled against him.

[00:37:07] Congress did too by the way.

[00:37:09] But I think there is a different

[00:37:10] Supreme Court now in that

[00:37:12] regard.

[00:37:13] So one is just because Congress

[00:37:16] allocated the funds doesn't

[00:37:18] mean you have to spend them.

[00:37:20] Number two requiring a

[00:37:22] supermajority vote to raise

[00:37:24] taxes.

[00:37:25] He says President Biden wants

[00:37:27] to balance the budget with

[00:37:28] four trillion dollars of

[00:37:30] economically disastrous tax

[00:37:32] increases and no spending cuts.

[00:37:35] If you watched and I watch it

[00:37:37] so you don't have to this

[00:37:38] embarrassment of the Treasury

[00:37:41] Secretary Janet Yellen who was

[00:37:43] asked for example how much is

[00:37:45] the deficit.

[00:37:46] She had to look at it on a

[00:37:47] piece of paper.

[00:37:48] How much do you predict it's

[00:37:49] going to be.

[00:37:50] How much is that related to

[00:37:52] the GDP.

[00:37:54] How much would it be fifty

[00:37:55] five hundred percent of the GDP.

[00:37:57] I mean it was embarrassing to

[00:37:59] have somebody who is the

[00:38:00] Treasury Secretary have to stop

[00:38:02] and look up pieces of paper on

[00:38:04] numbers I could rattle off the

[00:38:06] top of my head in many cases

[00:38:07] but that's just where it is.

[00:38:10] And so again this idea of let's

[00:38:12] just raise taxes another four

[00:38:15] trillion dollars.

[00:38:17] Maybe not.

[00:38:18] Let's require a supermajority

[00:38:20] to raise taxes.

[00:38:21] Number three the Millionaire

[00:38:24] Subsidy Elimination Act.

[00:38:27] And this was an idea that was

[00:38:28] proposed interesting enough by

[00:38:30] the economist Walter Williams

[00:38:32] when he was alive and it's

[00:38:34] something that has been

[00:38:34] proposed.

[00:38:35] No individual with an income of

[00:38:37] more than a million dollars

[00:38:40] should be eligible for federal

[00:38:42] aid payments and no business

[00:38:45] entity with more than a

[00:38:47] billion dollars in revenues

[00:38:49] should be eligible for federal

[00:38:51] corporate welfare subsidies.

[00:38:54] I know it's controversial but it

[00:38:55] doesn't have to be.

[00:38:57] We keep asking the question

[00:38:58] why does Bill Gates have to

[00:39:00] receive Social Security.

[00:39:02] Why can't we say you know I

[00:39:04] think you're good.

[00:39:05] You probably don't need

[00:39:06] Social Security.

[00:39:07] Why does somebody who makes a

[00:39:09] million dollars still benefit

[00:39:12] from all sorts of indirect

[00:39:14] subsidies that go to them

[00:39:17] sometimes direct subsidies and

[00:39:18] more importantly why does

[00:39:20] Amazon or Apple others that

[00:39:23] already have incredible revenues

[00:39:25] of a billion dollars still

[00:39:27] get some of these corporate

[00:39:29] welfare subsidies.

[00:39:31] You see how that one I think

[00:39:33] really could put together both

[00:39:34] Republicans and Democrats and

[00:39:37] make some sense.

[00:39:38] And the fourth one it's a

[00:39:40] little bit hard to explain

[00:39:41] but let me see if I can do it

[00:39:42] real quickly here.

[00:39:43] It's called the budget stamps

[00:39:45] solution.

[00:39:46] This was actually suggested by

[00:39:48] an economist in the Reagan

[00:39:49] administration under the plan

[00:39:51] the government issue the

[00:39:52] special blue currency called

[00:39:54] budget stamps that would be

[00:39:56] issued to all recipients of

[00:39:57] federal spending much in the

[00:39:59] way you get fed food stamps

[00:40:00] right now.

[00:40:02] But budget stamps value would

[00:40:04] fluctuate with the amount of

[00:40:06] excess spending authorized by

[00:40:08] Congress.

[00:40:09] So as a result if tax

[00:40:12] collections were only

[00:40:14] estimated at 90 percent of

[00:40:16] spending then the budget stamp

[00:40:18] would only be worth 90 cents

[00:40:21] and so the incentive would be

[00:40:23] upon members of Congress to

[00:40:26] make sure that those

[00:40:28] particular stamps were worth

[00:40:30] full value.

[00:40:31] And so again this is something

[00:40:33] that could unite both

[00:40:34] Republicans and Democrats

[00:40:35] Democrats being more likely to

[00:40:37] be concerned about food stamps

[00:40:40] Medicare or Medicaid at least

[00:40:43] and but you know Republicans

[00:40:46] and others may be more

[00:40:47] interested in various

[00:40:50] corporations although more and

[00:40:52] more the party of the

[00:40:53] corporations is now the

[00:40:55] Democratic Party.

[00:40:55] But nevertheless you can see

[00:40:57] that whether you're talking

[00:40:58] about Social Security whether

[00:41:00] you're talking about the

[00:41:01] Pentagon and defense projects

[00:41:03] whether you're talking about

[00:41:04] green energy projects you're

[00:41:06] really talking about something

[00:41:07] that would be across the board

[00:41:09] and it does seem to me that

[00:41:11] you've got to come up with

[00:41:12] some solutions that would be

[00:41:14] painful for both sides for

[00:41:16] those who represent urban

[00:41:18] constituencies and those who

[00:41:20] represent rural constituencies

[00:41:23] some who are Republicans some

[00:41:25] are Democrats but still hold

[00:41:27] them accountable.

[00:41:28] There is nothing right now to

[00:41:29] hold the federal government

[00:41:32] in the amount of

[00:41:33] accountability.

[00:41:34] And yet let's look at the

[00:41:35] fact that virtually all 50

[00:41:37] states have a balanced budget.

[00:41:40] Some of them are a little bit

[00:41:42] flaky some of them are

[00:41:44] have a lot of creative

[00:41:46] accounting and I'm looking at

[00:41:47] you California in particular

[00:41:50] Gavin Newsom but nevertheless

[00:41:52] most of them are forced to

[00:41:54] have a balanced budget and

[00:41:56] the federal government is not

[00:41:58] so again a presidential

[00:42:00] impoundment authority a super

[00:42:02] majority vote for raising

[00:42:04] taxes a millionaire subsidy

[00:42:07] elimination act which I think

[00:42:08] is a really good idea and the

[00:42:10] budget stamp solution because

[00:42:13] if anything these are important

[00:42:16] ways to actually begin to

[00:42:18] shrink the federal budget and

[00:42:20] he ends with this almost no

[00:42:23] one in the Washington swamp

[00:42:25] will like these ideas.

[00:42:26] That's all the more reason to

[00:42:28] adopt them.

[00:42:30] Again will any of these happen

[00:42:31] anytime soon.

[00:42:32] Probably not but when somebody

[00:42:34] says well what do you propose

[00:42:36] to shrink the federal budget.

[00:42:38] Here are some common sense

[00:42:40] ideas that could be

[00:42:42] implemented so that we aren't

[00:42:44] continually adding up more and

[00:42:46] more federal debt with no one

[00:42:49] wanting to take responsibility

[00:42:51] and all the time we just

[00:42:52] kick the can down the road.

[00:42:55] So I thought Stephen Moore did

[00:42:57] the exercise.

[00:42:58] I let you maybe take some of

[00:42:59] these to your elected

[00:43:01] representative and see what

[00:43:02] they think.

[00:43:03] Megan thank you for

[00:43:03] engineering the program Steve

[00:43:05] thank you for reducing the

[00:43:05] program we will see you

[00:43:07] tomorrow on Thursday right

[00:43:08] here on point of view.

[00:43:11] There is an old military

[00:43:13] saying if you don't have

[00:43:14] communications you don't have

[00:43:17] anything good information is

[00:43:19] the key to success not only

[00:43:21] for those in the military

[00:43:22] but for all of us.

[00:43:24] You can't take positive

[00:43:25] productive and helpful action

[00:43:28] if you don't have good

[00:43:29] information.

[00:43:30] Point of view radio's main

[00:43:31] role is to provide good

[00:43:33] information and we

[00:43:35] distribute that information

[00:43:36] not only here through our

[00:43:38] radio program but online

[00:43:40] and through our various

[00:43:41] social media channels.

[00:43:43] You know that big tech

[00:43:44] isn't exactly a supporter of

[00:43:46] what we do so you need to

[00:43:48] take intentional steps to keep

[00:43:50] in touch with us.

[00:43:51] Make sure you follow us on

[00:43:52] Twitter at point of view RTS

[00:43:56] which of course stands for

[00:43:57] point of view radio talk

[00:43:59] show at point of view RTS

[00:44:02] also make sure you follow

[00:44:04] us on Facebook point of

[00:44:06] view radio talk show.

[00:44:08] We won't overwhelm you

[00:44:09] usually just one post a

[00:44:11] day with information on our

[00:44:12] guests and what's

[00:44:13] important the information you

[00:44:15] need when you need it.

[00:44:17] Point of view radio talk

[00:44:19] show on Facebook and at

[00:44:21] point of view RTS on

[00:44:24] Twitter.

[00:44:28] Point of view is produced

[00:44:30] by point of view

[00:44:31] ministries.