Point of View November 22, 2024 – Hour 2 : Weekend Edition

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

[00:00:20] Second Hour, if you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212, Pennedextra, Kelly Shackelford.

[00:00:26] Kelly asked a question during the break and I thought it's probably a question you have as well, and that is how are we doing in terms of the House and the Senate?

[00:00:32] And it's probably good to finally announce, and I mean finally with an underscore, that the incumbent Democratic Senator in Pennsylvania, Bob Casey, has finally conceded.

[00:00:45] And that means the Republican Dave McCormick, which we knew was going to be part of the Senate, was going to be in that.

[00:00:52] But that has also led to all sorts of pushback, and we talked about that earlier in the week about some of the Bucks County Democrats.

[00:01:00] At least four counties, Penned out of all the counties in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania said,

[00:01:06] we want to count votes differently than everybody else.

[00:01:08] Those of us old enough remember in 2000, they wanted to do that back there in Florida too.

[00:01:14] And so Scott Pressler, who's been really involved down there, as a matter of fact he's the one that probably registered more Amish than anybody else,

[00:01:21] said, we're not stopping for a second, we're more emboldened than ever, and my goal is to Florida, Pennsylvania over the next couple of years.

[00:01:28] So this election, which finally has been called, is for Dave McCormick, and that I think gives again a good Republican majority in the Senate.

[00:01:40] I thought I'd also mention in the House, best count we have at the moment, 220 Republicans, 212 Democrats.

[00:01:49] That leaves out three.

[00:01:51] One of those is Mike Gallagher's seat, so that could be Republican.

[00:01:55] The other two are probably Democratic.

[00:01:57] But that's significant because Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, he needs 218 or more, doesn't he?

[00:02:03] He does.

[00:02:03] And, you know, the closer it is, the harder it is to get your agenda passed, the harder it is to get some fiscal sanity with all the appropriations bills and things.

[00:02:17] And so I did hear Mike Johnson speak.

[00:02:20] And, of course, it's wonderful to hear him speak because he comes from a faith core of his being.

[00:02:29] He's been a Christian since childhood, and his faith is important to him.

[00:02:34] Yet he came into just such a tough job, a very, very hard job.

[00:02:39] And, of course, right off the bat, the far right conservatives, you know, were trying to hold him to a pure standard that he couldn't possibly have met.

[00:02:51] But he's got to be held to account, you know, and he will be.

[00:02:57] He will be.

[00:02:58] But I think he's a good speaker.

[00:03:00] And you can't have perfection.

[00:03:02] You can't have everything you want when it's so closely divided.

[00:03:05] Yeah.

[00:03:06] Yeah.

[00:03:07] It's, you know, I really wish we would do something.

[00:03:11] I just, I think it's so damaging to the country to have these irresponsible places that can't count their votes.

[00:03:19] Isn't that amazing?

[00:03:20] I'm glad you brought that up.

[00:03:22] It should not happen in America.

[00:03:26] It's bad on a lot of levels.

[00:03:28] But I think the worst part is people don't trust.

[00:03:31] They think people are stealing.

[00:03:33] And to be honest, you know, that's probably are.

[00:03:36] That's one of the reasons some of these places do this so they can find out how many votes they need and go get the votes at the very end.

[00:03:44] And this should be against the law.

[00:03:47] I mean, it really should.

[00:03:49] It's it hurts people's confidence in in the results.

[00:03:54] And and there's no reason for I mean, Florida is the greatest example.

[00:03:58] Right.

[00:03:58] I mean, they they they they were in the middle of this kind of embarrassment, especially Broward County.

[00:04:04] You know, we always remember all anybody's been alive very long remembers all that whole situation.

[00:04:09] And what was amazing, though, is how when they decided they were going to fix this and they required the votes to be in and they had they just passed.

[00:04:20] They put in their law to make sure that this thing was done right, but done quickly.

[00:04:25] I mean, they're done.

[00:04:27] They're one of the biggest states in the country and they're done.

[00:04:30] Mm hmm.

[00:04:30] I mean, not even late the night of the election.

[00:04:34] They're done.

[00:04:35] It seems like by the next election after the 2000 election, they were cleaned up.

[00:04:42] Yes.

[00:04:43] They said they did it very quickly.

[00:04:44] So it shows that anywhere can do this.

[00:04:47] Yes.

[00:04:48] And and this is I mean, I don't know.

[00:04:50] I I wish that it would become because I think it's I don't want to get too deep into the constitutionality of, you know, there there.

[00:04:59] I think you could probably have, although I think it starts getting a little dangerous when the federal government sets certain standards for all the elections.

[00:05:07] There's there's a clause in the Constitution about the states having authority.

[00:05:11] Yeah.

[00:05:11] But it also has an exception clause within that clause.

[00:05:15] And so I think they could probably force this if they decided to.

[00:05:18] And but I don't like the federal government.

[00:05:20] I mean, but it should be you should be ashamed if you're in a place where this is going on.

[00:05:28] And and the people should demand it because it's really damaging to, you know, the country when you have this kind of thing go on where there's there's still not sure who wins, you know, so long after the election.

[00:05:41] It should be over the night of.

[00:05:44] Well said.

[00:05:44] And that's not hard to do.

[00:05:47] Florida shows you can do it with multi, multi millions of people.

[00:05:50] And you can certainly do it in these other places.

[00:05:53] I think the reason you can't do it in some of the leftist places is because that is the way that is just one of their ways that they operate politics is stealing elections.

[00:06:05] And the longer you drag it out, as we just said, the longer you have to find votes.

[00:06:11] I know in Pennsylvania, the issue was on the senatorial race with McCormick and Casey was counting the absentee ballots that were undated.

[00:06:22] And they had no other county did it.

[00:06:25] Just those four.

[00:06:25] Yeah, those four because it had been passed that they would not be able to count those.

[00:06:29] But they can't.

[00:06:30] They wanted to count them.

[00:06:31] And then the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania said you can't count them.

[00:06:34] And those four those four counties went ahead and did it anyway.

[00:06:39] They said they were going to do it anyway.

[00:06:41] And so, you know, that's what's been out there.

[00:06:44] So we've all been pretty sure that it would go McCormick's way because that was so blatantly violating of a court decision.

[00:06:51] But I think in Pennsylvania, different than Florida, Florida has been becoming over the last 20 years more red, more conservative Republican.

[00:07:02] Yeah, Pennsylvania is just so divided.

[00:07:05] And so they don't have in their legislature, they don't have as much will.

[00:07:09] Georgia was another one.

[00:07:11] Georgia, you know, in 2020, you know, that that went on a while.

[00:07:17] And there were so many questions about their their polling places and what went on.

[00:07:21] But they under camp, they they shored up their laws, as did many other states.

[00:07:27] But Georgia was readily very apparent this election cycle that they did that.

[00:07:32] So, yeah, it's kind of like peer pressure.

[00:07:34] The states need to have peer pressure on one another.

[00:07:37] But I do.

[00:07:38] I have a little bit of pessimism about some of these leftist states like Pennsylvania.

[00:07:43] It's the way they've done business forever.

[00:07:45] And so are they going to are they really going to change?

[00:07:48] Yeah.

[00:07:48] Well, I like Kelly's idea of shame because we had Hans von Spakowski on and my commentary two days ago in which she was asked oftentimes, well, where are we in terms of election integrity?

[00:07:59] He says we're better shaped nationally than we were last time.

[00:08:02] But it depends on which state you live in.

[00:08:04] It also depends on whether or not the attorneys general deal with that.

[00:08:08] But he did a number of years ago what's called an election integrity scorecard in which they analyzed all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

[00:08:17] No state got 100.

[00:08:18] So everybody has work to do.

[00:08:20] But some of them are really down at the bottom.

[00:08:22] And I think Kelly's got a good idea.

[00:08:24] Maybe we should just shame a few of those states and say, well, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Arizona have become the new Florida, you know, and a few others.

[00:08:33] I could pick off a few more.

[00:08:35] California is not great.

[00:08:35] Yeah.

[00:08:36] The California, those congressional races.

[00:08:38] That's really bad.

[00:08:39] So there you go.

[00:08:40] We've got more to cover.

[00:08:41] We'll do that right after this.

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

[00:09:02] Next week is Thanksgiving week, but many Americans are dreading the annual ritual of gathering families together because of the 2024 election.

[00:09:09] You might hope that the shock, grief and anger would subside after this election.

[00:09:13] But this post-election distress continues.

[00:09:16] CBS did a story on post-election emotions.

[00:09:18] It offered expert tips and resources to manage a person's mental health after the 2024 elections.

[00:09:25] Liberal women say it is time to learn from the Koreans and adopt the 4B movement in this country by shaving their heads and denouncing men.

[00:09:32] An article in Psychiatric Times reflected on a similar experience after Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election.

[00:09:40] Her followers talked about the feeling of betrayal and felt they were living in an alternate reality.

[00:09:46] Now, journalist Mark Halperin predicted that the reaction to the Trump victory might be the cause of the biggest mental health crisis in the history of this country.

[00:09:54] In an interview he did with Tucker Carlson, he explained that tens of millions of people will question their connection to this nation and their connection to other human beings.

[00:10:02] The election has rattled their vision of the future.

[00:10:05] He added, I don't think it will be a kind of passing thing that by the inauguration will be fine.

[00:10:10] I think it will be sustained and unprecedented.

[00:10:13] He even thinks that there might even be violence.

[00:10:15] He says, I think there will be workplace fights.

[00:10:18] There might be fights at kids' birthday parties.

[00:10:21] I think there will be protests that will even turn violent.

[00:10:24] Now, we can hope that this fearful prophecy does not come to pass, but we should be prepared for the social turmoil ahead.

[00:10:30] As I've been traveling around this country, many people say they are concerned about the possibility of conflict because of the polarized nature of our society.

[00:10:38] Thanksgiving week might provide a glimpse into the future.

[00:10:41] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free booklet on a biblical view on big data, go to viewpoints.info.com.

[00:10:53] That's viewpoints.info.com.

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

[00:11:03] We're going to get on to the issue of the administrative state and the bureaucracy in just a minute, but I thought I'd post one chart.

[00:11:09] And again, those of you that are actually watching on computer would like to watch this later.

[00:11:14] This is the apportionment forecast, and we'll have Steve post it there.

[00:11:18] And if you look at this, you will see that if indeed the trend continues, what's going to happen is that they're in California going to lose four congressional seats,

[00:11:29] and Texas is going to pick up four congressional seats.

[00:11:33] Or put another way, California is going to lose four electoral college votes, and Texas will pick up four.

[00:11:39] New York will lose three.

[00:11:41] Florida will pick up three.

[00:11:43] And then you have a number of other states, and those are like Tennessee and North Carolina and Georgia and Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, that are all picking them up as well.

[00:11:53] And so in almost every case, what is happening is people are moving from the blue states to the red states.

[00:12:01] And so as a matter of fact, there was a very good article that came out just before the election, will California elect Donald Trump?

[00:12:08] Now, they didn't mean that California is going to vote for Donald Trump.

[00:12:10] But because so many people have moved from California, New York, and Illinois, what happens is that those particular states that he might have had to win might have only given him 268 electoral votes,

[00:12:23] and now would give him 270 electoral votes.

[00:12:26] And this also is good news not only for the presidential election, but also for the House because Mike Johnson's job, if he's around eight years from now, will be a lot easier because he'll have a lot of more individuals elected from the red states.

[00:12:42] Yeah, it's – I mean, I – you know, the founders are just so darn smart.

[00:12:48] I don't know.

[00:12:49] I think God is so smart is what happened because they relied heavily on prayer and on scripture and on concept.

[00:12:57] But, I mean, the idea that the apportionment change is based upon where people are going, I mean, I love that, right?

[00:13:07] It's like the free market is built in in so many ways to our government, right?

[00:13:14] I mean, where – you know, you want more power to go to the places where people are wanting to go, not the places where people are fleeing for their freedom.

[00:13:26] So I just – I think it's great that that's the way things worked.

[00:13:31] And, look, there – you know, some people are like, oh, it should just be a majority vote.

[00:13:36] I mean, that's just – you know, the founders were totally against majority vote nationwide for lots of good reasons.

[00:13:44] They said it was a mobocracy.

[00:13:45] They said a pure democracy is the worst form of government.

[00:13:49] And they're exactly right.

[00:13:50] And the idea that somebody could just go to New York and L.A. and a few more places and then not campaign anywhere else, the idea that if there's fraud in one state, it affects the whole country if you did it that way.

[00:14:02] I mean, there's just so many reasons why it was brilliant for them to do the electoral college.

[00:14:08] But I love that even within the – it's not a static electoral college.

[00:14:13] It's one that's moving based upon where people are going in the country, which, again, I love.

[00:14:22] I think that's exactly how it should be.

[00:14:24] Well, again, it's good news.

[00:14:25] And, of course, I've got a booklet coming out.

[00:14:27] It hasn't even been printed yet.

[00:14:28] But it has to do with not only the fact that people are moving from blue states to red states, but another thing, Pena, you and I have talked about and, of course, gave you good credit for that yesterday.

[00:14:37] And we even had an article about the idea to actually have fertility or die is the fact that we do see the fertility rate going down.

[00:14:47] But you wouldn't notice it if you looked in our churches because conservatives are having more children than liberals and Christians are having more children than secularists.

[00:14:57] And you play that out.

[00:14:58] Oftentimes, of course, there are some changes.

[00:15:01] Universities are real good trying to turn many of these conservative kids into liberal kids.

[00:15:06] But we now have everything from Turning Point USA and Daily Wire and a variety of others that are trying to make a difference.

[00:15:14] That also bodes well for the future.

[00:15:16] For a lot of people up until now, they've said, I'm really concerned about the future of America.

[00:15:20] You start looking at some of these charts, people are getting a little more excited about what the future for America might be.

[00:15:25] Yes, they do.

[00:15:26] And I think when you look at your policies, too, for instance, I mean, we do have a problem with the population not replacing itself.

[00:15:36] So you have to have immigration.

[00:15:39] But, you know, now you've got doji and is that how you say it?

[00:15:44] Doge.

[00:15:45] Doge.

[00:15:45] Doge.

[00:15:46] That sounds more French.

[00:15:47] Doge.

[00:15:47] Doge.

[00:15:48] You have the idea that, yes, we can have immigration, but we're going to be very, very selective about who we bring in, people that could really actually help us.

[00:15:58] And I've seen the idea that if you are on welfare in the U.S. and you've become in recent years, you are on the top of the list to be deported.

[00:16:08] So, you know, choosing the productivity of the citizenry in the country, kind of shaping that will help with our population problem.

[00:16:19] And then I really think then at that point you start to get a culture of family formation building back up in the country.

[00:16:30] Right now there's such pessimism on the part of a lot of, you know, a big part of the younger generations, not necessarily the millennials as much, but the Zers.

[00:16:39] They're, you know, they don't even know if they want to get married.

[00:16:42] That's right.

[00:16:43] Or anything.

[00:16:44] So, I mean, but you can change that.

[00:16:46] It just takes a generation.

[00:16:48] Yeah.

[00:16:49] And then you've also got the problem of housing and, you know, for the difficulty of those who are younger.

[00:16:56] I mean, not being able to afford a house, whereas all of us who are a little older, I mean, you know, we could afford, you know, it was doable.

[00:17:06] But let's see if Trump brings down those interest rates.

[00:17:10] And I think he will over time.

[00:17:13] You know, I think that'll be a fight, this fight with the Fed and whether he's going to try to push, you know, the leader of the Fed out who said he's not going anywhere.

[00:17:22] But I do think those things would really change society.

[00:17:25] And I think President-elect Trump's argument, his first argument of how he's going to turn the economy around is energy.

[00:17:34] It's going to do a lot.

[00:17:35] And energy, of course, affects everything, right?

[00:17:39] Because they've got to transport all these goods and things that we're getting.

[00:17:44] And so that alone, and then when I think you start adding the regulation reductions, I think you're going to start seeing a big change.

[00:17:51] And if that occurs, you're going to see the interest rates, you know, come down to a more – you won't have the inflationary type things that we were dealing with from this, you know, deluge of money.

[00:18:04] I mean, that should slowly go away over time.

[00:18:06] But I think you improve the economy in the way we're talking about it.

[00:18:10] I think it'll be very quick.

[00:18:12] And, you know, it'll make it easier for these younger folks to be able to afford a home and live the American dream, which right now is very difficult when you can't buy a house.

[00:18:21] With building homes, I think the doge will help with the deregulation of things because there – in some states especially,

[00:18:29] there's so much regulation associated with building that, you know, takes a lot longer than it needs to to build homes.

[00:18:37] So, you know, that would be a really good section of it, kind of piece of all that, that the doge duo.

[00:18:47] Well, and also the EPA, Lee Zeldin, you know, he's going to probably want to cut back some of that as well.

[00:18:53] And, of course, the Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, you're going to start hearing some of those names

[00:18:58] because they're going to be doing some things.

[00:18:59] And you're going to be hearing a lot of screaming.

[00:19:02] And they have an old phrase in West Texas, when you throw a rock on a pack of dogs,

[00:19:06] the one that screams the loudest is the one that got hit.

[00:19:08] And you're going to hear some of these environmental groups saying, wait a minute, we're going to destroy the planet.

[00:19:12] But, no, we are sitting on this what Trump likes to call liquid gold, right?

[00:19:18] You've heard him use that phrase a couple of times.

[00:19:20] And when you reduce the cost of energy, you reduce some of the regulations, you reduce the interest rates.

[00:19:26] And also, some of these people have homes right now that they're just using as investments.

[00:19:31] And there are other places to invest.

[00:19:33] That will bring the price of homes down as well.

[00:19:36] And as I've said so many times, there are answers to some of these problems.

[00:19:40] But you first have to admit that there's a problem.

[00:19:43] And under the Biden administration, they never would admit there was ever a problem.

[00:19:46] There's no problem at the border, and there's no problem with inflation, no problem with housing.

[00:19:51] And you can't fix anything if you can't admit it, right?

[00:19:54] Yeah.

[00:19:54] So I saw earlier in the week you talked about this one piece in the Wall Street Journal,

[00:19:58] which I had already written my commentary on for next week.

[00:20:01] So we were both talking about it.

[00:20:02] But it has to do with the emperor has no clothes.

[00:20:04] There are all these things that we're supposed to believe that are just blatantly not possible to believe.

[00:20:11] And one of them to me is climate, you know, the climate agenda.

[00:20:15] And did you notice in this election it wasn't an important issue for voters at all?

[00:20:21] Yeah, that's what they used for the Green New Deal that they pushed through that they called the Inflation Reduction Act.

[00:20:29] I mean, what a joke, right?

[00:20:30] But that was the whole purpose for that, you know, what was going to be a trillion dollars.

[00:20:35] I think it ended up being a little less than a trillion dollars.

[00:20:37] But that's a major reason.

[00:20:40] If people wonder why the inflation, why did we go through this?

[00:20:46] I mean, recently I saw the average car from the beginning of the Biden term to now is up 70 percent.

[00:20:57] And the average home is up 70 percent.

[00:21:03] That's a big, big deal.

[00:21:05] And why?

[00:21:06] It's because of the Green New Deal.

[00:21:08] I mean, that's what that was.

[00:21:10] Because it was sold that way.

[00:21:11] Yeah.

[00:21:12] I mean, they just put a different cover on it.

[00:21:14] They called it the Inflation Reduction.

[00:21:14] Well, they called it Inflation Reduction.

[00:21:16] It was the Inflation Increase Act, which everybody realized when you throw a trillion dollars out in the economy, it's going to increase inflation.

[00:21:23] When we come back, we may talk about foreign policy and Pennedextra's commentary.

[00:21:27] All that coming up right after this.

[00:21:30] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority.

[00:21:36] They say men can be women and women men.

[00:21:39] People are prosecuted differently or not at all depending on their politics.

[00:21:44] Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens.

[00:21:49] It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing.

[00:21:52] You feel like giving up.

[00:21:54] But we can't.

[00:21:55] We shouldn't.

[00:21:56] We must not.

[00:21:58] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II,

[00:22:02] Never give in.

[00:22:04] Never give in.

[00:22:05] Never, never, never.

[00:22:06] Never yield to force.

[00:22:08] Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

[00:22:12] And that's what we say to you today.

[00:22:15] This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos.

[00:22:22] We can't do it alone, but together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness.

[00:22:29] Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151.

[00:22:38] Point of View.net and 800-347-5151.

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

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

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

[00:23:09] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:13] Back once again, Penna Dexter, Kelly Shackelford.

[00:23:15] I thought we'd talk a little bit about foreign policy, but let's first talk about ambassadors.

[00:23:20] And Penna's piece here is on the U.S.' U.N. leverage.

[00:23:24] We'll get to that in just a minute.

[00:23:25] But when we talk about ambassadors, first of all, you have to recognize the incoming head of the State Department, Marco Rubio.

[00:23:32] I think he'll do a good job.

[00:23:33] But the State Department is located in Foggy Bottom, having lived in Washington, D.C.

[00:23:38] I know that, and it's sometimes referred to as that.

[00:23:42] But not only is it called Foggy Bottom, but I think some of the foreign policy is pretty foggy there as well.

[00:23:48] But let's talk about at least one diplomat that we've known pretty well, and that is Mike Huckabee.

[00:23:54] That one caught everybody off guard, including Mike Huckabee.

[00:23:58] I saw him the other day on TVN, and he said, I'm just minding my own business Tuesday, and the phone rings.

[00:24:06] And I don't know what number it is, but I think I better answer it, and it's Donald Trump.

[00:24:10] And he said, now, you've got to understand, Donald Trump, he's not much for small talk.

[00:24:13] So he goes right into it.

[00:24:14] Mike, I want you to be the ambassador to Israel.

[00:24:17] He said, I never even thought about it, never campaigned for it.

[00:24:20] And people have been saying, well, what's that going to mean?

[00:24:23] He says, I have no idea what that means.

[00:24:26] But let me go around the roundtable and get some comments, because you both know him very well.

[00:24:30] He's come and spoken, of course, for our Point of View dinners, and you've been in various meetings with him.

[00:24:34] But he will be the first non-Jewish ambassador to Israel.

[00:24:39] But I can't think of an evangelical I know who loves Israel more than Mike Huckabee.

[00:24:43] I can't think of a person, almost, that loves Israel more than Mike Huckabee.

[00:24:50] He's there a lot.

[00:24:51] He does a lot of ministry there.

[00:24:54] He partners up with other Christian ministries to film things in Israel.

[00:25:00] He loves Israel.

[00:25:03] And, I mean, he makes a lot of sense.

[00:25:05] He already – he's a person – he's so congenial.

[00:25:09] And yet he's so strong on issues.

[00:25:12] And so Trump already has a track record with Israel, with moving the embassy and with all the Abraham Accords, agreements with other Arab countries,

[00:25:24] which I know that Donald Trump wants to continue that kind of policy.

[00:25:28] So, you know, with a background in politics, a background as a pastor, a background of a person who famously loves Israel,

[00:25:37] I think it's just a wonderful, brilliant pick.

[00:25:40] Yeah, as soon as I saw it, I was like, whoa.

[00:25:43] And I sent Mike a text, and I think what I said to him is congratulations.

[00:25:48] And I can't think of a more perfect person to do this.

[00:25:53] I also think it's kind of neat because, like you say, first time that it's somebody who is not Jewish.

[00:26:03] I think it's a great opportunity.

[00:26:05] I think it will happen that because of this, more Jewish people will understand that Christians are pro-Israel.

[00:26:16] And so I think a lot of times there's kind of a shock at that or whatever.

[00:26:22] And I think he'll be an ambassador not only for the United States but for Christ.

[00:26:30] And so I think that's a neat situation.

[00:26:34] I mean, for those who don't know, I think he did, like, 100 trips to Israel where he took other people to help teach them about Israel.

[00:26:46] And so Mike Huckabee has just got such a unique background.

[00:26:50] And I love that it's a little different than last time.

[00:26:54] I think so.

[00:26:55] Ben, let me come to your commentary.

[00:26:56] And, again, in just a few minutes, people listening on air on their computers can listen to that.

[00:27:02] And, of course, we post it.

[00:27:04] But it's a reminder that when we look at the Middle East, of course, you open up with a story of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

[00:27:12] And, of course, all the very significant issues that are associated with the United Nations.

[00:27:18] Elise Stefanik, I think, is going to try to shake things up.

[00:27:21] But give us some perspective here because you argue that the United States does have some leverage.

[00:27:26] Can you speak to that?

[00:27:27] Well, we have leverage partly because U.N. headquarters is actually located in the United States.

[00:27:32] It's in New York City.

[00:27:34] We're by far the greatest funder of the United Nations.

[00:27:39] And so, you know, very – and it looks – and it's kind of like – I mentioned these social issues in this commentary.

[00:27:47] But on the social issues, it depends on who's in power in the United States.

[00:27:52] Yes, it does.

[00:27:53] Who the president is, who runs the State Department.

[00:27:55] What kind of – do we have a pro-life influence at the U.N.

[00:28:00] Or do we have a pro-abortion influence at the U.N.?

[00:28:04] Do we have a pro-family or do we have a pro-LGBT influence?

[00:28:08] Well, as far as Israel goes, we've always had a pro-Israel influence at the United Nations.

[00:28:14] And there's always been an anti-Israel attitude there.

[00:28:20] That's kind of the attitude at the U.N.

[00:28:22] And if the U.S. weren't there and a few other countries – but especially if the U.S. weren't there, let me just say that, Israel would probably have already been kicked out of the U.N.

[00:28:33] They're persecuted all the time.

[00:28:35] And so Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian – and this is not Hamas.

[00:28:41] Now, this is a Palestinian Authority.

[00:28:42] They haven't been much in the news lately, but they're out there.

[00:28:46] And they want to submit documents that start the process of expelling Israel from the U.N.

[00:28:50] There we go.

[00:28:51] And this is because they won't create a Palestinian state.

[00:28:56] The Palestinian state in most people's minds right now is an impossibility.

[00:29:01] I mean, if what happened a year ago with Hamas attacking Israel, I mean, that happened and that has not been cleaned out or dealt with sufficiently.

[00:29:13] So true.

[00:29:13] To have a Palestinian state would just be suicide.

[00:29:17] And it's always – there's always been something that's happened when we've sort of marched toward the Palestinian state that said, no, no, no, it's not a good idea.

[00:29:25] We're not going to do it.

[00:29:25] I guess – was it yesterday?

[00:29:27] I think it was yesterday.

[00:29:28] I'm trying to think if it was yesterday or today, things are going so fast.

[00:29:31] But the International Criminal Court issued a warrant to Netanyahu.

[00:29:39] And I just wonder if they would have done that if Donald Trump was president right now.

[00:29:47] I mean, because – and I will guess that there will be activity that will occur as soon as he comes in because of this.

[00:29:59] And so I just think that it makes a big difference.

[00:30:02] And having us stand with our ally in Israel is very important.

[00:30:09] And it's – the current administration has been trying to be all over the map, right?

[00:30:18] It's trying to be – like there's an equivalency, but it's like they're trying to be pro-Hamas or – and then at the same time be anti.

[00:30:34] And it's just created a lot of – I mean, Israel has had to feel like they're going in alone.

[00:30:40] I mean, and they've said a number of things to that effect.

[00:30:43] Yeah.

[00:30:43] Yeah.

[00:30:44] And so that is going to change.

[00:30:46] That's going to change very quickly.

[00:30:48] And, of course, there's a lot of things in the Old Testament about, you know, cursing and blessing.

[00:30:53] Genesis 12.

[00:30:53] Yeah.

[00:30:54] And what about the Trump effect?

[00:30:56] You've seen that before.

[00:30:56] I think I passed it around to a lot of people and showed it the other day.

[00:30:59] Dinesh D'Souza posted it and others have had this.

[00:31:02] Just as soon as we knew Donald Trump was elected, Hamas wants to have a meeting.

[00:31:07] Russia, Vladimir Putin wants to have a meeting.

[00:31:10] Iran and the Mullahs want to have a meeting.

[00:31:13] It's kind of like we've got a new sheriff in town.

[00:31:15] And that's changed –

[00:31:15] We do, but it also feels like the Biden administration is throwing monkey wrenches in foreign policy right here at the end to leave kind of a mess.

[00:31:26] That's our next article we'll get to in a minute because that is the case.

[00:31:29] You know, I think you have the potential of extending the Abraham Accords.

[00:31:35] There are other nations already to join with us and would have if he would have two terms of Donald Trump.

[00:31:42] But I think there's some real possibilities.

[00:31:44] And having Mike Huckabee there as well as maybe Marco Rubio might be able to pull that off.

[00:31:51] Yeah.

[00:31:52] It'd be interesting.

[00:31:53] I mean, it's going to be a total change, especially in the Middle East.

[00:31:56] I mean, what happened last time with Trump and Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State?

[00:32:04] I mean, we've never seen anything like that, that kind of progress in the Middle East.

[00:32:09] And to see how quickly we can go from that – and there are a lot of reasons for that.

[00:32:15] I mean, part of which is we had sanctions against Iran.

[00:32:18] And those economic sanctions crippled them to where they couldn't fund all these terrorist organizations like Hamas.

[00:32:26] And, you know, of course, the Obama administration gave them billions of dollars.

[00:32:31] And then Biden came in and wound a lot of those things.

[00:32:36] And now we see just disaster instead of these agreements we had and really peace in the Middle East.

[00:32:43] And I think we're going to go back in the other direction, a good direction now.

[00:32:48] You asked about Elise Stefanik, and she's pro-Israel.

[00:32:51] She is.

[00:32:52] And she's going to be the ambassador to the U.N.

[00:32:54] I think she'll be good on a lot of fronts, and that's one of them.

[00:32:57] I think so.

[00:32:58] We're going to take a break.

[00:32:59] And, by the way, you can listen to Pennexter's commentary today.

[00:33:02] Right now, of course, we have that posted.

[00:33:04] And also, when we come back, one by Mike Cote.

[00:33:08] Some people will call him Cody, but I'll use the French pronunciation, Cote.

[00:33:11] And that is America should be ready for lame duck chaos abroad.

[00:33:15] Very good piece.

[00:33:16] It relates to some of the things we talked about earlier in the week.

[00:33:20] Matt Taibbi, who used to write for Rolling Stone, 60 days of nuclear chicken has begun.

[00:33:24] Of course, another one we talked about, Biden approving long-range missiles,

[00:33:29] which now have landed in sovereign territory of Russia.

[00:33:33] We're talking about a possible nuclear confrontation.

[00:33:37] And, as Pennex said, some monkey wrenches that have been thrown into the mix.

[00:33:41] We'll talk about that right after this.

[00:33:54] Speaking last month before the United Nations General Assembly,

[00:33:58] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned that he intends to submit documents

[00:34:02] to start the process of expelling Israel from the United Nations.

[00:34:06] His reason?

[00:34:06] Israel's refusal to cede its territory to create a Palestinian state.

[00:34:11] U.S. Senator Ted Cruz discussing the threat on his podcast, Verdict.

[00:34:14] said if Israel is removed from membership, the United States may itself withdraw from the U.N.

[00:34:20] Senator Cruz says,

[00:34:21] If the U.N. expels Israel, the U.S. should halt all funding from America to the U.N.

[00:34:26] The United States is by far the U.N.'s largest benefactor.

[00:34:30] In a letter to lawmakers, the senator from Texas wrote,

[00:34:32] The effort to diplomatically isolate Israel is aimed at ultimately destroying the Jewish state,

[00:34:38] which is both obscene and antithetical to American national security interests.

[00:34:42] Now may be a good time to discuss U.S. participation in the United Nations.

[00:34:46] Israel is not the only point of contention.

[00:34:49] We should also oppose the ongoing efforts at the U.N.

[00:34:52] to make abortion an international human right and its promotion of protected class status based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

[00:35:00] U.N. directives often find themselves being debated in Congress.

[00:35:03] Last week, Congressman Nakeema Williams, along with 100 Democrat co-sponsors,

[00:35:08] introduced a resolution declaring an international right to abortion.

[00:35:12] According to Stefano Gennarini, vice president for legal studies with the Center for Family and Human Rights,

[00:35:17] CFAM, there is no international right to abortion under any treaty ratified by the U.S. government.

[00:35:22] CFAM's Friday Facts explains that the U.N. Human Rights Committee,

[00:35:26] which monitors compliance with U.N.'s civil rights agreements,

[00:35:30] routinely goes beyond its mandate calling on governments to decriminalize abortion in all circumstances.

[00:35:36] Mr. Gennarini also says a treaty has been drafted that treats lobbying and political activity

[00:35:41] opposing pro-trans policies as crimes against humanity.

[00:35:44] The U.S. has leverage at the U.N.

[00:35:47] Will we use it to stop this stuff?

[00:35:49] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter.

[00:35:54] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:36:00] Penna Dexter Kelly Shackelford with us.

[00:36:02] I might just mention as a program note, Monday we have Jordan Sekulow with us.

[00:36:05] We'll be talking about Israel and a couple of other things as well.

[00:36:08] Senator Ted Budd will be with us.

[00:36:10] We'll be talking about the fact that we heard him speak at the 100th anniversary of Dallas Theological Seminary

[00:36:16] as an individual not only serving in the United States Senate,

[00:36:19] but also having graduated from Dallas Seminary.

[00:36:22] We'll talk about that.

[00:36:22] Scott Coulter will be with us.

[00:36:24] Jack Hibbs later in the week as we run some interviews that we've done on tape,

[00:36:28] because on Thursday and Friday we encourage you to enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend,

[00:36:33] and we will be doing so as well.

[00:36:35] But, Penna, we have this piece here on be ready for lame duck chaos,

[00:36:39] and that seems to be a concern.

[00:36:42] Of course, I've talked already about the allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russia,

[00:36:50] but then just all of the other, if you will, weakness in the Biden administration right now,

[00:36:57] now it's less than 60 days before Donald Trump takes office.

[00:37:01] Many people are concerned about the kind of chaos that could unfold on the international scene.

[00:37:07] What have you found?

[00:37:08] Yes.

[00:37:08] Well, Ukraine, of course, is moving more aggressively into Russia

[00:37:13] because they don't have Biden's threat really to cut aid hanging over them,

[00:37:18] and he's also made some concessions now for what weapons can be used and where they can be used.

[00:37:26] And what Trump is going to do about it is unknown.

[00:37:29] We don't really know.

[00:37:30] No, we don't.

[00:37:31] Some people supported him because they thought he would end the Ukraine war,

[00:37:35] and it's possible he will.

[00:37:37] And, you know, the way I feel about it is if Ukraine is able to get back some of the spots that Russia has taken

[00:37:49] before Donald Trump sits down and negotiates some kind of a peace,

[00:37:54] then all the better for them.

[00:37:56] They'll get some of their land back.

[00:37:58] So that's one good thing that could happen out of this.

[00:38:01] We'll see.

[00:38:03] Also, Israel's position improves under a Trump administration, as we've just said.

[00:38:09] But our Secretary of State right now has basically prioritized negotiations.

[00:38:15] Even though they talk about being supporters of Israel, he's prioritized negotiation over victory.

[00:38:21] And, you know, the plight of the Palestinian hostages, the people that live in Gaza,

[00:38:29] seems to kind of trump everything else.

[00:38:32] And, you know, now we've got Netanyahu, I guess, going to be arrested,

[00:38:37] or they're saying that he will.

[00:38:39] Just don't travel out of Israel.

[00:38:41] But even with Ukraine, you've got 50,000 troops, Russian troops,

[00:38:45] but 10,000 of those are North Korean troops.

[00:38:48] I mean, we were talking about something that looks a little bit like a WorldWire 3.

[00:38:52] So if you're looking for a matter of prayer, that's, I think, our latest piece that we have.

[00:38:57] If you go to the website here, we have a section, Pray for America.

[00:39:01] We decided to do one where we say, Pray for America leaders,

[00:39:04] because we have these hot spots, and China is one, Ukraine is one,

[00:39:10] of course, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Israel is one.

[00:39:12] And so we certainly, even though we want you to pray for what's happening domestically,

[00:39:17] certainly wanted you to pray internationally.

[00:39:19] And this particular piece that was in National Review is just a reminder

[00:39:24] of the fact that we have so many hot spots around the world,

[00:39:28] and it doesn't seem like, and I think it's fair to say,

[00:39:31] the current president is paying any kind of attention at all.

[00:39:33] There are stories saying that lots of days he just watches television,

[00:39:37] Netflix, and things like that, and maybe gets a national affairs briefing, and that's it.

[00:39:41] And we just cannot take our eye off of some very significant hot spots around the world.

[00:39:47] I think you have to have a strong leader in order for foreign nations to trust you.

[00:39:52] I mean, they've looked, you know, other nations have looked at our country,

[00:39:56] and they've seen, well, who's really running that country?

[00:39:58] Even before, you know, the election, and Kamala was the candidate,

[00:40:03] and all of that uncertainty.

[00:40:04] But the uncertainty before was because Joe Biden has never been a real out-front president

[00:40:11] or one that has inspired a lot of confidence as a strong leader.

[00:40:15] So, you know, just having somebody, I think, in the presidency that's strong

[00:40:21] will probably help our foreign policy.

[00:40:23] Absolutely. Also, I think, you know, President Trump's always saying he wants European nations

[00:40:28] to do more, to contribute to NATO and all that.

[00:40:30] And our focus of necessity has to be on Iran and on Russia and also on China.

[00:40:41] So some European countries are actually making steps to kind of get out from under our little umbrella,

[00:40:49] and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

[00:40:51] They should be contributing more financially.

[00:40:54] They should have their own militaries that are stronger.

[00:40:57] They've depended on us for a long time.

[00:40:59] So that's probably a good development, I think, from the changes that are going to take place in the next few years.

[00:41:05] This article on the second page gets into that as well.

[00:41:08] We'll only have a few minutes left, and we always like to make announcements on the program here.

[00:41:12] And Kelly's got another positive announcement.

[00:41:15] So if you listen to Point of View, sometimes you hear things on Point of View that you hear nowhere else.

[00:41:21] You will eventually probably see it in print, but you have an announcement, and it's good news.

[00:41:27] So, again, let's talk about what just happened while we were doing the broadcast.

[00:41:30] We just won a victory in a case that a lot of people have heard about.

[00:41:35] I mean, there's a weird number of cases we're having now where churches or specifically pastors are being criminally prosecuted

[00:41:45] for basically doing what pastors and churches are supposed to do, you know, feeding a hungry person, helping a homeless person.

[00:41:54] And, of course, we've got Pastor Chris Savelle up in Ohio with, like, 18 criminal charges.

[00:41:59] I mean, it's just ridiculous.

[00:42:00] We're calling this criminalizing compassion.

[00:42:03] We've got, like, I don't know, seven to ten of these right now, and all over the country.

[00:42:08] It's, like, not one particular area.

[00:42:10] Well, one of those is Gethsemane Baptist Church in Arizona that all they're trying to do is feed people who are starving.

[00:42:19] And the city has come after them trying to tell them they can't.

[00:42:25] And we just won in federal court today a decision that says, no, you can't throw this case out because they filed to dismiss the case against the city and not protect the church.

[00:42:39] And the court, the federal judge ruled against them today.

[00:42:41] And so that's an important victory, one to keep praying for the pastor there and for the church because it's kind of frightening to be under these types of criminal kind of attacks.

[00:42:53] It's amazing.

[00:42:54] Against you as a pastor and a church.

[00:42:56] And pastors are having to stand against this right now.

[00:43:01] And if people, if they're on our list and they get the insider every Friday on kind of all the attacks that are going on, the new cases, the victories and all that, they would get this eventually.

[00:43:12] But if not, I mean, I just go to, just spell out firstliberty.org.

[00:43:17] And, in fact, if you go to the website, the first thing you'll see on the top of the website at firstliberty.org is criminalizing compassion.

[00:43:26] You can also, if you go to pointofview.net, you click on my picture or whatever for First Liberty.

[00:43:33] It'll take you there, too.

[00:43:34] And it'll show you some of these cases.

[00:43:35] But, you know, there'll be updates posted very soon on the victory in Fort Gethsemane Church.

[00:43:42] So that's good news.

[00:43:44] The federal courts are continuing.

[00:43:45] We are still winning over 90% of our cases.

[00:43:48] Yes, you are.

[00:43:49] It's just pastors are having to stand up in ways that they didn't have to in the past.

[00:43:55] This is unfortunate that this is happening.

[00:43:57] But I'm telling you, this is happening all over the country.

[00:43:59] And pastors are having to stay on their ground to keep their freedom to be the church.

[00:44:03] Well, let me just mention a couple of things.

[00:44:05] First of all, firstliberty.org, criminalizing compassion.

[00:44:08] You can learn about it there.

[00:44:09] If you get the FLI, which all of us around the table get, then you'll know about that as well.

[00:44:15] And since I probably won't see you two again until the Friday after, I think I might just mention that Giving Tuesday is December 3rd.

[00:44:24] And so I would encourage you to think about Giving Tuesday to Point of View and also Giving Tuesday to First Liberty, if that makes some sense.

[00:44:33] So I guess we won't be back together until, I guess, about December 6th.

[00:44:37] That would be too late.

[00:44:37] So I thought I'd mention that ahead of time.

[00:44:39] And, of course, enjoy the weekend.

[00:44:41] We're looking forward to next week in which we'll be broadcasting for three days.

[00:44:45] Then we'll be off.

[00:44:46] And then, of course, Giving Tuesday is that following Tuesday.

[00:44:48] And I think we'll bring this group of people back together two weeks from now.

[00:44:52] But enjoy the weekend.

[00:44:54] And thank you both for being here.

[00:44:56] It's been a while since we've all been in the same room at the same time.

[00:44:59] And I want to thank Megan for her help engineering the program.

[00:45:01] Steve, thank you for producing the program.

[00:45:03] Enjoy the weekend.

[00:45:04] We'll see you back here on Monday right here on Point of View.

[00:45:10] At Point of View, we believe there is power in prayer.

[00:45:14] And that is why we have relaunched our Pray for America campaign,

[00:45:18] a series of weekly emails to unite Americans in prayer for our nation.

[00:45:26] Imagine if hundreds of thousands of Americans started praying intentionally together on a weekly basis.

[00:45:33] You can help make that a reality by subscribing to our Pray for America emails.

[00:45:40] Just go to pointofview.net and click on the Pray for America banner that's right there on the homepage.

[00:45:48] Each week you'll receive a brief news update, a specific prayer guide,

[00:45:54] and a free resource to equip you in further action.

[00:45:57] We encourage you to not only pray with us each week,

[00:46:02] but to share these prayers and the resources with others in your life.

[00:46:07] Join the movement today.

[00:46:09] Visit pointofview.net and click on the banner Pray for America right there at the top.

[00:46:16] That's pointofview.net.

[00:46:19] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in our land.

[00:46:26] Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.