Conner Jones: [00:00:02] Hi, I’m Connor Jones.
Micah Tomasella: [00:00:03] I’m Micah Tomasella.
Conner Jones: [00:00:05] And this is Culture Brief, a Dinnison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more. We do it all from a Christian perspective. And yes, Micah, if you’re not on video, you can’t see Micah’s making fun of the way I’m using my hand gestures. I I I I go big hand. I’m like Donald Trump right now. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know, uh, showing the size of the fish that I just caught, but
Micah Tomasella: [00:00:28] Right.
Conner Jones: [00:00:29] Micah, dude, you know, last week was a bit of a slow news week and this week has been anything but. Like all I want is just a distribution of wealth here. Can we get news stories not so tied up in one weekend so we have to cover so much on one episode? I mean, we got so much to talk about.
Micah Tomasella: [00:00:44] Sure. So you want us to be, just to quote you, the distribution of wealth, you want us to be socialistic when it comes to our news. Is that correct?
Conner Jones: [00:00:50] That would be nice. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: [00:00:51] Okay, great. Well, all I’ve got to say is USA, USA, USA. America takes gold from Canada in women’s and men’s hockey to end the Olympics. America’s fourth best sport beats Canada in their best sport. That’s an incredible thing and there’s nothing more American than that. So let’s jump into the brief.
Conner Jones: [01:14] The brief.
Micah Tomasella: [01:19] All right, so we’re going to cover a lot today. We’ve got kind of a cultural roundup. I’m going to take a couple stories, give you a brief little flyover of all of them and then let Connor jump in. Uh, well, I’m not going to let Connor do anything. Connor can do what he wants, but anyway, all that to say, let’s talk about Team USA and just the overall Olympic roundup, how America did, how the Olympics wrapped up. I for one, I mean, we’ve talked about this. I really loved the Olympics. I think I loved this version of the Winter Olympics more than I have in the past. As I mentioned, I got really into curling. I mean, I think I was watching like Switzerland play South Africa women’s curling bronze medal game or something and I was enjoying it. I just was like, man, I kind of like curling. But anyway, that’s a side note. All right, so let’s start with hockey. Team USA just won the best Olympic hockey game in a generation. Overtime, gold medal against Canada. You can’t script it better than that, guys. The Americans beat an undefeated Canadian squad in a gritty back and forth classic that went to sudden death. It was Jack Hughes who buried the overtime winner. And earlier, he took a slash to the mouth with a stick and he lost parts of three of his teeth. Okay? Blood on the ice, cleaned up, came right back in. Then he ends it with just a flick of the wrist in the golden goal overtime, three versus three. So in the overtime, so so they play three full periods of hockey. It was 1-1 and then they go into overtime. And golden goal is just, hey, whoever scores first, the game’s over. So Jack Hughes scores and the Americans win and it was a beautiful moment. Connor Hellebuyck scored, uh, he stopped, he didn’t score any. He stopped 41 of 42 shots. One of the greatest, one of the greatest goalkeeper performances in history. It’s incredible.
Conner Jones: [03:04] I mean, just insane. And we’re going to talk about him again here in a minute from the State of the Union address, but what a performance. Some of the shots that were taken on him and these like slow motions of the blocks he did, absolutely unreal.
Micah Tomasella: [03:15] Incredible. Incredible. Canada outshot the US, but he stood on his head. So that’s kind of a a term in hockey. You’re basically just doing everything you possibly can, including standing on your head to stop the puck from getting in the net. He did everything he possibly could and more. It was championship once in a lifetime generation goal tending. It was incredible. This is historic. First US men’s Olympic hockey gold since 1980, since the Miracle on Ice game. Now, again, the Miracle on Ice game, people think that’s the game that the US won the gold medal. No, that was the semi-final before the championship, before the gold medal game where the US beat Russia and nobody was expecting them to do that. And then they went on to win the gold. But for a sport that lives in the shadow of the Miracle on Ice, this felt like a generational moment and America watched. So I wanted to give you some numbers. The final drew 20.7 million viewers across NBC, Peacock and USA Network and it peaked at 26 million during overtime for Hughes’s game winner. Most watched sports event in US history that started before 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Most watched ever that started before 9:00 a.m. Eastern. That tells you something. It was a Sunday morning. So, uh, Connor and I both got to watch a little bit of it at the beginning and then and then we headed to church. I was able to see
Conner Jones: [04:28] I didn’t see any of it. I didn’t see any of it. I left, I literally it came on as I was walking out the door and it ended before I got home. I was sad. Of course, church takes priority there, but caught all the caught all the best parts and the highlights afterwards and was just so happy for this team.
Micah Tomasella: [04:43] Yeah, I went back and watched it and just experienced it, you know, like leading up to overtime. Canada was really overwhelming the US in the third period. And then again, Connor Hellebuyck is as they say standing on his head and stopping everything that’s coming his way. And then you get a chance in overtime and then Jack Hughes takes it. Literally lost parts of his teeth. He smiles and you can see straight through to his tongue basically. Uh, it’s just it’s incredible toughness and again, it it just reminds us all that America is a really unique place and if there’s a patriotic bone in your body, even if it’s a tiny bone, you felt that. You feel that and it’s a beautiful thing. But there was another layer to this. The team carried Johnny Gaudreau’s jersey all tournament. After the win, they brought it onto the ice and invited his kids, his young kids into the team photo. It was not staged. It felt real. Short context on Johnny Gaudreau, very well-known American player. Him and his brother were in New Jersey for their sister’s wedding and they were ran down by a drunk driver and they both died. And so he was training to be on the US Olympic hockey team and they lost a teammate, they lost a friend, they lost a brother. Johnny Gaudreau was a very, very good hockey player. He was going to be on this team. So the the American team did everything that they could to honor him. And so there was an extra layer to this as well. Um, and again, it was it was a beautiful moment. It’s sad, but it was also a a beautiful moment. So after the win, as I said, they invited the kids onto the ice. It was not staged. It felt real. And then Hughes, Jack Hughes, kept it real simple in his post match interview. This is all about our country, he said. I love the USA. I’m so proud to be American today and every day. For a couple of hours, it was not left or right. It was USA, USA, USA. Zooming out, this was the one of the strongest Olympic uh winter Olympic performances ever by the United States. Broke the record for gold medals that the US has ever won with 12. We had um mid 30s amount of goals overall, second behind Norway. And then it was just a all of it, excellence, resilience, and the ending with the games with an overtime hockey gold over Canada with 26 million Americans uh 26 million Americans watching was about as American as it gets. For two weeks, we got to cheer for something together as a country. and I think that’s maybe partially why I love the Olympics so much is it’s not about who you voted for, what you like and what you don’t like. For the most part, people like to make it about that. And there was certain news things swirling, but overall, we were all on the same team rooting for America and it was a beautiful thing.
Conner Jones: [07:20] Yeah, dude, it was so cool. I I the Olympics are just the best. This was, this one felt special. It felt different. It felt like a lot of people in America were tuning in. I think part of that’s just because of the location and time zones, but also being on peacock, you could easily tune into gold zone or any sport you wanted to like you were saying, Micah. It was epic and had a great time watching. You know who else was celebrating with the American hockey team that I thought was just so funny? Kash Patel. He he made it to the locker room and started celebrating with them. Now, a lot of people were upset about that. I don’t really care that much. I think it’s just fun to see the hockey team and the FBI director like celebrating and partying in the locker room and then
Micah Tomasella: [07:55] Well, he was the one who put Trump on the phone for the hockey team to talk to, right?
Conner Jones: [07:59] Yeah, immediately after the game. Yep, yep, yep. It was cool. Um, what a celebration, what a time. Uh, which speaking of, just so much else happening, Micah, obviously this is an incredible thing to celebrate, but there’s a lot going on back home in the US. Like with with Supreme Court and tariffs. Uh, what else we got?
Micah Tomasella: [08:19] Yeah. So let’s talk about tariffs and the Supreme Court and the decision that came down and Trump’s response and kind of what’s to come. So the Supreme Court just handed down a major decision on tariffs last week. In a 6 to 3 ruling, the court said the president cannot use emergency powers under the, and I’m going to use the specific laws here, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs without Congress. So the Constitution gives Congress authority over trade. The court said that power cannot be stretched just through emergency law alone. And so this is significant because tariffs have been central to President Trump’s campaign, his agenda here in his second term. Um, especially against countries like China, Canada, Mexico. The ruling is not about whether tariffs are good or bad policy. I think that’s not what I’m trying to talk about right now. We’ve talked extensively about tariffs. It’s about who has the authority to impose them. We have three distinctly powerful branches of government. How can they work together? What does this process look like? So, here’s the next move. Trump announced a 15% tariffs on imports across the board from any country. So this time, using section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. So he had him and his team had a contingency plan for this, which makes me think to a certain extent they somewhat expected it. The law allows the president to impose up to a 15% tariff. So he’s putting it to the max for up to 150 days to address a balance of payment issue, which he could argue that that’s the case. It’s a temporary authority and it’s not a long-term solution. So after five months, then what? He says he has more contingency plans after that. Um, but you also have all of these trade deals and you’re going to get into this in the State of the Union speech that happened on Tuesday night. But, you know, Trump kind of made it a a point to say, hey, any of these countries that meet we have signed trade agreements with, don’t you think for a second that those those uh agreements are not binding, right? So he’s trying to do some damage control here and say, hey, we still have tariffs, whatever it might be. At the same time, the administration is exploring, so after this 150 days, they’re exploring other laws like section 232, which allows tariffs on national security grounds, and then section 301, which targets unfair trade practices. So the Supreme Court narrowed the lane, made it more difficult, but it didn’t it doesn’t eliminate presidential tariff authority altogether. So this debate isn’t over and it’s worth remembering that we have three, like I said, three distinct branches of government for a reason, legislative, executive, and judicial. So that separation is intentional. It’s it’s designed to create tension, accountability and balance, no matter where you land on the tariff debate. And so no matter so let’s not make this about tariffs. Let’s say, okay, you’ve got one branch, the Supreme Court, holding another branch accountable. And I think overall, when the shoe’s on the other foot in 2029, if your candidate isn’t in, you’re going to want that person in power to be held accountable and not be able to make all these unilateral decisions. So if we take a step back, I think we recognize, I think most of us recognize that, okay, whether if we like tariffs or not, I’m thankful for the type of governance that we have in place.
Conner Jones: [11:41] Yeah, man, it’s checks and balances working as it’s supposed to. It’s the way the founders intended. It’s what makes our Constitution so different from everywhere else in the world and previous to the United States Constitution. No one else had this. It was like just one person or one body was in power and nobody else could could check them. This is how it works. Whether you agree or disagree with the ruling, it’s it’s our government working as it’s supposed to. Um, and if tariffs should stay on, you know, and stay live, they’re going to figure out a way to do it. They just got to figure out a different way is basically what the Supreme Court is saying.
Micah Tomasella: [12:14] And then the Supreme Court can come back and strike that down. You know, it’s a it’s a process. It just it just takes some time. Okay, well, that is the hockey, Olympic and tariffs Supreme Court update.
Conner Jones: [12:28] Connor, talk to us about the State of the Union that happened last night. So we’re recording on Wednesday, February 25th. The State of the Union was very long, broke a record. He probably did that on purpose on Tuesday night, February 24th. So Connor, what happened? I watched it too, but go ahead and tell me what happened.
Micah Tomasella: [12:41] Yeah, yeah, yeah, Micah and I were we were kind of messaging a little bit in between as well, just kind of laughing at certain things, calling out certain things. It was it was a little all over the place. It was so long, like you said, an hour and 47 minutes, broke the record. They used to be just a little over an hour. Trump did that on purpose. Part of it’s also just because there were so many moments of honoring people, which is really cool. We saw a lot of medals given out, medals of honor, uh medals of freedom, including
Conner Jones: [13:06] Which was bipartisan honoring, right? So there so everybody was standing up in those moments honoring great Americans. That was cool.
Micah Tomasella: [13:14] Yeah, they gave a medal of honor to one of the helicopter pilots from the Maduro raid and to a pilot from the Korean war who I I just learned about that story, shot down four Soviet aircraft, which is just impressive on its own and he’s 100 years old and he got uh the medal of honor. They gave out the uh purple heart to one of the national guardsmen who was shot in uh up in close range in DC back in Thanksgiving week. And then also uh Connor Hellebuyck, like you were saying, Micah, the goalie, I think he got, what was it? The congressional medal of freedom? Like he he got the the highest award a civilian can get for basically just blocking a bunch of pucks to keep America in the game, which was incredible. Uh it was really cool to see the the hockey team come in. Six minutes they were in there just being celebrated and applauded. It was really cool. It’s cool. Um
Conner Jones: [14:00] Hey, don’t forget about the Coast Guard guy that saved 164 people during the Texas floods last year. He got honored too.
Micah Tomasella: [14:07] Yeah, they did honor him. I uh a medal of merit or something like that. Yeah, yeah. I think that’s what it was. Whatever the highest honor is for his position. Yeah. Which is really cool and very much deserved. And yeah, you’re right. That was bipartisan. The whole room stood and clapped for each of those awards. What great Americans. All of them. Amazing Americans and deserved on this national stage to be awarded in this way. Uh what was not bipartisan was a lot of what Trump was saying in the speech. Uh just a little bit of context here. America doesn’t seem to be very happy with Trump right now. And I’m saying this based off of polling that came out right before the State of the Union intentionally so that we could get an understanding of how Americans are feeling about his policies. As of right now, CNN’s new polling is showing um that 32% of America believes Trump has the right priorities, 68% say he does not. That is not a good number for him.
Conner Jones: [14:55] That’s probably a little inflated because I’ve seen some other numbers too, but either way, that’s not good. That’s not good.
Micah Tomasella: [15:03] It’s definitely not. Um, and his overall approval rating, his job approval rating from the CNN poll was 36 approve, 63% disapprove. Another poll from Washington Post and ABC said 39% approve, 60% disapprove. So just a little bit of context there for what Trump was battling coming into this speech. He really needed to make sure he was putting together a picture of success and to to show that the state of the Union is strong and not weak or disjointed or disunified. Uh he said it was strong. He offered a bunch of reasons why over the last year he believed it was strong. He talked about his economy, talked about the border being closed, Fentinel smuggling being down by 56%. He pointed back to a bunch of things. He did not offer much of a like vision cast, which going into the midterms might have been a better direction to to to go, but we’ll see. We’ll see how people respond to this. We’ll see how the public responds.
Conner Jones: [15:53] It could have been worse, honestly, is is a point that I really want to make is like you you just never know when you give Trump a microphone what he’s going to say or what he’s going to do. You’re right. Uh and and so, you know, from what I was reading, you you almost could have blamed like Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, um and his team because they obviously wrote that speech for him and it was lacking in some areas. But overall, he stayed on task and on point. And I’m not making a statement about Trump either way. I’m just saying, yeah, he made his jabs, but he’s always going to. He actually stayed on point, which I was not expecting. He hasn’t really done that consistently. He gets off on rabbit trails and doesn’t even get back to the original point sometimes.
Micah Tomasella: [16:36] His famous uh weaves when he just like goes off on a point for five, six minutes and comes back to where he was. Yeah, he he he did avoid that, which is I think a good thing for him. and I think a lot of people noticed that as well. I my favorite jab of the night, Micah, you probably laughed at this too and it got a lot of laughs on both sides. Uh both Democrats and Republicans had stood up and applauded when he called for Congress to pass a law to stop insider trading. and then he said, does anybody know if Nancy Pelosi is standing up, which you know, that’s a that’s a joke and a jab at her because they’re supposedly going to call
Conner Jones: [17:07] She’s made a whole lot off insider trading. Yeah, for sure.
Micah Tomasella: [17:11] That’s the accusation for sure. And there’s the idea that it could be called the Pelosi Act. We talked about that last year. Uh if it gets passed through Congress, but we’ll see. But they’re going to name it the Pelosi Act. Oh, that would be that would be funny. The other thing I saw was that these these, you know, these state of the unions, they matter in the moments. People will watch and listen and and parse it apart, but they get forgotten typically pretty easily. The biggest one in recent history was certainly as a lot of people were pointing out was 2024 when Joe Biden went up there, had a pretty solid speech and basically convinced the Democrat party that he was fine and could keep going in the presidential campaign. That was probably the most successful state of the Union in recent memory. Uh so we’ll see if this one lasts long in legacy or not. But the other thing, Micah, that Trump did hit on in the speech that people were really in tuned on was Iran. We’ve been waiting and waiting to see if he has some military plan or was going to order strikes. And he kind of came back into the speech and he said, Iran on it, he prefers to solve the problem through diplomacy. And he’s not going to allow the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism to obtain nuclear weapons. He he doubled down on that. So as of right now, with Iran, we’ve got a third of our navy sitting off the coast or kind of in the region, either in the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel.
Conner Jones: [18:23] That’s that’s unbelievable. That’s an unbelievable amount of manpower and ships and aircraft and, I mean, billions and billions and billions of dollars because, you know, we have by far the largest navy in the world. And so a third of it is parked right out, like it’s parked right on their doorstep when most countries don’t even have a third of our navy in the first place. I mean, it’s just that’s an unbelievable amount of buildup to put pressure on them.
Micah Tomasella: [18:50] Yeah, for clarification, just one aircraft carrier is roughly the size of most, like the the amount of aircraft on that single aircraft carrier is the size of most nations entire air supply. Like, you know, their entire air force, some of these European nations and Asian nations. We have it all on one aircraft carrier. And we’ve got two of those parked off the coast of Iran now. So, as a lot of people point out, this is the largest buildup of military in the region since 2003 before the invasion of Iraq. And it would almost be insane if we sent all that over there, sent all these troops, pulled them out of their lives here in America. We got a ship in the USS Gerald Ford that was in the Caribbean and has been at sea for almost a full year and got deployed. They were supposed to be going home, got deployed over there. It would almost be insane if nothing did happen, if this was all just a buildup and then it’s all going to be just brought back home. Yeah. It’s it’s very likely at this point. That’s what a lot of people have been saying. Special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday too that Iran could be just a week away from having industrial grade bomb making materials. And Axios reported this week kind of talking to insiders there.
Conner Jones: [19:52] Really? Wow.
Micah Tomasella: [19:53] Yeah, that’s what he said, man. That’s and a lot of people have called that out because they’re like, well, I thought we blew up all their nuclear weapons and enrichment facilities in the in the June bombing last year with the stealth bombers. So there’s a lot of questions there. It’s always been a little murky on did we actually destroy everything or they still have some capabilities. Yeah. But that’s what Steve Witkoff said just this past weekend, uh which kind of alluded to maybe there’s more coming and they’re they are going to try to strike more of these facilities. Axios has reported that they are expecting a larger war uh than the 12-day war of last year, which Israel engaged for 12 of those days, then we came in and wrapped up the the war with Iran with the nuclear facility bombing. Uh this could play out in different ways. This could start with the killing of Khamenei, the Ayatollah over there and his sons to try to start a regime change essentially and encourage protesters to take back to the streets and spark um internal revolt. We’ll see. Uh it could also lead to more nuclear facility bombings or military facility bombings. The New York Times is reporting that Trump is leaning towards a strike or at least an initial strike. Uh for what it’s worth, Khamenei has said that he’s or he’s at least ordered his people to basically identify four successors each for each position, find four people who could take your position in case you were killed. And Khamenei’s done the same. He’s got four people who are lined up and ready to take his role. So that’s part of I think the the hesitation here is the US is like, if we do this, what’s the next step? Who takes over? Are we actually instituting regime change?
Conner Jones: [21:18] Well, if you want, it’s the same thing with Venezuela, right? It’s like if you want actual regime change, you’ve got to occupy and oversee that that’s what happens. This happens in steps and stages. If you want to take out a leader, sure, that can happen in a strike, but that’s what everybody’s trying to avoid and what people are concerned about is if you’re building up like it’s 03, well, everybody looks back at that for the most part and says, man, we spent way too much time over there on not not concrete information, you know? And so nobody wants an occupational boots on the ground, losing Americans, um, in any way whatsoever. And so, you know, it’s one thing to strike and take out a leader, it’s another thing entirely to actually make sure regime regime change happens the way you want it. And I think that’s probably the complicated part of this.
Micah Tomasella: [22:06] It definitely is. Trump even ran on no more forever wars in the Middle East. And we’re right on the cusp of potentially entering a new one. So this would feel like a betrayal to a lot of uh voters. Trump has to make his case as to why this is necessary. Even the General Dan Kane, they call him Raising Kane, the one who really oversaw the success of the Venezuela raid, and he told Trump before Venezuela, he saw a high probability of success in that raid. He’s not apparently feeling that much like he’s not feeling as positive about this. He’s basically laying out the risks to Trump. He’s like, if you want to do it, we’ll do it. We will give you the best plans. We will do it to the best of our ability, but this could lead to bigger problems. This could lead to US casualties, which would be tragic in its own way. Um and Trump would have to sit with that and own that. That’d be part of his legacy. Now, if it is what he wants and he believes it’s for the greater good of the region and of the world and of the United States defense, well, then that’s a whole another discussion. But General Kane is not fully like buying into this one as much as he did with Venezuela. I think part of what you’re saying, Micah, is true. Like it you got to continue to oversee it. And this is a 6,000 mile away country. That’s a lot harder than Venezuela. Also a country with a much bigger, tougher military and stronger defenses than Venezuela ever had. So it’s a it’s just a different picture. But yeah, Trump has to sell this to the American people and here’s what currently his team is and his AIDS have been trying to say is like the reasoning behind any sort of potential strike. One would be just a desire to protect the protesters there on the ground in Iran that they killed 32,000 protesters that we know of, could be way more. Uh he said that in the state of the Union as well that there were 32,000 killed. And so restoring the freedoms of those people, restoring freedom to Iran. Another would be just a desire to knock out this regime by removing the supreme leader, the Ayatollah there and all of his cronies. And then the last one is basically what he said in the state of the Union, to make sure they never get nuclear weapons as a state sponsor of terrorism because part of the problem is Iran is impulsive and they could do anything and they really, really hate Israel. They hate Western culture. They are driven by their Islamic ideology. If they had a nuclear weapon, it’s unknown what they would do, but they might try to launch something, especially at Israel, which would lead to World War III. It just it just would if a nuke ever goes off, it’s going to lead to a catastrophic global war. So that’s Trump’s
Conner Jones: [24:23] This matters. This whole story really matters. It’s kind of getting tucked away, but this story really matters. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: [24:28] Yeah, it does. But that’s also, Micah, not the only military thing going on this week. I mean, there was a whole another country. I know you want to hit on this that happened south of the border where the military got involved with a conflict.
Conner Jones: [24:38] Yeah, Connor, I’m just going to take a couple minutes on this, but yeah, so Mexican cartel leader was killed, maybe the biggest and most notorious was killed and the US shared intelligence to make it happen, but they did not lend any actual boots on the ground to make it happen. So Mexican authorities reportedly killed Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, which I think is a pretty cool name by the way. The long-time leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel. He’s been one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful cartel figures in Mexico, heavily, heavily tied to specifically the Fentinel that’s been coming across our borders for the last several years. US officials confirmed that American intelligence was shared ahead of the operation and Mexican forces carried out the raid. After his death, violence broke out in several areas of Mexico. There were reports of roadblocks, burning vehicles, clashes with security forces, uh Mexican security forces killed, the Mexican National Guard, many of them were killed. In response, the US Embassy issued shelter in place guidance for Americans in certain regions, including some major cities and major tourist areas. So for example, a very popular tourist uh place is Puerto Vallarta. And uh there were a lot of Americans there that were being told to shelter in place. What I was I was reading something this morning, things are kind of calming down, but we’ll see how that works out. But that just tells you this the situation’s unstable enough to warrant caution for US citizens where the US is telling Americans there to shelter in place. Taking out a cartel leader is significant, but it does not end cartel operations overnight. Leadership removals can lead to retaliation or internal power struggles before they stabilize. Oh, wait, weren’t we just talking about something like that, right? Similar thing. So what comes next will depend on whether Mexican authorities can quickly contain the violence and whether cartel factions attempt to regroup. Um, you know, it’s who’s going to fill that seat? Which cartel is going to come up and take over for this one? Or, you know, who’s coming in after El Mencho? So for Americans and affected uh in affected areas right now, the message was simple, follow the guidance and stay alert. So this is a story that’s still developing. If anything happens more with it, we’ll let you guys know about it next week.
Conner Jones: [26:42] Yeah, man, some of the videos that were coming out of Mexico on Sunday were just crazy. Like to see the beautiful beaches and the resorts in Puerto Vallarta with just smoke rising up from behind. It looked like a video game or a movie or something. Uh yeah, prayers for the people down there in Mexico. This could get very ugly. Hopefully it does not and hopefully the Mexican government can continue to find these cartel leaders who just do terrible evil things. They they are destructive to their own nation, to their people there and then to ours as well. So, you know, prayerfully more justice is is brought. Uh something else going on. We mentioned it last week, Micah, Obama uh and basically kind of saying, yes, aliens are real on a podcast really quick and then having to clarify afterwards that, uh, maybe they’re not that real. I don’t really actually know any knowledge. He kind of tried to clear his name here of any sort of leaking of information because it could be and he basically was like, I was basically just saying, you know, the universe is big. It’s more likely than not. Yeah. Well, you know, a lot of people laughed at it, but you know who did not laugh about it? Donald Trump. Uh on Air Force One this week, he was asked about that whole thing and then he basically said, well, Obama might have uh broken some laws here and he could be in trouble for leaking classified information, which then got everybody thinking, well, that’s basically a confirmation of he’s he’s saying, yeah, there’s there’s more to this story. So it all led to more and more and more and then Trump finally posted, I think on Wednesday or Thursday of last week that he is going to order the beginning of the process of identifying and releasing government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena and unidentified flying objects and all and other information connected to these highly complex but extremely interesting and important matters. Uh Trump’s daughter-in-law, Laura Trump also said at a podcast that he apparently has a prepared speech on aliens and the whole topic that’s been ready to go for a while. Uh Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also confirmed that a team is now working after Trump’s order to uh bring forward this disclosure effort and go through files, anything that they’ve got there in the Pentagon. Look, here’s the deal. No one wants to learn more about UFOs than me. I personally like just
Micah Tomasella: [28:46] Yeah, you’re a big
Conner Jones: [28:47] I’m on Look, man, I’m on the Reddit threads. I listen to all the UFO podcasts. Like I not that I think it’s
Micah Tomasella: [28:51] You’re a big tin foil hat guy.
Conner Jones: [28:53] You know it. You know it. At least with this, you know. Uh and I’m not even sure it’s like aliens or anything. That’s not my point. I just there’s there’s all these crazy videos out there. There’s a lot of stories, all this and the government officials that have seen some of these videos are like, yeah, there’s some serious stuff in there. We need it to be public so people can really understand what’s out there. The thought might be it’s just a big nothing burger or it’s a big distraction effort. Uh we’re probably not going to actually learn that much would be my guess. Maybe we’ll get a couple videos or images here or there. Yeah. Uh maybe we’ll find out it’s a top secret US program that’s just got a technology that most people don’t know about or it’s China or Russia or all these different videos of things coming out of the ocean and fighter jets seeing them and not being able to understand. Right. I would guess, Micah, this is going to be similar to like the JFK and Epstein files where a lot of redactions, not going to be that telling. Maybe answers a few questions here. Probably actually leaves us with more questions and more distrust of the government. But it’s a step forward and a lot of people in the, you know, uh disclosure community are like, this is a this is the biggest success we’ve had in a while. Let’s find out what’s going on. But we’ll see. Lots of people in the government are like, yeah, this needs to be public. We’ve seen some stuff that the public should know about. So I don’t know. All that to say, we’ll stay tuned on that.
Micah Tomasella: [29:59] Thanks for that.
Conner Jones: [30:00] But Micah, man, as we just went through, what a crazy week. So much is happening. Um, there’s a lot to think about with what’s right, what’s wrong, uh, how do we approach all these things from a Christian perspective? Well, I I really want to lean on Dr. Jim Denson’s article, I think it was from Tuesday of this week. And he quoted Dennis Prager, a Prager U is his thing, and he wrote a book that just came out this week and in that book, he said, the great moral tragedy of our time is that feelings have replaced values. I would agree with that. Um, feelings trump a lot of things in people’s minds here in today’s culture. And Dr. Denson, he followed up that quote by saying, Americans are doing what feels right to them with no consideration for objective truths or moral standards. In fact, many do not believe that such standards exist. Until something bad happens, something that is objectively bad happens in most people’s minds, such as Iran killing protesters or Putin invading Ukraine or cartels murdering people. Like that’s just things that everybody knows are bad. So what’s going on there? Well, as Dr. Denson said, that forces us to grapple with the fact that if all morality is a matter of preference, we have no way to disagree with even the most monstrous evils in our world. But you know, Micah, for us as Christians, there really is no subjective truth, only the objective truth of scripture that lays out God’s moral standards, I would say. And we have that Holy Spirit too, and that guides us. That is our moral compass. The Holy Spirit helps us understand what’s right and wrong. Which is why when we feel tempted by sin, we know it’s wrong. The Holy Spirit is telling us, that’s wrong. Don’t do that sin. It’s our guide. It’s what’s helping us know the objective truth of right and wrong in scripture and what God has laid out as right and wrong, right? Yeah, we know what’s right, but then we don’t take action. You know, if we know what’s right and don’t take action, we we we feel the weight of failing to follow through. That’s what James 4:17 says when it says, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is sin. That is why if we want to be a moral people in a moral world, we’re just going to need the transformation that only Jesus can bring. Uh the path to a better future, I would say lies with our hearts. And our hearts, they’re corrupted until they’re purified by Jesus. Much of the world, Micah, gosh, it just suffers from a corrupted heart and a subjective morality. So, as Christians, this is the call this week. Let’s be different. Let’s have purified hearts. Let’s make clear what is right and what’s wrong because we are totally aware of what’s right and wrong because of the Holy Spirit and because scripture lays it out for us. And so as you think through all these stories, as you think through the news, as you think through what’s coming down the line with the news, I mean, tomorrow will be a whole new story. Like that that’s just the reality of the way our news moves today. That’s your guide for what is right, what is wrong. And sometimes it’s hard to reject what the world is saying is right, but what scripture scripture says is wrong, right? The world tells us a bunch of things are right, but it’s not true. A bunch of things are actually wrong according to scripture and that’s on us as Christians to stand up to that and say, no, that’s not what scripture says, that’s not biblical truth.
Micah Tomasella: [33:12] Yeah, I mean, and ultimately, it’s a great point, Connor, but it’s not, you know, just to give even like an extra layer of context. Like, you know, uh, scripture isn’t just a book full of telling us what’s wrong. It’s actually God created us, created us in his image, wants us to live according to the best way possible, knowing him, loving him, worshiping him. That gives us the most the most full life when we’re connected to our creator. Uh, when scripture is clear about what’s right and wrong, it’s so that we don’t lead down a path of destruction, that we don’t destroy our lives, that we don’t destroy the people around us and their lives through sin, uh, and through the mistakes that we make. So it’s not just right or wrong for the sake of right or wrong or rules, it’s, hey, you go down this path, it’s going to lead to the destruction of yourself and those around you. Is that something that you want? And we’re given free will to make those decisions.
Conner Jones: [34:05] Yep, we sure are. Yeah, thanks for that wrap up, Micah. Uh, man, so much going on, but we’ll continue to cover things and for now, we’re just going to go ahead and wrap it up and jump into our mailbag.
Micah Tomasella: [34:20] Let’s get into the mailbag. Okay, so guys, thank you for continuing to engage with us. Please send us your questions, your thoughts, or your topic ideas to culturebrief@denisonforum.org or follow us on Instagram @culturebriefpodcast. Send us a DM, whatever it might be. We’d love to engage with you. Mary Lee wrote in, uh, and spoke into the, you know, the topic that we had last week when we got a a question from Gary about clean TV shows. And she said, she had some more ideas on where to find clean TV shows. She said, two wholesome streaming networks are redeemed TV and Pureflix. I have heard of Pureflix. I haven’t heard of redeemed TV. Sounds like a great name though. Sounds like it would be wholesome. Thanks for sending that in for us, Mary Lee. So, don’t hesitate if you have any questions, comments, you want to tell us how much you love us, tell us how much you don’t like us. That’s okay. We can take it. Send it in and let us know.
Conner Jones: [35:13] Yeah, thanks, Micah. Okay, a few things to check into. Uh, you know, last week we talked about several pretty big cultural icons that passed away, Robert Duval and Jesse Jackson and James Van der Beek. Well, another one passed away after we recorded, Eric Dane, who was on Grey’s Anatomy for a long time, just a big star there. He’s been in a whole bunch of other TV shows. He passed away at age 53 after a long battle with ALS, which is really sad and he leaves behind his family and his kids. Um, I I wanted to point out though with him, he went on this new Netflix show that’s called Famous Last Words. This is a show that just launched in October and they’ve I guess got a stored up group of episodes ready to release after these famous people pass away. So the day after Eric Dane died, this interview with him released and he was able to basically just give one last big interview, talk about life, talk about legacy, talk to his family. and he was able to look directly in the camera and leave a message with for his family that’s um, you know, it’s on this Netflix show. You can go watch it. It’s one of the top shows of the week over there, but it’s also been all over social media. He looks in this camera and he just delivers this beautiful message to his daughters and his wife. It’s really, really hard to watch, but I think it’s a unique interview process. Um, the first episode was actually with the scientist Jane Goodall. That released in October after she passed away. But this idea that these people can leave these final messages for both society and their families, kind of interesting concept. And we’re going to learn a lot about these people sadly after they pass away and the way that they feel about things. For instance, Eric, and this is just a sad truth, um, he talked about the afterlife and that he really just believes death is final. There’s nothing after this. Um, and guys, as we’ve talked about last week, that’s not true. Jesus offers salvation. And so as you listen to these interviews and or you you see this about Eric Dane, just remember that there is so much more after this life and that’s actually what we get to live for. Um there is truth and there is hope and there is salvation and there is eternity. And that’s the truth. So, um, I I hope his family learns that, um, and and I just one of the things we said last week was one of the biggest things you can do for your family as you if if you pass away unexpectedly is leave them with the peace of knowing that you’re going to be in eternity in heaven for eternity, right? So just kind of a sad thing there.
Micah Tomasella: [37:23] Yeah, thanks Connor. Um, RIP Eric Dane. So let’s head on a few more things. The Ukraine war just hit its fourth anniversary on Tuesday with combined casualties since Russia’s invasion in 2022 now approaching an unimaginable 2 million. Roughly two-thirds of those are Russian. And yet, there’s no signs of the war ending soon. I know that Trump kind of has an aim to get it done by July 4th, America’s 250th celebration. Um, you know, that seems to be more and more difficult as it drags on, uh, because for some reason this war is just not ending and it’s very sad and there’s a lot of needless loss of life. So, like this conflict and any others, we’re praying for peace. Uh, we’re praying that Jesus would be known and known fully. He would redeem these situations, but also that innocent people would stop dying. It’s just so sad. And then we’ve got, uh, both Prince Andrew of the British Royal family and Peter Mandelson. Man, these guys are in hot water. The former, uh, British ambassador to the US was arrested this week for charges related to misconduct after the Epstein files released and he and it was revealed that they both leaked sensitive economic documents to Epstein. So they’re they’re being charged and arrested on different things more about like basically like, uh, uh, giving government insights and spilling government secrets to Epstein. So they were arrested for that.
Conner Jones: [38:45] A lot of belief that these two, especially with Prince Andrew, were also engaged in the like sexual improprieties of the files as well, but that the government is able to definitely get them on evidence around this. They can get them, it’s kind of like the Al Capone thing. Like Al Capone was never arrested for his mafia ties, but he was arrested and imprisoned for avoiding taxes because that’s what they could get him on. Right. Tax evasion. Right. Yeah, it’s it won’t be full justice for any victims that they would have um, you know, not yet. We’ll see what happens. Not yet. Definitely, but it’s definitely, I mean, talk about a fall from grace. Prince Andrew was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite of the four children that she had. And now he’s not even in the family anymore. He’s been disgraced. Yeah, he’s been kicked out.
Micah Tomasella: [39:25] All right, uh, last one on check-in, Nancy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie’s mother is still missing. We’re nearly a month into this. The Guthrie family is offering a $1 million reward now. The FBI is offering 100,000 on top of that. There’s all these kind of rewards popping up. This is just a crazy story because you just feel like in 2026, you can’t get away with this stuff anymore. You know, you see these type of kidnapping stories in the 70s and 80s and 90s and they make these documentaries about it, but in 2026 with with with how advanced everything is to be able to track things, the cameras everywhere, people spill the beans, somebody says something. It’s crazy. They still don’t know what’s happened to her and it’s just it blows my mind.
Conner Jones: [40:08] It it’s really sad and you’re right, man, in this in this day and age, you just don’t see stories like this very much anymore, especially, I’m thinking about the Ring Super Bowl commercial. They had that commercial where they showed uh basically surveillance of everything and everybody by they tried to twist it by saying, we’re helping find lost dogs with our ring cameras. Totally backfired. The now the Ring CEO is on like a a cleanup, you know, he’s he’s trying to go clean up the messaging around that. He was like, yeah, we’re we’re pulling back on some of this. All that to say, you’re right. If they can do that with with surveillance and stuff, how are we not finding
Micah Tomasella: [40:39] Why do we not know what’s going on here? You know, I hope there’s resolution. Yeah, I hope there’s I pray and hope that there’s resolution to it soon. The only tune in thing would be kind of what we talked about earlier. US could be striking Iran at any moment. They might, they might not. You don’t really know. Is this a build up to put more diplomatic pressure or is it a build up because they’re about to strike? So we’ll see. Praying all that goes well, praying for discernment for our leaders on that.
Conner Jones: [41:10] I think on Thursday there’s there’s planned, it’s planned, big big quotations around planned meetings in Geneva, Switzerland between the US and Steve Witkoff and Iran to potentially try to hash out more details around a negotiation. It’s probably Iran’s last chance to say, okay, we’re going to give up nukes. They seem very hesitant to do that. So that’s going to come that’s going to happen right after this episode releases. If you’re listening first thing on Thursday morning, that meeting might be going on and we’ll just see what comes out of that.
Micah Tomasella: [41:36] Yeah, something might be. Yeah, I mean, I think something might be going down this weekend, but we’ll see. Okay, well, thanks for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief, a Denson Forum podcast. All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, please like, please subscribe, please rate and review the show and share it with a friend and we’ll see you next Thursday.
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