Tag Archives: micah

Bad Bunny, the Grammys, Super Bowl outrage, Don Lemon arrest & Epstein update | Ep. 55 | Denison Forum

Topics

(0:00) Introduction

(1:54) Grammys recap: performances and controversies

(4:26) Bad Bunny’s political statement

(9:46) Super Bowl halftime show controversies

(14:51) Jelly Roll’s powerful Grammy speech

(19:37) Epstein files: new revelations and reactions

(23:55) Tensions with Iran: military and diplomatic developments

(26:54) Don Lemon and the FACE Act controversy

(29:52) Spiritual reflection: slowing down in a fast-paced world

(33:19) Mailbag

(41:20) Tune in: upcoming events and entertainment

Resources

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Articles on this week’s top headlines:

About Conner Jones

Conner Jones is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.

About Micah Tomasella

Micah Tomasella is the Director of Advancement at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.

About Denison Forum

Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, the Faith & Clarity podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.

Conner Jones: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.

Micah Tomasella: I’m Micah Tomasella

Conner Jones: and this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant top stream of news, stories, politics, sports, pop culture. We’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. And Micah, the government shutdown and reopen between our recordings. It’s a miracle, right?

Micah Tomasella: That’s true. It’s a miracle. Yeah. I had a partial shutdown. Now the government’s back open, but it could shut down in again two weeks. In two weeks. So we’ll see what happens. So we have a loaded show as always. We’re gonna talk about the Grammys and what happened there, the cultural implications of that, the Super Bowl, two Super Bowl’s, kind of becoming less about the actual game and more about everything else.

But I guess that’s kind of normal. And then we’re gonna kind of just do a, a geopolitical political and cultural roundup, having to do with the Epstein files, what the Clintons have to do with it. Iran, what’s going on there, Don Lemon, what’s happening there with his arrest and a whole lot more. So let’s jump into [00:01:00] the brief.

Conner Jones: The brief.

Yeah, you’re right. The Super Bowl is kind of like all about. The game to an extent, at least for a big portion of America. But for the rest of America, man, it’s, it’s about the people that are there. It’s the performances, it’s the halftime show, pre-game, post-game, everything that happens on social media with it.

I would say this week, specifically, Micah, I, I’ve really been thinking about this, it’s kind of like a big mono-cultural week. A lot of people say the monoculture is dying. You know, 50 million people used to watch every episode of MASH together in America and then talk about it the next day at the office.

It’s. Gotten more sporadic this week though, between the Super Bowl, these Grammy speeches that we’re gonna break down here in a minute that have just been all over social media and in the Olympics. This is a, a moment where all of American kind comes together and talks about the same things. I’m excited to see how that delves into the cultural conversation and then where faith plays a role into each of those things.

But specifically, we can start with the Grammys because that, that happened this past Sunday and man, it, it’s [00:02:00] caused a stir. There’s been some. Positive things out of it. There’s been some negative things out of it, but everybody has opinions, that’s for sure. And every celebrity has their opinions and they, they made a way to make their opinions known.

Micah Tomasella: Yeah.

Conner Jones: On the stage and their acceptance. They sure do. I don’t know, Mike, did you watch any of the Grammys? I’m gonna go ahead and

Micah Tomasella: guess. Absolutely not.

Conner Jones: I figured you did not.

Micah Tomasella: Absolutely not. No. In, I mean, I didn’t even know what was happening. I mean, yes, I didn’t know it was happening, but I kind of make it a point to not support it because it has just become about everything other than the art form, you know?

Being actually recognized. It’s been so politicized, and I know exactly how celebrities feel about their politics, and they like to tell me, and I have no interest for the most part in what their opinions are about it. And that’s just my own personal opinion.

Conner Jones: No, I, I, I feel that, I think a lot of people feel that way too.

They’re like, I, I don’t need to see all this. They may like the performances. Some of the performances are good, like Justin Bieber performed. It was great. Yeah. Alex Warren was there.

Micah Tomasella: He needs to put some clothes on, but it was a great performance.

Conner Jones: I would like Justin Bber to have a shirt on. That would be [00:03:00] nice.

Yes.

Micah Tomasella: Or wear pants. I mean, that was some

Conner Jones: pants. I mean, he has shorts, but yeah, that, that would be helpful.

Micah Tomasella: Yeah.

Conner Jones: Yeah. And the Bruno Mar there’s great performances. There are really talented people there, but you’re right, totally. It doesn’t end up you, no one thinks about who’s winning the awards. You think about all the controversial moments, you think about the, the big spectacles.

I will say one cool performance that happened was Post Malone. Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and slash on the guitar, they, they perform war pigs in a, a tribute to Ozzy Osborne. Just an incredible performance. I really enjoyed that one. Okay, and that one question. I wanna

Micah Tomasella: go back and watch some of these performances.

I’ve seen a few, but I didn’t see that one.

Conner Jones: No, that one’s really good. Dude. Post Malone. Okay. The way he transforms his voice to sound like Ozzy. So cool. I’m gonna link,

Micah Tomasella: it’s a guy.

Conner Jones: I’m gonna link videos to all of these things, speeches and performances. I’m gonna mention here in our show notes so you can find them if you have not seen them.

A couple awards that war won. Billie Eilish and Phineas, that’s her brother. They won Song of the Year for Wildflower, which is pretty popular obviously.

Micah Tomasella: Yeah,

Conner Jones: that’s why they won. And then last year’s Super Bowl halftime performer was Kendrick [00:04:00] Lamar. He came away with five Grammys on Sunday night, including record of the year for the song Luther, which one of the viral moments was Cher Legend in her own right coming out and flubbing that announcement and saying the wrong winner there.

She said Luther, I can’t remember the full name, but it was a guy who actually died in 2005 that the song is about. Yeah, she was, she was a little meandering. She seemed a little lost, dazed and confused.

Jelly Roll: Oh,

Conner Jones: oh. But she’s a legend, so she gets away with it, you know?

Jelly Roll: Sure.

Conner Jones: And then this year’s Super Bowl halftime performer who is at the center of every conversation this week is obviously Bad Bunny.

He did win Album of the Year and he, yeah, he used his speech to go on a pro immigration and anti-ice tangent. We’re gonna hit on that here just a minute. But he wasn’t the only one. The night was just a mess. And political and social signaling from these celebrities, a lot of ’em showed up with pins on their chest that say, ice out and black and white.

A lot of people did that and they’re just making their statement though that you know, it’s their right, they can do it. They’ve got the platform. Totally. You’re allowed

Micah Tomasella: to do it and I’m allowed not to care about what you say.

Conner Jones: Exactly. And I think that’s how people can feel. Yeah. But at the same time, they have a [00:05:00] platform and so they’re like, it’s not

Micah Tomasella: illegal.

They can do that. Oh sure.

Conner Jones: They can absolutely do it. Bill Eilish and her acceptance speech for winning Best song said that. No one is illegal on stolen land and then cussed out ice that was censored on the TV broadcast. It bleeps. Yeah, that, that was a statement that caused a lot of uproar. And some people even started pointing out that Bailey Eilish herself has a multimillion dollar home in Los Angeles that sits on land, has historically belonging to the Tongva tribe, the Native American tribe there in la And the people, yeah.

Of the tar tribe. Maybe she’ll give it back to them. Yeah, that is, they’re like, that’s our land. Technically, we. We’re grateful she’s bringing attention to it. Yeah. They’re like, not gonna pursue anything with this, but just kind of a, one of those double standards that can be

Jelly Roll: Yeah.

Conner Jones: Mistaken. And I, I don’t even know if the phrase, no one is illegal on stolen land.

Makes a lot of sense in what she’s trying to say. I. If you’re saying that ICE is just kicking out people in a land that was taken away from Native Americans, all that, I just don’t understand how that applies fully to [00:06:00] the conversation around ice and Alex Prey’s death and everything. ’cause ultimately this is about enforcing laws that are American.

Yeah. This is America at this point, like that. No matter who had the land originally, we’re now in a new

Micah Tomasella: era. It’s it’s an emotional argument. Not really based in. Logic and facts, but you know, this, this is such a lightning rod story. Like we’ve talked about that, you know, of course there’s strong emotional reaction.

Conner Jones: Yes, you are absolutely correct. She wasn’t the only one bad bunny. As I said, man, this, this guy is the center of everything this week between winning all these Grammys and his speech and then all the talk about him leading up to the Super Bowl halftime performance, man, he, he is right at the center of every conversation with football and music and all of that.

And he, he took his moment, man. He won awards. Good for him. He’s got good music. I don’t dislike his music. I don’t know what any of it says because I don’t speak Spanish. Sure.

But it’s music that, you know, you’re out on the boat. Yeah. Throw some bad bunny on. He’s got a good beat, you know, and he’s gonna be introduced to much of the American public this week.

[00:07:00] But as a central figure, whose audience is largely Latin American, he’s Puerto Rican himself, he knew that everyone was gonna be looking to him. To see what he says in this speech because he knew he was gonna win. So he, he had it ready to go. And man, he kept it short, but he kept it punchy. He said, before I say, thanks to God, I’m gonna say ice out.

That led to about 30 seconds of applause standing ovations. And he just stood there and took it. And then he continued saying, we’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans. The hate gets more powerful. With more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love, so please, we need to be different.

If we fight, we have to do it with love. Micah, thoughts on his comments?

Micah Tomasella: I think I don’t have a big problem with his comments actually. I think there has been such strong rhetoric on both sides about this that leads to more hate, kind of like bad Bunny talked about here and actually kind of. Calling upon, Hey, the, the only force more [00:08:00] powerful is love.

Now, I mean, again, I would say what is your love grounded in? He did say he was gonna thank God. You know, I don’t know what his relationship with Jesus is, but I don’t, I don’t have a huge problem with, with these comments. I expected him to say something and he definitely could have been more decisive in what he said.

I definitely what he said better than what Billy Eilish said personally.

Conner Jones: Yeah, I did. I did too. And obviously coming from somebody of a heritage where he’s speaking on behalf of really the southern hemisphere here. And, and, and everybody. His

Micah Tomasella: audience. Yeah. And he feels like he represents this group of people who feel, who feel voiceless.

I mean, you could argue what’s the right platform for that, you know, is virtue signaling in that environment really the best way to get it? You know, but these people are given a captive audience and they wanna make a difference, you know? Okay.

Conner Jones: Yeah,

Micah Tomasella: yeah,

Conner Jones: you’re exactly right. I, I do wish he said at the beginning, he said, before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say is out.

I would say. Man, if you’re gonna present a message like that, thank God first always. That is your Yeah, your your first thing, don’t, there you go. Don’t hold off. Because then he didn’t even get around to it. By the time he got through his ice speech, [00:09:00] it, it was time for him to get off the stage. They, they rushed him off, so he didn’t even get around to it.

But yeah, you’re right. It, he, I think he struck a fine line. He was like, I wanna say my peace without being super offensive. People are gonna be offended either way, like that’s just the, the nature of it. But man, he’s, he’s, he knows what he’s doing and he didn’t even host an American, or I should say he didn’t host a concert on Mainland America last year.

He’s not doing it this year either. He did 30 performances in his home territory of Puerto Rico, which is the us. So a lot of people traveled to Puerto Rico to go see his shows, but he knows what he is doing here and that’s why he’s got the Super Bowl because he’s the biggest artist in the world right now besides Taylor Swift.

And that’s why the NFL wanted to bring him in. I mean, people are gonna be upset about it because he doesn’t sing in English. He may not have any English performances, but at the end of the day, this is a business decision for the NFL. Yeah. And as we move into talking about the Super Bowl, that, that’s just a point I wanna make now, is it a good business decision?

We will find out because we’ll see if the ratings go up or down because of this. We’ll see, I I don’t think it’s gonna be a bad one. I think that they’re gonna be just fine. The NFL is, and the [00:10:00] Super Bowl is, and he’s gonna

Micah Tomasella: be, there’s been, there have been some terrible Super Bowl performances in the past.

I doubt his will be terrible.

Conner Jones: Yeah. I think it’ll be good. The other things with the Super Bowl that people are upset about, I’m just presenting this, I’m not saying I’m upset about it. This is just what we’re seeing in culture right now is Green Day is doing the pre-game performance. They have been very.

anti-Republican in their speech in previous years and anti-Trump and all that. So there’s a lot of people who are upset about that and that’s fine. They can be Trump himself talking about Green Day and Bad Bunny said he’s not going to the game. He went to the Super Bowl last year. He is not going this year because talking about these musical performers, he said.

I’m anti them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is so hatred. Terrible. So he’s making his opinion very loud and clear to the terrible. But you know what, he’s also been complaining about the kickoff rules this year and nothing’s changed there. So I’m not sure the president has that much leeway over what the NFL does.

The National Anthem being sung by Charlie po. That’s gonna be great. That man is a talent beyond talent. Yeah, he’s awesome. Watch his Instagrams go watch Charlie PO’s Instagram [00:11:00] videos and then Bad Bunny. Just one of the things that. As we’ve discussed, people are upset about is the fact that the music’s gonna be in Spanish.

They’re also upset because he may, he’s alluded to the idea and it’s been reported that he might show up in a dress that would not be in like a, a female dress. This is something he’s done in performances in the past to kind of like support the L-G-B-T-Q community. That may not be received all that well, and then ICE is apparently gonna be there.

Kristi Noam, secretary of Homeland Security, has said that they would be all over the Super Bowl. Her right hand man, Corey Lewandowski, has even scolded the NFL for selecting Bad Bunny saying that he’s somebody who seems to hate America so much. So I, I don’t know, Roger Goodell, he’s the NFL Commissioner.

He’s kind of heard a lot of this backlash. He says, I understand. And he said that bad Bunny understood that the platform he was on and this platform is huge, should be used to unite people and be able to bring people together with their creativity. I think bad Bunny understands that and I think he’ll have a great performance.

So Roger Ell kind of putting out there in the media, like I think he’s gonna be great. I [00:12:00] really hope he doesn’t do anything overtly political ’cause that could be bad. One of the things. Micah that we saw last year that came out of the decision for Bad Bunny was a lot of people saying, okay, we need to do an alternative halftime show ’cause this guy is anti-American.

All of that. And that turned into Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk’s organization saying we’re gonna host one became a whole thing of maybe we’ll bring in some faith-based musicians like Fort Frank and Corey Asbury and all of that to come in and, and do almost a worship service. That idea really fizzled out.

It’s now really. Becoming just a, a big right wing thing and there’s, it’s gonna be a performance. They’re doing an alternative programming. It’s gonna be on their streaming service with Turning Point USA. It’s gonna be on like Daily Wire Plus and Real America’s Voice. All these places. It’s featuring Kid Rock and Brantley Gilbert, Lee Bri, and Gabby Barrett.

So if you’re interested in that, you can go watch that. I think you may see some people tune out and go over there just for this halftime performance and then come back to the game. But we’ll see. But Micah, just general thoughts. Is it wrong for Americans to be upset about Bad Bunny as a performer at the Super [00:13:00] Bowl?

Micah Tomasella: It’s kind of a loaded question, Conner. Is it wrong? I don’t know if it’s wrong. I would just say, let’s all take a step back, examine our priorities. I don’t know personally, I’ve got a lot of work to do the rest of the day. I’ve got a family that I. Get to lead and love and take care of. So I am absolutely not gonna get that upset about whoever the halftime performer is.

There’s just other things that take priority over that. Maybe you can be miffed about it and you can be frustrated, but I, I would say it might be crossing a line if, if you’re really letting it upset you who’s performing at the halftime show. And I, I do understand the concept of, I’d like to watch the halftime show with my family, and I’d like to not worry about crazy stuff flashing.

On the scene, but I think that’s kind of been an issue with the Super Bowl as a whole of how family friendly is it and now it’s becoming more political, being mixed with how family friendly it is. But all of that to say, I dunno if it’s wrong to be upset about it. I think we should all just kind of take a step back and examine our priorities and what we have going on and [00:14:00] hopefully we don’t let it get, get to us too much.

Conner Jones: Yeah. I’m right there with you. I, I, I don’t think it’s wrong. Everybody’s can have their opinion. I just don’t think we need to like, throw a hoopla about the whole thing. If you wanna tune out, tune out. If you wanna boycott the entire Super Bowl boycott Conner.

Micah Tomasella: Yeah, I don’t

Conner Jones: think it’s gonna make a massive difference.

Maybe it will. I would say, I think America is just kind of split on this in different ways. Like a small portion is yeah, we’re gonna boycott. A smaller portion is if you boycott, you’re a bigot and you’re a hater and all of that, and then the majority of America’s like you, Micah. We don’t have the, the just mind.

I hope the majority

Micah Tomasella: of America feels like

Conner Jones: this. I like, I think 90 fish

Micah Tomasella: fry. You know

Conner Jones: what I mean? I mean 97% of America is I just wanna watch the game. Yeah. I wanna watch the commercials. The halftime show’s gonna be on my tv. Like even if I’m up and getting food or something around an

Micah Tomasella: American holiday.

Can we just get along? Can we just stop getting so frustrated? Can, can we just enjoy the Super Bowl? You know, like most Americans enjoy the Super Bowl, but Conner, can we talk about jelly roll’s speech?

Conner Jones: Yes,

Micah Tomasella: at the Grammys, please.

Conner Jones: Absolutely. Because this was [00:15:00] the best moment of the Grammys and

Micah Tomasella: I agree.

Conner Jones: Super powerful. So I wanna play a clip of Jelly Roll, the country singer coming up and accepting his award for Best Contemporary Country album for his album. Beautifully Broken. Here we go.

Jelly Roll: I know they’re gonna try to kick me off here, so just let me try to get this out. First of all, Jesus, I hear you and I’m listening Lord.

I am listening, Lord. Second of all, I wanna thank my beautiful wife. I would’ve never changed my life without you. I’d ended up dead or in jail. I’d have killed myself if it wasn’t for you. And Jesus, I thank you for that. There was a time in my life y’all that I was. I was broken. That’s why I wrote this album.

I didn’t think I had a chance, y’all. There was days that I thought the darkest things, I was a horrible human. There was a moment in my life that all I had was a Bible this big and a radio the same size, and a six by eight foot cell. And I believed that those two things could change my life. I believed that music had the power to change my life, and God had the power to change my life.

And I want to tell y’all right now, Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by [00:16:00] one political party. Jesus is not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus and anybody can have a relationship with him. I love you Lord.

Conner Jones: Hmm. Micah incredible. That was powerful and he’s not wrong about any of it. Jesus is not owned by a political party.

Jesus is not owned by a record label. Jesus is all powerful. Jesus gave Jelly Roll that moment. The talents that he has to go up there and glorify him, and that I just loved. I thought it was incredible. What’d you think?

Micah Tomasella: You want to unite people in love in something, lasting something with a foundation.

You tell ’em that. Exactly repent and turn to Jesus. That’s where change comes. There are a lot of people on the right side of the aisle and a lot of people on the left side of the aisle that need to repent and turn to Jesus has nothing to do with what the political party is, and I really love what he had to say.

I just think his story is powerful. I think it pulls us all in when you [00:17:00] have kind of that. Drugs and rock and roll story. You hit the bottom, you’re in prison and Jesus changes your life. I mean, it’s just something that I think a lot of people are drawn to, myself included. I mean, I just think it’s really inspiring.

I’m really grateful that he’s using his platform to make a difference. His music has changed, his life has changed. I just think it’s wonderful.

Conner Jones: His physique has changed. I mean, he’s lost hundreds of pounds. Yeah. Like he, God is moving in his heart. Yeah. And I don’t know how strong his faith is at this point.

And he’s talked openly about like how he’s just trying to learn the Bible and grow it. ’cause he, he was basically faithless a few, just a few years ago. And

Micah Tomasella: then, yeah. But being vulnerable about that is encouraging to people too. He doesn’t have all the answers. I don’t have all of the answers.

Conner Jones: No.

Micah Tomasella: You know, but

Conner Jones: it’s

Micah Tomasella: awesome.

It’s, it’s it’s cool. It’s cool to see him kind of walk through that journey with all of us.

Conner Jones: All that to say that is a redeeming moment for the Grammys, in my opinion. If you look at all the, the, the negative things that came out of it, all the things that are very of the world, very fleshly in the Grammys.

Yeah. And you, you go to that and you’re like, that might have been the best and most viral part of the [00:18:00] whole show because it was different and it was Amen. God glorifying and them zooming in on Reba McIntyre, just smiling from ear to ear because she’s this is just truth. And his life has changed.

She’s known him since the beginning of his career when he was not like this. We are seeing a redeemed man.

Micah Tomasella: Amen.

Conner Jones: And hopefully, hopefully the prayer would be that impacts many lives. And I just wanna leave y’all with this verse right here. One Peter four, 10 and 11 says, and I’m speaking about this because this is it’s making me think of Jelly Roll.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified. Through Jesus Christ to him belongs to glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Micah Tomasella: Amen. Thank you for that. That was a really good discussion. It’s just so interesting how we’re talking about a Grammy’s award show and the Super Bowl, but the cultural implications, just in this time where everything just feels so heated, [00:19:00] jelly Roll kind of gave us, gave the entire culture just a different perspective, and you’re not hearing it very much because the path is narrow.

Yeah. The way is narrow that leads to life. Most people are gonna choose a different path and jelly rolls choosing the unique one and that’s why it stands out. And so it’s beautiful to see. Thanks for taking us through all of that. And I, for one, no matter what happened, I for 1:00 AM very much looking forward to the Super Bowl no matter what all the controversies are.

Conner Jones: yeah.

Micah Tomasella: Yep. So I’m gonna do a geopolitical, political and cultural roundup here. Alright. Let’s talk about the Epstein files. So the Epstein files, the Epstein document releases are still getting a lot of attention because. They just released a whole lot more millions, actually. They include references to a wide range of well-known people from politics and business and entertainment.

Names that have publicly been talked about for years as possibly in them are in them, and some people are in them a whole lot. People like Bill Clinton. [00:20:00] Photos of Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein. You got Donald Trump and some correspondence, prince Andrew. A lot of things happening in Great Britain right now over this leak.

Elon Musk is in there and other billionaires and media figures show up in different record logs and different contact records, emails and texts and things like that. So the Justice Department says millions of pages have now been released and some professional and political fallout is starting to surface because more and more names are popping up.

Yeah. Names that we did expect, names that we did not expect. But the big clarification that I want to give and that we’ve given every time that we talk about the Epstein files. Is that political experts or legal experts specifically, they keep repeating this, that being named is not the same thing as being charged.

Being named in them is not necessarily guilt. Okay. Jeffrey Epstein was very connected. He was not a good guy, but I think. One thing we have to do is people are complicated. So just because Jeffrey Epstein had a friend and a correspondence with somebody doesn’t necessarily mean [00:21:00] that it had to do with what he actually did.

That was, that was wrong and evil, right? He could just have a relationship with somebody. We have to remember that people are complex. I’m not defending anybody that’s popped up. I think it’s not a good look if your name is in any of this, and I think that you gotta re-envision like who you have in your life.

But at the same time, just ’cause you’re mentioned doesn’t mean that you’re guilty. Conner, how have you taken all this and what have you seen as all these, all this information has been released recently?

Conner Jones: It’s been interesting to see some of the names like you. You mentioned the names that a lot of people already know were, were kind of associated, but there’s, there’s other ones like Casey Wasserman who is Yeah, literally in charge of the 2028 Olympics.

He’s big guy, big agent in Hollywood. He’s supposed to be planning the La Olympics and now they’re about to kick him off the board of that probably because they’re like,

Micah Tomasella: yeah,

Conner Jones: he’s all, he’s not, he’s not just in the emails. He’s like flirting with girls in the email. Like it depends on the content of the emails.

And people like Howard Lutnick who said that they had cut off communications with Epstein, and then a few years later, it turns out they were actually emailing him and trying to find out if they could party with him or, or get a business relationship with him or whatnot. These people [00:22:00] really, who, you’re right, they’re not guilty necessarily of anything.

They’re not being found guilty, but they were talking to a guy who had been found as a child predator Yeah. In 2008, and this is years afterwards and they’re communicating with him. It’s, yeah, it’s true. It’s, it’s, man, if you step into a, a puddle of mud and you come out a little bit muddy. You’re kind of dirty in that sense and at least in some people’s eyes.

Yeah. And so it’s, it’s guilt by association in a social

Micah Tomasella: totally

Conner Jones: circumstance. Totally. I mean, CBS is about to fire Peter Atia five days into his new contract with them because he had emails with Epstein. It’s just not great.

Micah Tomasella: Yep. Yep. So let’s talk about the Clintons bill and Hillary. So on the Clinton side, the tone has shifted towards cooperation kind of all of a sudden, right?

They were gonna be held in contempt by Congress because they were refusing to show up and testify. Now that has changed ’cause some of their. Some of what they wanted, the standards they were met, it’s gonna be public. There’s gonna be certain people there, certain people not there, but they are gonna show up and testify.

So more recent updates show movement towards cooperating to avoid dragging things out [00:23:00]legally. The questions surrounding them around the Clinton’s involvement here mostly relate to past associations. Travel records and what level of knowledge that they actually had of what Epstein was doing. So at this point, it’s largely procedural.

It’s not, you know, they’re not gonna leave in handcuffs, but Republicans wanna make an example of them. Yeah. And to a certain extent, I’m not saying that that’s right or wrong, I’m just saying if the shoe was on the other foot, I know exactly what the other party would do too. It’s just one of those things it, you know, I was just reading Politico this morning.

I mean, in politicos they definitely have a bias, but they are the most connected news source in dc. Really kind of by far, and there’s a lot of Democrats publicly and privately. Can we just be done with the Clintons they bring? I mean, I was just reading this morning, just so many people saying they bring so much baggage.

Yeah, whenever their names come up. Bill had his series of controversies whenever he was president too. And so there are a lot of things coming outta that. So the Clintons is one thing. Let’s talk about Iran. So Iran negotiations, military developments, I’m gonna run [00:24:00] through this real quick. Iran is still one of the biggest pressure points right now internationally.

There are negotiations happening behind the scenes around specifically Iran’s nuclear program. Again, America bombed that and set them way back last year, but. At the same time, there’s some real military tension right now. Earlier this week, US forces shot down an Iranian drone that was moving towards a US aircraft carrier after warnings were ignored.

I was reading this morning about the specific type of drone it was, it’s a one-way attack drone, so you don’t see those drones unless something’s gonna happen, right? It’s not like an observation drone or whatever it might be. It’s a drone that flies into and detonates like it’s supposed to explode.

They’re not interesting. Trying to get the drone back, right? It’s drone. So you see that and you know exactly what kind of drone that is. And so that was headed towards a US aircraft carrier. And around the same time, Iranian gunboats approached a US flagged oil tanker in the strait of hormones. And a US Navy destroyer escorted it safely away.

But that stretch of water really [00:25:00] matters. And this is kind of what we, you know, hey, if something happens with Iran, if that straight gets cut off, well it, it’s a huge percentage of the world’s oil passes through there. And. Even small encounters could shut that down and cut off a lot of the world’s oil supply.

So you’re not trying to see a lot of conflict in that area. So there are scheduled talks coming up on Friday, but now Iran is we wanna change venues. We want certain countries there not certain countries there. But from the American side, you know, this seems to be protective and defensive focus on keeping the shipping lanes open.

Talks have not completely stopped either, so we’ll see what happens. Trump has been reluctant, seemingly, even though, I mean even like leaders in Saudi Arabia have been like, Trump just needs to bomb Iran. If we’re actually gonna see like regime change, like there are significant countries in that region basically begging the US to do something more.

And for some reason Trump has been reluctant to do more, so we’ll, we’ll see how all that turns out.

Conner Jones: Yeah, I’m very curious to see what [00:26:00] his decision’s gonna be. These talks on Friday are huge.

Micah Tomasella: Yes.

Conner Jones: It will basically determine if we’re gonna move forward in negotiations or if Trump’s gonna bomb him. It’s gonna come down to that.

If they agree to what the US is saying, they need to agree to the, the pressure’s on. There’s literally an armada sitting off the coast of Iran, just like there was sitting off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month with Trump just being like, I will. Take you out essentially to the leadership of Iran.

Anybody who killed protesters. Yeah. I’m gonna take you out specifically and we’re gonna topple your regime, but Trump’s trying to avoid that. He wants talks to go through. He wants to help the Iranian people, but he also wants to protect American interest. I know that’s the case. And he doesn’t want to send troops into harm’s way if he doesn’t have to.

Micah Tomasella: No. Yeah. I think no matter what your political affiliation is, the vast majority of Americans would agree that. Iran’s not great and they don’t treat their people super well. But at the same time, we don’t want more war, more innocent bloodshed. So prayerfully, this can be solved through diplomacy. Okay, let’s talk about Don Lemon real quick.

And the face Act. Okay. Specifically I wanna talk about that. So Don Lemon, that [00:27:00] situation has turned into a debate about. The difference between journalism and protests, and if you’re a journalist, are you immune to maybe what these protestors, there’s less argument. There’s less bipartisan argument right now over, you know.

Okay, so this, this church was stormed in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago. Don Lemon was a part of it, rushed on stage, interviewed the pastor. The pastor apparently has some sort of ties with ice anyway, they were just doing their normal Sunday church service. All these videos and pictures surface of these protesters running in, shouting, vulgarities, and basically disrupting the church service, right?

And so Don Lemon was a part of that. So Lemon was arrested by federal agents and faces, civil rights charges related to his ties to the protest. He says he was there strictly as a journalist and he’s gonna plead not guilty. You know, Conner, you and I were already talking about this. This is just gonna grow his platform significantly.

Oh yeah. Like him getting arrested only helps him as far as like his audience and his growth. But part of the legal backdrop that I wanna talk about is the FACE Act, which stands for Freedom of Access to Clinic [00:28:00] Entrances Act. Okay. So it’s a federal law from the nineties that makes it illegal to force to use force to threats or use threats or physical obstruction to interfere with people who are entering places like.

Like a Planned Parenthood, but it also applies to houses of worship, to any house of worship, a mosque, a synagogue, a church. So supporters of the arrest. Say if someone crosses from reporting into interference, the law should apply the same to everybody fearing that if it’s allowed, more places of worship can be rated in the name of protest.

I think that that’s my personal concern of if you just let this go. Then I think that we’re gonna see more of that happening. That you could just be in church and protestors can just rush in and try to ruin it. Like there, there should be a way to stop that. But then critics say that, you know, applying a law like this to journalists risk blurring the line between covering an event and participating it.

And I think that that’s what the trial’s gonna come down to. ’cause the FACE Act is the face act. So like they have something to charge him on. Was he premeditating this, was he truly a part of the protest or did he just kind of join in as a [00:29:00] journalist? That’s what the trial’s gonna come down to.

Conner Jones: Yeah, it is. And obviously he’s just a, he’s always been kind of polarizing because. One of the faces of CNN back in the day in the, in the first Trump era, and very liberal in his ideologies. And so a lot of people were like, ah, yeah, he’s getting what he deserves. But ultimately, yeah, there’s some constitutional law that comes into here.

Micah Tomasella: First Amendment, you have, look at law here, you know, because we want journalistic freedom, but we want freedom to worship too. I think most people are gonna agree with both of those things. You know, we just have to let it all play out and see. See what happens. But again, there’s, there’s just been less argument bipartisan wise about the actual protesters that got arrested because Okay, they clearly violated this act, right?

Yes. But Don Lemon, as a journalist, does he get different treatment? That’s that’s what they’re gonna decide.

Conner Jones: Yeah. It’s, it’s an interesting concept. I’m interested to see how it goes.

Micah Tomasella: All right. So lemme give a wrap up in just a general spiritual application here. As I was tying all of these stories together.

So when you zoom out of all of this, Conner. Conner [00:30:00] Jones, the common thread is how fast we’re pushed to react. I’m thinking about this even with the shooting of Alex Preti and the Renee Goode in Minnesota, and all the protests and immigration and deportation we’re pushed to react quickly from one video, from one headline.

Social media just explodes and then people lock into this strong opinion before all the facts are released. We released that episode last week, and there was more about Alex Preddy that came out after we released the episode, after we recorded it. We are doing our absolute best to report on what we know, but there’s more that’s even gonna come out on that story that we don’t know yet.

And there’s definitely more to every single thing that we’ve discussed that’s going to come out. But there is this thing in culture right now that we’ve got to rush. To conclusions and anger being against being for, from just watching a video or two. There’s just more to the story than that, right?

And that’s just the social media age that we’re living in. [00:31:00] But scripture calls us to a, a steadier pace and to not rush to judgment. I think James one 19 says, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Proverbs 1813 says, if one gives an answer before he hears, it’s his folly and it’s his shame.

The takeaway this week is simple for me that I wanna share with all of you before re reposting something, arguing online, or forming a, a hard stance, just, just pause for a second. Just, just take a beat, say a prayer and ask if you actually know the full story and if your tone reflects Christ as much as your opinion does, maybe ask.

Does my opinion need to be shared right now? Is this going to contribute positively to the discussion and conversation? I also want to just say this on a personal level. I do not subscribe to the idea that silence is violence, okay? Or that watching one short video online suddenly gives us full context and perfect understanding of what [00:32:00] happens or perfect understanding.

That just isn’t true most of the time. Wisdom sometimes looks like slowing down, listening, learning, and admitting that we do not have every detail yet, so we can stay informed without letting outrage control us and we can care about truth without losing our humility or without losing our cool. And a loud cultural and political moment.

Like right now, we just seem to be in a really loud climate right now. Sometimes the strongest witness is not. Shouting louder than everybody else, or being the first to share your opinion. It’s wisdom, it’s patience, and it’s grace.

Conner Jones: Yeah, that’s so true. There’s so much we can take from that just slowing down.

Like we say, a lot of the times, just pause, slow down, don’t post immediately, don’t say something immediately. Think it through, pray it through. All of that. It made me think, speaking of Jelly Roll from earlier after the Grammys, he was asked about the ice stuff and all the political things. He said, why didn’t

Jelly Roll: he say anything?

Conner Jones: Yeah, yeah. He, and he was like, honestly. I don’t know enough. I don’t really sit on my phone. I don’t sit on social media. I’m just a dumb [00:33:00] redneck and I was like, you know what? Props to that.

Micah Tomasella: He’s probably enjoying his life more than most of us.

Conner Jones: Yeah. And just the self-awareness to be like. Why does anybody care?

What I think that’s what Ricky Dravet said a few years ago at the Golden Globes. Remember when he called out all the celebrities. He’s nobody cares what y’all think. Stop doing it. So it’s, I applaud it. Okay, Micah, thank you for that. Let’s answer a quick mail back question. We got this past week Bond wrote in and he said.

When you pick certain words and you repeat multiple times with quite a bit of vocal intensity, you take sides rather than play the middle and report the news. So are you news or are you commentary And he’s, I think he’s speaking specifically about our conversation last week with Dr. Ryan Denison on Alex Pretti on last week’s episode.

Micah, are we news or are we commentary?

Micah Tomasella: Oh, you’re gonna make me go first. I, I appreciate Vaughn’s email here ’cause I think it’s actually something that we should continue to call out. Kind of quantify and explain. There are people who tune in every week who listen for the first time. [00:34:00] There’s been people who have listened every week and have grown with us as we process through the news, as we question our own biases, as we process through exactly what we’re telling you all to process through of, Hey, run to scripture, not to your political bias or feeling our opinion, and be willing to be challenged in what it is that you believe in.

Listen to somebody who believes differently than you. And how do we invite God into news consumption? Like those are the main kind of key points that we keep drawing back to. I would say this, yes, we’re news and commentary. You guys would get kind of bored listening to our show if we just said, Hey, here’s what happened onto the next thing.

But our commentary I is we truly seek to have our commentary rooted in scripture and not one political affiliation or belief over other. Conner and our have our own biases and lens that we look through things. Every single person does. But we do lay it at the feet of Jesus consistently, and we’re very prayerful and fervent in our discussions and in our preparation to view each story as it comes, try to take [00:35:00] in all the facts and try to equip our audience with the details and with the facts.

But ultimately, we just wanna point people back to Jesus and say, there is another way between getting mad or between bearing your head in the sand. There’s somewhere in the middle of that, and we can figure that out together.

Conner Jones: I just would reiterate that too. I think it’s a great question and I’m happy to always talk about it too.

Micah Tomasella: Good

Conner Jones: one. Yeah. Commentary is truth based is what I would say. Truth with the capital T, it’s gonna always point back to the word of God, and that’s what we’re trying to do. We we’re not trying to, you know, pivot for one political party or the other, or always go after one. No, we call out both sides. We’re not just a political thing either.

Obviously we’d love talking about music and movies and TV and all of that, and providing,

Micah Tomasella: we also don’t claim to be experts, like we’ve never, we’ve never claimed. I mean, Conner and I don’t have our PhDs. We have a lot of, you know, a lot of our audiences older and more wise than us has lived, more life than we have, and we acknowledge that.

We don’t claim to be experts, but we’re thankful that God’s given us his platform that [00:36:00] we can grow together.

Conner Jones: Absolutely. Yeah. Great question Vaughn. Thank you for that. You guys can always send us questions at Culture brief@dennisonforum.org or shoot us in a message on Instagram at Culture Reef Podcast.

Go follow us over there, catch some clips of us as well. Okay, Micah, let’s jump into the check-in section.

Micah Tomasella: Let roll. So Trump and India’s Prime Minister Modi each announced on their social media platforms on the same day that they had reached an agreement. Between the two countries, the two largest democracies in the world is what people call them.

India and the USA have entered a trade agreement to lower American tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18%. That’s a big dip. Trump said that India would drop its tariffs on some US goods, buy 500 million in American products and stop buying Russian oil. None of which. The last part, Modi mentioned. I think that’s all being worked out on the back end.

That’s been Trump’s biggest thing. He’s trying to cut off Russia in order to stop the war. And so a big part is India purchases a lot of Russian oil that [00:37:00] keeps them going. That’s what this trade deal, I think Trump is, is trying to accomplish in that. Okay. Also, the government shutdown has ended. We mentioned that at the beginning, but lawmakers did reach a last minute agreement that brought the government shutdown.

It was a partial government shutdown to an end reopening all the federal agencies and restoring pay for furloughed workers who were just not even really furloughed for. Day and a half. The deal is temporary though, which means bigger debates and budget debates are still ahead. Specifically around DHS.

Conner Jones: Yeah.

Micah Tomasella: And ICE agents. So it’s gonna be a lot of negotiating on Capitol Hill between Republicans and Democrats and Trump over the next two weeks. Hopefully they can come to an agreement and we can fully fund the government for the rest of the year and stop talking about government shutdowns, which is again, we will say it over and over again until the cows come home.

Worst government shutdowns. Worst are a travesty.

Conner Jones: Yes.

Micah Tomasella: And only hurt people. They don’t really help people. Alright. Finally, Catherine O’Hara. She passed away at 71. She was best known for her roles as the mom and home alone. She was in [00:38:00] Beetlejuice and especially she was known recently for kind of a career resurgence as Moer Rose and Schitt’s Creek.

It’s interesting because she plays a character in that show that is. In the last phases of her career, and she’s trying to resurrect her career, kind of. Yeah. And in the same way that show did the same thing for her, and it’s probably what she, she’s gonna be most known for. She was hilarious in that show.

Tributes from fellow actors and fans have poured in just remembering her sharp comedic timing and her versatility. And really, she was just, she seemed to be really well liked and loved, and left a great legacy. So rest in peace and uncontroversial.

Conner Jones: Uncontroversial Hollywood star who was just beloved.

Yeah. And it, yeah,

Micah Tomasella: it’s sad. I mean, she had her opinions and beliefs, but like she, she did her job and she impacted a lot of people and she was, she was great. I mean, just across the board people were sad to see her go.

Conner Jones: Yeah. It was a sad one. I, she was so funny, man. I, I’m gonna, I’m gonna miss seeing her. She was, she’s supposed to do season two of the studio, one of my favorite shows, and now she won’t be on that.

So that’s, that’s really sad. Something else. Disney, new CEO over there, Josh Dero [00:39:00] has been named as the successor to Bob Iger to take over one of the most influential and biggest companies in the world. This is a massive deal because of how, just how much Disney impacts not just American culture, but world, world culture and generate younger generations coming up.

This is a big deal. Iger. I mean, he’s known as one of the, the best CEOs in history. He’s written books about it. Of course, his biggest. Setback was, he did not appoint a good successor back in 2020 and that’s when Bob Shaak came in, only lasted two years. ’cause it is a tough, tough job in Shaak. Kind of dealt with the political woes of 2020.

Yeah. And COVID. Yeah. And the don’t say gay bill in, in Florida. And it just didn’t go well. So now. Iger was brought back in by the board. He’s been there for the last three, four years and was told, you gotta find a successor. It seems he found two potential candidates. Dana Walden and Josh Dero. They’ve been pitting at each other for the last two years.

It’s been kind of a big saga in the Disney World.

Jelly Roll: Yeah.

Conner Jones: Probably gonna get its own TV show or book. And Josh Dero went out, man. He’s got a control. A movie studio, [00:40:00] TV studio, theme parks, E-S-P-N-A-B, C, all this stuff. And it’s a big deal just because of how

Jelly Roll: well.

Conner Jones: How much is gonna impact our kids and the content that comes outta there.

Is he gonna lean more progressive? Is he gonna try to go back to traditional family values the way that Disney used to be? I hope he does that and goes back to the more conservative values there and kind of pulls away from what Disney was headed towards. And that they’ve

Micah Tomasella: pulled on already. Doesn’t necessarily have to be conservative values.

No. It just doesn’t need to be like overtly one way or another. You know what I mean? Yeah. I, I think that’s probably the most logical path forward. I was reading this morning on, not this morning, I think maybe a couple days ago on The Morning Brew, which is a really interesting email newsletter you can sign up for.

They write up the news in kind of a fun way to consume, I think is like a good way to put it. But they were talking about how the Disney theme parks have, since Josh De has been over them, have consistently outperformed any projections, and it’s kind of been that. Anchor of Disney’s funding.

Conner Jones: It has

Micah Tomasella: A lot of their budget has come from parks when other parts of Disney’s business has been struggling.

Conner Jones: It’s been there,

Micah Tomasella: and so it makes sense that he took over [00:41:00] because he’s doing a good job. So good for him.

Conner Jones: It’s been so profitable. Even with economic woes, he’s still managed to get people to come to the parts and pay more and pay more for fast passes and stuff. They’re still coming and it’s, it’s, it was just kind of, it was clear to the board, I think.

Let’s do tune

Micah Tomasella: in Conner. What else?

Conner Jones: Tune

Micah Tomasella: in. What’s going on? Tell

Conner Jones: us, man, Micah, I love, I love when the drums start playing and you hear that Olympic theme, music start to play. Yeah. It’s cool that John Williams theme come in because the Olympics start. Actually, I think they start on Wednesday or Thursday of this week for with some preliminary sports.

But the opening ceremonies for the Milano Corino Winter Olympics will be on Friday. They’re broadcasting live at 1:40 PM Eastern on NBC and Peacock. They’ll play again that night. But dude, it’s gonna be awesome. I love the Olympics. I love the Winter Olympics. Micah, do you have a favorite Winter Olympic Sport?

Micah Tomasella: USA baby.

Conner Jones: Just USA? No,

Micah Tomasella: just USA. Whatever it is. Okay. If an American’s competing, I’m rooting for them. We also have the Super Bowl coming up. Tune in. Oh yeah. Seattle [00:42:00] Seahawks versus New England Patriots at five 30 Central Time on NBC. Enjoy the Super Bowl with your friends and family. It’s a beautiful American pastime.

Eat a lot of junk food. If it makes you happy, just enjoy the day. People always say that Americans should have Monday off because the Super Bowl Sunday is always such party, and it should be a national holiday, a federal holiday. Maybe one day it will be. But thank you for joining us is

Conner Jones: our message to our.

Bosses right here. Hey guys, would y’all, would y’all give us Monday off so we can enjoy the Super Bowl

Micah Tomasella: fully? I love it. I love it. Guys, thank you so much for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief, a dentist informed podcast. All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes.

And if you enjoy today’s episode, would you please please subscribe and rate and review the show and share it with a friend? Why? Why don’t ya? And we’ll see ya next Thursday.

Conner Jones: See y’all.

The post Bad Bunny, the Grammys, Super Bowl outrage, Don Lemon arrest & Epstein update | Ep. 55 appeared first on Denison Forum.

Source: Bad Bunny, the Grammys, Super Bowl outrage, Don Lemon arrest & Epstein update | Ep. 55

Astronauts return, Democrat party turmoil, JFK files, & March Madness | Ep. 11 | Denison Forum

Topics

(00:16): Breaking news: JFK files released
(00:49): Astronauts’ unexpected nine-month mission
(01:19): Russia-Ukraine peace talks update
(03:06): Astronauts’ return: Challenges and triumphs
(13:58): Democratic party in turmoil
(24:18): Democratic party’s internal struggles
(30:52): Israel-Gaza conflict update
(33:02): JFK files released
(36:51): March Madness excitement
(38:50): College Basketball vs. NBA
(41:05): Listener engagement and conclusion

Resources

About Micah Tomasella

Micah Tomasella is the Advancement Officer at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.

About Conner Jones

About Denison Forum

Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, The Denison Forum Podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.

[00:00:00] Conner Jones: Hi, I’m Connor Jones.

[00:00:03] Micah Tomasella: Hi, I’m Micah Tomasella.

[00:00:03] Conner Jones: And this is Culture Brief. A Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories in news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, basically everything happening in culture, and we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. And Micah, it happened yesterday.

The JFK files, they finally came out, so maybe we need to discuss that in a little bit. I mean, what are you thinking?

[00:00:25] Micah Tomasella: Hey, man, I have not had the chance to read all 80, 000 pages yet, but I’m just kind of hoping some people who are fast readers Maybe the utilization of AI we can figure out what we didn’t know, but I haven’t seen a lot of Breaking news about this big bombshell. But anyway, we’ll talk about that

[00:00:45] Conner Jones: Good. Sweet. Yeah. We’ll, share some thoughts, but what else are we going to be talking about today, Micah?

[00:00:49] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. So we’re going to talk about astronauts returning after being stranded. An eight day mission turns into a nine month mission and they just crash landed back on earth, technically in the ocean.

This week, the Civil War and the Democratic Party not really seeming to have a unified strategy. We’re going to give you updates on the latest negotiations with Russia and Ukraine and the U. S. brokering those talks. Then we’re going to talk March Madness and so much more. So let’s jump into The Brief.

The Brief. All right. So before we jump into our first official story today, I want to kind of give a quick hit a quick overview and update on the Russia Ukraine peace talks and the ceasefire that they’re shooting for right now. So Trump and Putin had a more than two hour phone call on Tuesday and they laid out a possible path to the end of the war in Ukraine.

First 30 day ceasefire as well as technical negotiations on the implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the black sea, full ceasefire, and then permanent. Peace. So these negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East. So there has been a framework agreed to specifically on Russia is going to stop attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for the next 30 days.

And then the goal is, and the hope is, is that everybody will be able to come to the table and negotiate something further in that to actually be able to negotiate a full full ceasefire, not just on that one specific thing. So this story is ever evolving and we’ll give you some updates on this next week when more things come to light and more things are set in stone.

[00:02:18] Conner Jones: Yeah, for sure. Hopefully we do see a ceasefire come about. I think it’s going to be a step by step process. Stop shooting at these type of things like energy infrastructure. Then it’s going to move into like ports and technological sections of their countries. And so we’ll just see Zelensky is getting brought in to the conversations.

Now this goes back to what we talked about a few weeks ago. So the U. S. and Russia are kind of doing this on their own and without Ukraine in there. So the Ukrainians are hopeful to actually be a part of the conversations going forward. Yes.

[00:02:44] Micah Tomasella: Yes. I mean, they’re going to bring Ukraine in and then they’re going to bring the European Union in and NATO in.

And then, you know, obviously these middle Eastern countries as well. You know, the goal is, is to, to put all the pieces of the puzzle together to hopefully bring about a lasting peace. I mean, and that’s something. Definitely worth praying about for peace of what’s happening over there in the end to that war.

Okay, Connor. Let’s jump into our first official story. Astronauts returning home. So let me just explain to you what happened because I think we’ve all heard at least something about these astronauts. Barry Butch Wilmore and Sunita or Suni Williams. So their mission was extended beyond expectation with NASA.

So they have returned to earth. Yeah, that’s an understatement, right? They’ve returned to earth after an unplanned nine month stay aboard the. International Space Station, or ISS for you space nerds out there. They originally launched in June 2024 aboard Boeing Starliner for what was supposed to be an 8 day test flight.

Okay? An 8 day test flight. But technical issues with the spacecraft prolonged their mission indefinitely. They didn’t know when they were coming home. This unexpected delay forced the astronauts to adjust to an extended stay in space while awaiting a safe return plan. So We were hearing updates about this corner, you know, okay.

They were initially stranded. Okay. We’ll get them back in 30 days instead of eight days. Okay. We’ll get them back in 60 days, 90 days. And then before you know it, it’s a nine month stay. And it’s actually just kind of crazy to think about. There were definitely some difficulties for them, but just the foresight to Plan ahead like that, you know to to be up there for that long and to actually have the sustenance that you need and to Be able to to take what you thought if I was gonna take an eight day trip I might be like, okay, I’ll pack an extra pair of socks, you know what I mean?

But like

[00:04:40] Conner Jones: I’m not preparing for

[00:04:41] Micah Tomasella: nine months.

[00:04:43] Conner Jones: Yeah grabs grab some Klondike bars and just okay Yeah, you know we got to stay one extra night What’s the jingle for

[00:04:49] Micah Tomasella: Klondike? Connor, can you sing it? Do you remember? I actually genuinely have no idea. What would you do for a Klondike bar? Oh, yeah. You remember that?

Kind of. Anyway, what were you going to say? I don’t watch

[00:05:00] Conner Jones: commercials. That’s a different conversation. Did you interrupt

[00:05:03] Micah Tomasella: me or did I interrupt you? What happened there? I think. I’m

[00:05:05] Conner Jones: honestly not sure. What I was going to say is, yeah, I mean, they sort of had the foresight. They thought there’s a potential they could have to be there longer.

Because this was the first time this Boeing Aircraft or spacecraft was used. So there was a potential that something could go wrong They could get to the space station and for whatever reason the spacecraft would not be adequate to bring back to earth At least not with them on board because it did come back.

I think they brought the spacecraft back in like september Yeah, just without them because there was too much risk of it Essentially exploding on the return to earth So they knew there was potential. I don’t think they ever thought, Hey, this could end up being a whole pregnancy worth of staying in space.

First, second and third

[00:05:48] Micah Tomasella: trimester. Yeah, good, good good analogy there, Connor. So let me talk to you about the life that they had aboard the ISS aboard the International Space Station. So during their time on the ISS, Wilmore and Williams contributed to ongoing scientific research, station maintenance and other critical operations.

So if you’re worried about where our taxpayer dollars are going. you know, to NASA, they were up there working. Okay. They weren’t just sitting around floating around having a good time. They endured the physical toll of long duration space flight, including potential muscle atrophy, bone density loss, vision impairment, and fluid buildup in the head due to prolonged exposure to microgravity.

So this is like from my research, like What happens when you’re in space for a long time, right? And those are kind of the symptoms of what can happen. So despite these challenges, they remained in good spirits, adapting to the circumstances and appreciating the rare opportunity to experience. extended space flight and extended time in space.

But here’s a fun fact that I read this morning, actually, Connor, during their nine month trip, Wilmore and Williams orbited the earth 4, 576 times, and they traveled 120 million. One hundred and twenty one million miles total. So how’s that for a road trip, right? Yeah, I mean,

[00:07:04] Conner Jones: a road trip where you don’t even get to go outside.

I mean, you’re just

[00:07:06] Micah Tomasella: Stuck in the car the whole time. Yeah. So here’s, here’s their return journey and what happened. For the long awaited return, Wilmore and Williams were joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and then Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. The crew departed the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule undocking at 1.

05 a. m. on March 18th and then they re entered Earth’s atmosphere and they safely splashed down off the coast of Florida at 5. 57 p. m. marking the successful completion of the mission. of their prolonged mission. You were telling me earlier, Connor, I didn’t see this part of the video. What happened when the pod landed in the ocean?

[00:07:44] Conner Jones: Man, these dolphins came up and just started like jumping up and down right around. It was cool. It was like a welcome back to earth type of thing. Like there were, there was just some dolphins. They were hanging out, you know? My goodness. Yeah. They said, Hey, welcome back.

[00:07:57] Micah Tomasella: Yep. So here’s, here’s what this means for future space flight.

You know, when a mission goes from. Eight days to nine months. That’s no small thing, right? So their extended stay highlights both the unpredictability of space travel and the resilience of astronauts in the face of, I don’t know, an unforeseen prolonged challenge there. It also talk, you know, it kind of underscores the importance of commercial partnerships.

Boeing and SpaceX playing crucial roles in crewed space missions, so working together as NASA and its partners continue developing spacecraft for future deep space exploration. Lessons from this mission will refine procedures for trips to the moon and Mars and beyond. Connor, what would your first reaction be if you knew?

That your eight day mission to space was going to turn into a whole lot longer, maybe nine months. What would your, what would your first reaction to that be?

[00:08:52] Conner Jones: Honestly, Micah, this sounds like my worst nightmare. I mean, I’m sure that these two were like, okay, you know, but they kept getting extended at first.

It was like, you guys are going to be there an extra week. They’re probably like, that’s fine. We’ve waited our whole lives to be in space. We’ll take the extra week, you know, and a lot of astronauts, they long for that time up in space. Good for them. Not me, man. I, this is my worst nightmare being. stuck on something so far away from home and just I would be just thinking about my family.

I would be thinking about my couch and my TV. Like, how do you, like how do you keep up with all the popular shows going on when you’re in space? You know, I don’t think I would do well, but I’m happy that they, you know, had good spirits all the time. They had the opportunity to have full on meltdowns.

This is what sci fi movies are made of where people get stuck in conditions like this. And then they like start to feel

[00:09:36] Micah Tomasella: claustrophobic and all that stuff. And I’m sure. That, you know, I mean, Connor, I, I feel the same way, like it, it would freak me out, but there’s, there’s a I mean, I’m sure whenever they kind of get their strength back and they acclimate back to life on literal planet earth, that there’s going to be a lot of interviews that they give, but we’re going to be able to gain more context of how was this, what was this like, how you feel and all that stuff.

So I’m definitely looking forward to that, but Dr. Oh, no, go ahead. I

[00:10:04] Conner Jones: was just saying maybe in the back of their head, they’re like. cha-Ching. Like they’re gonna get like book deals and documentaries and you know? Yes. I doubt that’s what came to their mind, but it’s probably gonna happen. Yes. They’re just gonna get more exposure from this.

[00:10:16] Micah Tomasella: I saw this article that was talking about how the astronauts aren’t gonna get like any bonus. or like overtime pay from NASA because they were just going to get paid their regular salary. And I was like, okay, I mean, maybe give him a little, you know, like a, like a little Christmas bonus early or something.

That’s right. Crack down on him. All right. So Dr. Jim Denison, who’s the co founder and the CEO of Denison ministries. He’s a cultural theologian, brilliant guy. Great guy. He compares the return of astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to our own journey through life and into eternity in one of his daily articles this week, you know, Connor, I read this daily article and it really struck me.

So I’m just going to kind of give an overview of what the daily article said and how this mission to space is unexpected journey can kind of apply to our lives. So just like the International Space Station isn’t They’re true home isn’t the astronauts true home. This world isn’t ours either. As Christians, we’re here for a short period of time, right?

But convincing people of an unseen eternity isn’t easy. Just like it would be tough to persuade someone born on the ISS that earth exists. So it’s this concept of you’re told that there is this eternity, but all you know, your reality is earth. So just like somebody born on the International Space Station, they can be told earth is real, but maybe they haven’t seen it.

And so Dr. Denison gives three reasons why faith in eternity makes sense, even beyond just saying eternity is real. Number one, Jesus came to earth and gave us real historical proof, verified proof outside of scripture. You know, you can stack it stories and stories high. The accounts of Jesus’s death, burial, but most importantly, his resurrection, appearing to his disciples, appearing to those 500 people, defeating death, defeating the grave.

So Jesus came and said, I came to give you life and give it to the fullest. He came and he said, That eternal life will only come through me. You will only come to the father, but by me. And he proved it by defeating death, by raising himself from the dead. And so when somebody pulls that off, we need to listen to their words.

And then secondly, the Holy spirit is still at work and he’s transforming lives. So us as believers taking the. the commission. Seriously. I think that sometimes we psych ourselves up or psych ourselves out about evangelism, but we need to make sure that we’re doing our job as believers to bring as many people to heaven with us as we can.

And it all starts with being open about your story. Here’s where I was. Here’s where I am here. Here was my desire. Here’s where my desire is now. This is what the world is telling us all to do, but this is what I believe that I’m called to do. And that is such a powerful way to evangelize. And then thirdly, living for eternity actually makes life better now.

gives you perspective now, gives you hope and peace and comfort and direction now, knowing that all of the trials and the beauty that we face while here on earth, it’s leading to something far greater eternity in heaven with Jesus. What are your thoughts on that Connor?

[00:13:28] Conner Jones: And that’s just good truth. It’s, it’s where our hope lies, right?

We know what lies on the other side. Yeah, it’s something that we cannot see, but we know that it’s real, we know that it’s true, and I’m so grateful for that. Yeah, thanks for that word, Micah. That’s, that’s good stuff. Yep. And you know, glad the astronauts are back, glad that we have a hope in heaven, knowing that that’s real, and just keeping the word going, the gospel going.

Yeah. That’s what we’re called to do, so thank you for that. Okay, let’s move into something that’s just kind of been taken DC by storm this week and that is yeah, man, the democrats are just lost at sea They are completely directionless, they don’t have a captain right now to guide them through the storm in the sea.

They are just in a world of hurt, and some people are calling it a democratic civil war within their own party. Which, to be clear, the Republicans have gone through this in the past themselves. In fact, over the last decade, it’s felt like a Republican civil war as the old school McCain Romney Republican Party.

Transferred into this kind of Trump driven MAGA Republican Party. So now it’s almost like it’s the Democrats turn and they are just in a world of hurt and it has gotten worse and worse seemingly every week since the 2024 election where they got beat pretty handedly and lost their majorities in the House and Senate and obviously the presidential election as well.

So all that to say, here’s what’s been happening last week. We talked about the government potentially shutting down. That was averted, which is, I think, a good thing. The government did not shut down at midnight on Friday, but that’s only because Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Came out and said he was going to vote to keep the government open and that opened the floodgates Yeah of the Democratic Party just coming out against him.

They turned on him They have been saying he’s a bad leader that he should never have done this He caved to the Trump administration and to the Republicans But really honestly Mike Johnson the Speaker of the House Kind of handed it off to him because they he was able to push through the bill keeping the government open in the house Just barely but he did And that was where people thought maybe it wouldn’t pass the house.

But when it passed the House, it became the Senate’s problem. And that is where Chuck Schumer had to step in and say what he was going to do. And he was kind of between a rock and a hard place. Because if he said, let’s shut the government down, then that also makes the Democrats look bad. They’re the ones who put the government in this position and shut it down.

And then that might harm the economy and all of that. But then his own party is we wanted to shut down because we don’t want Trump to have all the power specifically with those and everything that this bill allows to go on. You know, enough Senate Democrats did vote to keep it open. So it wasn’t just Schumer.

There were, I think, 8 other Democrats, maybe 9 others that stuck with him and voted to keep it open, and you know, now Democrats are saying this is going to further empower Trump and damage the party. A lot of them consider Schumer’s decision to be so heinous that they are questioning whether he should step down as their leader.

And he’s kind of the de facto leader of the party right now because they are just, they don’t have a real leader. And the Hill. Had an article saying that they are, you know, Schumer started this quote unquote civil war within the party Representative Jim McGovern who’s a Democratic congressman out of Massachusetts said he was extremely disappointed After he heard the news and he noted that it gives them the ability Elon Musk Specifically the ability to go through and continue to do expletive what he’s doing Yeah, so they’re just mad.

I mean, what are your initial thoughts there Micah?

[00:16:58] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. I mean, I think Chuck Schumer wouldn’t have come out because he made this statement and he said, we’re, we’re going to support this funding bill. I’m supporting this funding bill. He didn’t implicate anybody. And so right when he came out and said that Chuck Schumer has been doing this for a long time.

He’s got a lot of experience. So Chuck Schumer is not going to come out and make that statement without already having the vote secure. So whenever he came out and made that statement, I knew that he had at least 10 Democrats. In the Senate that we’re going to vote for this bill. But I mean, obviously, the Republicans were able to unite.

They have what a four seat majority in the House, which is tiny because there’s a lot more members of the House than there is the Senate. And it’s all about Mike Johnson’s ability to be able to unite the Republican vote around what they’re doing. So they were able to pass it through the house without any democratic support whatsoever, which is actually kind of rare, okay, to be able to have that type of unity within your party.

But you made such a good point earlier, Connor, when you said that it’s a truly, it’s weird to see this happen to the Democrats because that has been one of their biggest strong suits. They have been unified. They have been unified really since. Oh, wait, since Obama, you know what I mean? And then everything kind of has changed with the Republican Party and it’s been all this infighting within the Republican Party, but the Republican Party is pretty unified right now.

Now you could argue if they want to be or not, but they’re choosing to be right now. And it’s just interesting to see this happen within the Democratic Party right now.

[00:18:32] Conner Jones: Yeah, it definitely is. It’s an interesting time. So 10 minute speech on the Senate floor, kind of defending his Yes. Afterwards. Yeah. He published an opinion article in the New York Times this past week titled Trump and Musk would love a shutdown.

We must not give them one. So he’s standing behind his convictions. He’s yeah, I want to keep the government open because if, if we shut it down. It gives them all the fire in the world to come back and hit them with you guys are the reason the government shut down. That’s right. Republican house passed it.

Trump was ready to sign the bill to keep the government open and it’s the Democrats keeping the government closed.

[00:19:05] Micah Tomasella: It was a lose lose for Democrats. It really was. Yeah.

[00:19:09] Conner Jones: That’s why I don’t know. The Democrat party turning on Schumer is I don’t know what you guys were expecting. Like what, what, what did you want to happen anyways?

Activist organizations that are democratic activist organizations. Such as the organization called indivisible have called for Schumer’s resignation and advocated for a more assertive leadership to oppose the Republican initiative, Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, who just ran with Kamala Harris as her vice president pick.

Came out and criticized Schumer’s decision and suggested that it compromised this party’s leverage and could lead to negative consequences for Americans. And then a representative, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, many call her AOC. She is also from New York, like Schumer has argued that Schumer’s quote, almost unthinkable move caused a deep sense of outrage and betrayal across the Democrats ideological spectrum.

And she notably did not rule out a primary challenge against him. So she could come for his seat in the Senate if she would like. She’s very

[00:20:02] Micah Tomasella: popular. And she’s very popular, especially with younger, more progressive wing of the democratic party. She’s very popular. She’s the future of the party.

[00:20:10] Conner Jones: Yes, she, she very well could be.

She might be that leader that the Democrats need. I think she’s. almost too progressive for a lot of their tastes. So we’ll see what happens there. But yeah, meanwhile, Michael, while all of this is happening, a poll came out, literally Schumer, I think it was on Wednesday said he’s going to vote to keep the government open.

And on Thursday, this CNN poll came out showing that the Democrat party’s favorability rating among Americans is at a record low. They are just in a sea of hurt. And so that obviously that followed the 2024 election that really kind of highlighted the party’s total misread of the just. General American public and the average American life and their party now obviously is embroiled in a debate over whether to adopt a more combative stance against Republicans and their policies or to strategically choose their battles.

Should they ditch DEI and quote woke policies completely or stand behind those policies? Should they go even harder on those? We’ll just see what they do. But right now, like I said, there’s no real like identifiable leader or there’s not even like a rising star. Maybe you could say A. O. C. There’s, there’s just not that person in the wings like Barack Obama was in like 2006.

People were like, okay, that’s our guy. Somebody will emerge. We’re just not seeing him right now. It’s just, there’s no one who’s out there right now that’s that’s their future party leader, their future presidential pick, all of that. And that’s particularly bad right now because JD Vance. It seems to be the heir apparent in the MAGA world and in the Republican world.

So they’ve got that already set up on the right side of the aisle. So what about the left side? Anyways, any other thoughts on that, Micah?

[00:21:43] Micah Tomasella: No, I mean, what, what was interesting is, did you see Gavin Newsome? I think we talked about his, his new podcast, but I mean, he’s having, he’s, he’s really, I mean, his new podcast is.

is interesting because he’s inviting guys like Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk. There was another conservative type person that he invited. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s an interesting approach because what he’s doing is you know, the, the right has kind of dominated the podcast platforms. And then Gavin Newsom is getting on there and.

You know, agreeing with some of their points and it’s really infuriating the Democratic Party and, and, you know, oddly enough it, it really does kind of seem like Gavin Newsom is, is kind of changing up his strategy a little bit and trying to reach across the aisle. And you know, you talk about a rising star.

I think if Gavin kind of. Sticks to that over the next few years, he could change his image because he’s just seemed so far left as, as the, as the governor of California. But if he can kind of come more to the middle, cause he is a very good speaker and he is very strong in his approach to leadership. I think that he could be a rising star in the democratic party.

Could eventually take it over.

[00:22:54] Conner Jones: Yeah, he could be. And I think he is kind of a star already. In a sense, I just think Democrats have been wary about him because California gets hit so hard as being the most progressive state. And I think that this is super strategic on his part to try to rebrand. It’s smart to cross the aisle, which yeah, yeah, maybe, but also is it him just trying to almost just distance himself from everything that he is known as the bright.

He doesn’t want to repeat what Kamala Harris just went through where she was identified with all these progressive ideologies and it’s easy to, to hit him with that. But yeah, he did have that super viral clip go out from his very first episode with Charlie Kirk, who’s like a right winged commentator and influencer big in Trump world.

And he essentially pushed back. Against having transgenders in sports, and he said it was let me find the quote here. Deeply

[00:23:43] Micah Tomasella: unfair.

[00:23:44] Conner Jones: Deeply unfair. That

[00:23:45] Micah Tomasella: biological males would be competing in women’s sports. And that, that was a firestorm. Not like that. Firestorm. They were like,

[00:23:53] Conner Jones: what are you talking about?

You’ve been so pro LGBTQ policies and transgender policies. And this was, this was like his first step. This was the very first episode and that clip went viral. And then I, I mean, I listen, I’ve listened to most of these episodes so far. They have been interesting conversations just to hear. And it’s a very clear step of him trying to get in, in the minds of people just trying to kind of already set himself up for a run in 2028.

[00:24:18] Micah Tomasella: You know, this is the thing, the democratic party knows that they need to change, that they need a shift. The argument comes down to what do we shift to? How do we change? You know, you talked about D. E. I. What people will call woke policies, open border type policies, which don’t pull well for them. So they all know they need a change, but the argument within the party, the civil war, a lot of it has to do with the old guard versus the new guard.

But it’s really just the ideology of what are we going to leave behind? And what are we going to push as a party? Yeah. So we’ll see how it goes.

[00:24:53] Conner Jones: Yeah, we will. I don’t know. Anyways, so just when you hear all of this, you might feel one or two different ways, depending on what side of the aisle you tend to land on.

Maybe you’re an independent and you’re like, this is just chaos. I don’t really care that much. But if you’re a Republican, maybe you’re celebrating. If you’re a Democrat, maybe you’re feeling tormented. Like you’re just like, Oh, this is awful to watch from afar as my party just eats itself alive. And like I said, independence might just be sitting there wait, Okay, it’s actually good to have two strong parties because it’s in a way a checks and balance system, right?

You’ve got a party cycle that tends to happen. It’s usually Democrat, Republican, Democrat, Republican, House, Senate, and Presidents in the elections. And you know, it’s just an interesting time for the Democrats, but. In today’s online environment, it’s very easy for us to express our own positions and oppose anyone who has a different ideology or thought, and we can easily, you know, have increased rhetorical extremes, name calling, all of that, and as a result, Micah, I think opposing sides view each other as evil enemies more than ever before, and might even feel justified in doing anything to defeat them, so this could be true within a party or against parties, so there’s people in the Democrat Party who, they see Chuck Schumer as just in and now they might consider him like evil in a sense.

Yeah. I don’t think that’s, I don’t think it’s that extreme, but you know, it could go that way. And Abraham Lincoln actually sent a warning to us hundreds of years ago. This is how nations die by suicide. He said, when we’re so divided, And obviously he saw the nation divided at its worst in the Civil War, and it almost took the entire country down.

So we need biblical wisdom to guide our own autonomy and community to preserve our democracy. Exodus 22 commands us, Micah, that you shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. And Ecclesiastes 10 actually takes it even further and it says, Even in your thoughts do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.

Today, I would say, and actually this is something that came from Dr. Jim Denison, another article he wrote this week too, and he noted that your cell phone, in a way, is a bird of the air in that. How do we respond to these political leaders? He noted that we should refuse to slander, and the Bible specifically actually forbids slander of all kinds.

It says in 1 Peter 2, 1, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. If we’re going to have a, if we’re in a conflict with someone, we’re really called to go directly to them. It says that in Matthew 18, 15. And if we know that they are in conflict with us. We are to do the same.

Yeah. So Micah, if you and I have a beef, we need to go to each other. We don’t need to be slandering each other behind one another’s back. That’s, that’s not the best way to handle that. And think about just how much anger and animosity and damage could be avoided if that’s how we spoke with others and with.

People that are are kind of great application in our lives, you know respectfully I disagree type of situation It doesn’t it doesn’t help to slander. It’s better to have conversations and then Paul, you know, he taught us Romans 13 1 let everyone let sorry let every person be subject to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God and those who exist have been instituted by God and accordingly pay to all What is owed to them?

Taxes to whom taxes are owed. Revenue to whom revenue is owed. Respect to whom respect is owed. Honor to whom honor is owed. And Peter agreed with that too in 1 Peter 2 13 and 14. And he even said we’re to honor everyone and love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. And so even when we can’t necessarily respect the position, or sorry, the person, we are to respect the position.

The apostles taught us early on that kind of concept with the governing authorities. Because the emperor at the time was Nero, and he was awful. He was just a horrible, horrific, immoral ruler. But the apostles knew they had to honor the position, even when they could not honor the person. And so one way to do that is through just intercession.

And that’s one of the things we can take is 1st Timothy 2, 1 and 2 that says, I urge the supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. For kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. And so Micah, just as a final note here, it is difficult to slander people when we’re praying for them.

Oh, amen. So that is an encouragement to pray for anyone in your life that you may have conflict with. Pray for the leaders of opposing parties in your own country, in your own just state, city, whatever it is. If you’re a Republican, pray for the Democrats. If you’re a Democrat Pray for the Republicans. The leaders are there for a reason.

We respect the position, even if we struggle to respect the person.

[00:29:50] Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Good stuff, Connor. Amen, brother. I’m in total agreement with you. And I think that this is one way that we can encourage each other, even as we’re having this conversation. But our audience who listens and Denison Ministries, specifically Denison Forum, seeking to discern the news differently, is how do we take the overwhelming news?

And boil it down to where we can take it off in bite sized pieces and say, God, what would you have me do with this? Yeah. And I think that we can glean so many lessons from the overwhelming nature in the news and really just see the destructive nature of it. Just the destruction from what’s happening in this story that you just talked about.

How can we apply it to our own lives? And when there’s not peace in Washington, let’s have peace in our homes. Let’s have peace in our hearts. Let’s have peace in our families and in our relationship. So good stuff, Connor. Thank you for that. So we’re going to jump straight into a tune in section and we’re going to give you Quite a few things to tune into and to pay attention to in what’s coming up.

So the first thing that we want to update you on is the Israel Gaza war has been reignited. I don’t think any of us wanted to see this. I think to a certain extent you can see why it had to happen, but at the same time you hate to see it and you hate to see all the suffering and this. potentially being reignited.

Hopefully peace can come back to this situation. But Hamas has refused to hand over the remaining hostages. This has been happening for weeks, right? And the original ceasefire deal did expire. So Israel executed airstrikes on Gaza. I’m going to say this real quick when you’re reading news on this and, you know, obviously our ministry.

Denison Forum does support Israel to a point as, as much as we can of what lines up with God’s word. But I’ll just say this, I’ve seen a lot of outlets report on this and they bury the fact that the ceasefire expired and they bury the fact that some of those hostages have not been released. And it’s just jumped straight to all these people have been killed.

There’s all this carnage, almost as if there’s, there’s no reason for it. So I’m just going to point that out. I’ve, I’ve noticed that I don’t, I don’t know if you’ve noticed that Connor, the U S has been launching airstrikes at. Hhy locations in Yemen who have in turn launched missiles at the US and Israel.

So these Houthis rebels that are supported by Iran, they’re basically breaking up all of these trade routes in the Red Sea and stuff like that. And so it’s disrupting all of the international trade. And so Trump is stepping in and bombing the Houthis. And then you see Israel is now bombing Hamas again.

So I, I mean, it seems as though war is erupting again in the Middle East when there seem to be this, this. short pause. And so prayerfully, peace can come back to that region. But this story will be ever evolving and we’ll do our best to keep you in the loop.

[00:32:30] Conner Jones: Yeah, there’s, there’s just a lot happening. It felt like there was a good pause for a while on both the Houthi front and the Israel Gaza front.

And also to clarify, they’re launching missiles at U. S. ships. Yes, sorry. Directly. Yes. Yeah, yes, no. Yes. I don’t think they have that capability. But anyways, that would be. A totally different ballgame, but they are launching at us ships. So they are attacking the U S Navy, which is not cool. Anyways, we’ll stay up to date with what’s going on there, but it is heartbreaking.

I mean, we don’t want to see innocent people dying and any sort of airstrikes or in hostage tunnels, whatever it is. So continuing to pray there. Okay. Micah, this is what we talked about at the beginning, the JFK files, they did get released this week. Trump promised when he got reelected that he would release all the remaining documents.

I mean, we’re trusting that this is all the remaining documents, but 80, 000 pages, I’m currently sifting through those. I’m on page one and trying to go through, trying to go through, honestly, no, we’ll just see who the historians have come out, honestly, and said that it’s going to take several days to parse through everything and really try to understand what is out there that in these documents that we don’t already know, there is a lot of just repetitive things, which is to be expected.

But is there anything in there that is. been buried all this time. So far, I was reading, they dropped last night and this morning I was reading up on just what potentially has been discovered. Nothing of significance. I mean, it sounds like the KGB was on to Oswald when he was in Russia and said he was a bad shot.

So people are clinging to that. Okay, was he even able to shoot JFK? Was he that bad of a shot? How would he ever be able to hit? JFK in the head from the distance that he was at and the angle that he was at and all that. So I don’t know. We’ll just see what comes out of that. But historians do expect to take several days and we’ll see if they find any major revelations.

And we’ll just see. I think a lot of Americans are eager to find out. So next we’re going to be waiting on the RFK files because JFK’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy was killed a few years later and assassinated. And then the MLK files, there’s always been questions around his assassination. Nothing’s been as high profile as JFK’s killing, but there’s always been suspicions that there was potential government interference or weird foul play.

Yeah, some things that we don’t know. Like whether foreign entities behind those, all that. So we will just see.

[00:34:43] Micah Tomasella: Yeah, I think we should have more updates when we record next week. on this. I mean, we’re obviously waiting idly by to see if there’s any bombshells drop. Trump did say nothing is being redacted from those reports.

So we’ll, I mean, we’ll see what happens, but I, there is at least a hundred thousand people yesterday, today, and for the next week that have probably taken off of work and they’ve printed out all 80, 000 pages. Yeah. I’m just imagining somebody in a dark library with a lamp, just sifting through all of it, like trying to find that one thing.

Somebody will find something. It might not be as much of a revelation as some are hoping, but somebody will find something because I feel like there’s a lot of sleuths on the case right now. So let me jump into the other thing that we should be tuning into. So Trump is pushing the boundaries here, specifically when it comes to the relationship between the executive and the judicial branch, Trump being a part of the executive branch.

And then all of these judges, the circuit Judges that are, you know, in SCOTUS that are a part of the judicial branch. So Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement. He rarely issues public statements and he’s, he rebukes Trump and basically rebuked Trump’s call to impeach a federal judge who ruled against him over the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

So let’s keep an eye on the story as the judicial and executive branches are becoming increasingly at odds. And so as Trump is pushing the boundaries with these executive orders. It’s just going to be interesting to see how this plays out and what the actual legality is as the system gets tested.

[00:36:17] Conner Jones: Yeah, I don’t know man.

This this is just very interesting Different judges are coming out against different things that trump’s trying to push through And he’s not happy about it So again, neither are a lot of republicans and even elon musk is on x every day saying we need to get rid of these judges They have too much power So it it seems like it’s going to come to Ahead and at some point somebody’s going to step in and yeah chief justice Robert’s doesn’t really rebuke.

That is a very rare thing now. He did not use Trump’s name in the statement, but it was very clear who is who he was talking about. Aimed towards. Yeah. So anyways, here’s the next big thing. This is what’s going to be taken over the full weekend ahead, Micah. What it’s time March madness, March madness, baby.

Let’s go. Let’s go. Get your brackets submitted. Get your brackets submitted if you’re listening to this on Thursday morning, you may still have a few hours left to get that in. I think the first game is at 1115 Central Time, 1215 Eastern. So you’ve got a few hours to get that bracket in if you if you’re in.

You know bracket game we’re on the Denison ministries bracket challenge Mike and I will be competing in that I’ve got five brackets I have to fill out tonight. Honestly, so we’ll just see Who do you who do you think right now? Micah is gonna take take home the championship, you know I’m gonna go with

[00:37:31] Micah Tomasella: a local Texas team the University of Houston has four losses or something like that all year And they’re a number one seed.

And how about kind of a Cinderella story of a number one seed of a basketball program that doesn’t have. A ton of historical success. Just historically it’s, if, if they win at all, it is kind of a Cinderella story. It’s not, it’s not a blue chip program for college basketball. So Houston being as successful as they’ve been this year at let’s say them, why not?

[00:38:00] Conner Jones: Okay. I’m going to, I guess I’ll go the opposite direction and take a blue chip program and I’m just going to go ahead and stick with Duke. I think that they, you know, they look good. They’ve got Cooper flag. He’s like the future. He’s going to be the NBA

[00:38:13] Micah Tomasella: draft.

[00:38:13] Conner Jones: Very good player. He’s, he’s great. So we’ll just see we do love a Cinderella story.

I love seeing the schools that I’ve never heard of just take, take, take the tournament by storm and win two games that are totally unexpected. I cannot wait, man. What was this? What was the school a few years ago? They were, they were, the Peacocks was there. Mass. Oh gosh. What was saint something.

Anyways, they were totally unheard of. They were like a 15 seat and made it all the way to the elite eight or sweet 16 school on the map. These schools will just get on the map, man. It’s awesome. Okay, but before we move on from that, I’ve got to say a quick, a quick hot take, or maybe you agree with me here.

I personally think it’s more fun to watch and more fun to just be a part of college basketball than it is the NBA, at least right now in the current basketball environment. And so I’m going to say it, college basketball is better than the NBA. Okay.

[00:39:05] Micah Tomasella: I was going to say, say your hot take with your chest, with your full chest, stand on all 10 toes.

I’m, I’m saying and say it. Okay. So you’re saying college basketball is better than the NBA. I don’t know how I feel about this hot take. Here’s here’s how I would frame it. If you are more of an individual fan. Then I see why you would enjoy the NBA more because these players have long careers in the NBA, right?

And the NBA gets more media coverage all that stuff. So I mean you have LeBron James I mean, he’s been playing for like over 20 years or whatever and you know, many would argue he’s the greatest of all time It’s either him or Michael Jordan. So People like that. I mean if if you’re more of an individual fan, you’re probably gonna be a bigger NBA fan but if you’re a fan of team basketball, then I totally understand why you would enjoy college basketball more because players only stay at their schools for a year or two, really a year if they’re good.

And so it is, it is these systems that these coaches implement that keep churning out great basketball. And so if you’re more of a fan of team basketball, I could totally see how you would enjoy the college basketball more than the NBA.

[00:40:11] Conner Jones: Yeah. And I just, I honestly think the NBA has completely changed the way that they play the game.

It’s not as, in my opinion, fun as it used to be to watch the game is. It’s almost a mess. It’s just, you know, they’ve, they’re trying to adjust that because a lot of people have been calling it out as the game is no longer as physical. It’s mostly three pointers, all of that. Whereas college basketball still seems to be fast paced and energetic and just all over the place.

I mean, even last night in the first four, which is kind of like the pre tournament tournament. There was a buzzer beater at the end. You just don’t think that in the NBA as much and you just see these awesome endings and competitive games in college basketball. So it’s fun. I don’t know. So anyways, yeah, it’s going to be a fun weekend watching that.

And we hopefully we’ll have brackets that are not completely busted by next week. That’s right.

[00:40:57] Micah Tomasella: That’s right. Everybody get your brackets filled out. Connor. Thank you for the impromptu hot take. Think I might agree with you. I have to think about it. Guys, thank

[00:41:05] Conner Jones: you. Let me say this I’ll drop a poll on Spotify and on the culture brief Instagram find us on Instagram culture brief podcast Or shoot us your hot take on that or response to that at culture brief at denison form or and we’ll catch your email And let us know what your thoughts are, but I want to see your votes too on Spotify and on our Instagram We’ll have a poll if you think the NBA or college basketball is better

[00:41:26] Micah Tomasella: Yes.

Thank you for that, Connor. Good call out. I almost forgot that part. Thank you. Yes. Please send us your emails or topic ideas or discussion ideas to again, culturebrief at denisonforum. org. We love them. We appreciate them and we do our best to implement them into our show. So thank you for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast.

All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please please subscribe and rate and review the show and share with a friend. We’ll see you next Thursday.

The post Astronauts return, Democrat party turmoil, JFK files, & March Madness | Ep. 11 appeared first on Denison Forum.

Source: Astronauts return, Democrat party turmoil, JFK files, & March Madness | Ep. 11

December 15 – Migdal Eder … Tower of the Flock | VCY

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About Conner Jones

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