And we are rolling, brother, if you want to pray
us in. All right, Father, what a joy, what a
privilege we get to do this. It's not just the
name of a podcast. It's our hearts, our mantra.
It's our it's our statement, our declaration,
our decree that we truly get to do this. We are
blessed to do this. We pray for today as we talk,
as we have conversation that you by your Holy
Spirit would literally lead us and guide us through
these conversations. A pray, Father, for our
listeners. that they would be encouraged, inspired,
motivated, lifted up. That's our heart. And Lord,
as we do this, as we press record, we thank you
that we get to do this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. It's Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. We
get to do this. This is episode number 14. We
get to do this. I had to think for a second there.
What is the date? December 10th? Yeah, that's
what it is. Should we start with old man talk?
Oh, about our hearing aids? Yes. Man, we're just
talking about that. So Apple did this big update
new on their iOS and on their Taho on their thing.
So I can't get the settings to come up. I left
it on. I'm sure it has to do with the update.
Well, yeah, what happens is, you know, then sometimes
apps have to reconfigure stuff and release new
versions. And then they have to have people write
in and say, wait, this isn't working. There's
a glitch here. Yeah. The thing that is interesting
about us talking about the hearing aids, I think
I've received 30 emails, 30 more, because I've
talked about hearing aids before on my shows.
That's funny. And people saying, you know, I
think I need them, I need to try them out, my
dad, my grandfather. Oh, my brother wanted the
link. He's like, what's the link to that thing
you're wearing? It's a job, right? And it just
made me wonder, do people really have hearing
issues? One, could it be that we're so used to
reading captions that we're losing some of our
oral or audible capacity? Or have people blown
out their ears with earbuds and music too loud?
It feels like this is a little bit of everything.
It should not be happening. This should not be
that many people who feel like their hearing
is affected. And I would say that, you know,
with the advances through our childhood in music
and loudspeakers and I think in going to concerts
and everything you do, even Christian concerts
are rocking. I mean, you know, you go, it's like,
Ooh, I got some ear, give me some plugs. Definitely.
So I think, I think there's that, there's a lot
of environment and there's a lot of, they call
it noise pollution. just environmental. Everywhere
you go, there's refrigerators running in restaurants.
You go to a coffee house and you want some quiet.
There is no quiet in a coffee house anymore.
People are loud, but there's the espresso machine,
their froth and milk. I mean, there's noise pollution
everywhere. The fourth option is that people
actually desire control over the sound in their
environment. Cause that's what it gives me. And
that's the way I've spoken about it. I would
say you and me for sure, we're audiophiles in
the sense that we love sound. We love good music,
but we love good tone. You know what I mean?
Being a guitar player, I'm a tone chaser. That's
what they call us. Cause, and it's never quite
there. I mean, I've done this for 30 something
years. Tone Chaser, do you like that? I do. I'm
writing it down. Show title. Yeah. Thank you
for writing it down because after the show's
over with, what people don't know, you'll go,
okay, what do we call this? I'm like, duh. I
mean, I literally am blank. It's second nature
to me to write down stuff. Like, oh yeah, yeah.
At least we got an option now. I think people
though have blown their ears out. I think the
noise pollution. So like if I try to go silent,
right? Dead silent. All I get is tinnitus. But
it is getting better. Since I've been using these
hearing aids, I'm noticing and I'm doing these
little exercises for my jaw. And it seems to
be getting better. Like right now, it's very
minimal. Very minimal. Like freakishly minimal.
It feels good. It's just like silent. That's
very not normal for me. And I didn't even notice
it until we were just talking about it. But I
think also there is this innate desire these
days. for people to just have control. We want
control over our body. We're testing all kinds
of things and stuff that's out there. It just
feels like there's more people wanting this.
And I just questioned like, and maybe I should
just ask them, why do you want it? Do you really
think you have hearing loss? they should ask
their wife or their husband or their friends,
and they'll tell them, yeah, you say what after
everything. You know what I mean? Because that's
how it was with Annette. She was like, please
do something, get your ears checked. That was
back when you had a spare pair sitting around
and I started fiddling with that and I saw such
a marked difference, but I'll be honest, there
was a stigma. Did you feel a stigma? Yes. I had
to overcome it. But that's your own stigma. No,
it's mine. People weren't actually pointing at
you and saying, hey, look at that boomer. Nobody
even notices until I say, hey, have you seen
my new hearing aids? I mean, nobody even looks.
But again, we're so egocentric by nature. So
yeah, I had to get over that. That's interesting.
That reminds me of... It's a good show title.
Get over it. Get over it. Get over it already.
Comma already. Sorry. This is the devotional
that Pastor Brian, I think, has set up. Oh, the
men's devotional. The men's devotional. And the
verse is 1 Corinthians 13, 11 to 12. When I was
a child, I talked like a child. I thought like
a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became
a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
For now we see only reflection as in a mirror.
then we shall see face to face. Now I know in
part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully
known." And the way this devotional broke it
down is into the three types of men we are, which
happens as we grow older, but also interchanges
sometimes several times in an hour. And the first
one is the little boy chair. Have you seen this
one? No, no, no. This is when we live in fear.
are only really concerned about our own needs.
So it's kind of like, I just want my toys. Survivalist.
The soul man chair. This is the man of the world
hiding his true identity, putting on masks, not
living as his genuine self. He lives out of his
temporal self, concerned about reputation, image,
status, money, material things, and his own needs.
Which is kind of what you just said there. When
you have a stigma like that, you're concerned
about what people think about you. And then we
have the spirit man chair. This is the chair
we sit in when we are walking with the Holy Spirit.
It represents our authentic self living according
to God's plan and direction. In this chair, we
are vulnerable and are concerned about the needs
of those around us." I was like, I always want
to be the spirit man chair. But you're saying
I'm not. That's not what I'm saying. No, seriously,
that was a thing. And I had to ask myself, why
does this bother me? Why am I worried about what
somebody else thinks? If I can hear well. Isn't
that crazy? If I can hear three tables over behind
me in a restaurant, I should be happy about that
and quit worrying. It's too bad what you had
to hear, because it's never pretty what you're
hearing. I'm almost stuck. Turn it down. I actually,
when I first started wearing hearing aid, I just
immediately went to, if you can't cover it up,
turn it up. I was like, look at these things.
I'm living in my own soundscape. You don't have
that, do you? No. Right now I'm listening to
music while I'm talking to you and you don't
even know it. It was still the second chair,
like please don't look at me and think of me
as cool. Gotcha. So I just thought that was kind
of an interesting thing and I recognize it now.
Ever since reading it, I recognize, oh, wait
a minute, I'm in a little boy chair here for
a second. Gosh, that's really good, yeah. It
was an interesting devotional. That's very informative.
That reframes things. I like that because, so
I took a class in my master's studies, my grad
studies called, it was called Youth Development
Psychology, but it actually went through adulthood,
but we were in a youth -focused class. But it
talked about the different stages of developmental
psychology. That's very much in line with that.
The child, the adolescent, and you can break
those down into early adolescence, middle, late.
Some of us never get out of adolescence, and
I say us on purpose. I was talking to Annette
about that this morning. That I'm still in late
adolescence. I think so. I don't think I'll ever
get out of it when you're playing that guitar
you are Oh brother No kidding. No kidding leaves
me to today's daily grime. It's good, isn't it?
Yeah Hopefully that helps somebody out there.
Yeah today's daily grind which You do every single
day and you post it on X and Facebook and you
always send me my personal copy as we Greet each
other in the morning one John four four You dear
children are from God and have overcome them
because the one who is in you is greater than
the one who is in the world. And your accompanying
text was, it's interesting how quickly we can
get overwhelmed by what is making the news in
the world. There's a war for your attention and
we must guard our hearts from the evil one and
his minions. And I picked up on that because
I have been tracking for the past week and a
half the podcast wars, which is basically Tucker
Carlson, Candice Owens, Nick Fuentes, Milo is
now back on the scene, Tim Poole to some degree
on the outside, Megyn Kelly. They're all going
and now Pierce Morgan has entered the fray. They're
all talking about each other being on each other's
podcasts. And it has consumed a I think a reasonable
portion of the online audience and they are,
they're just consumed with it. And to me, well,
there's two things going on there. One, if you
read comments and you know, so I really made
a study of this. I'm not involved in it and I'm
the, nor do I intend to jump into this fray,
but as a, um, as something that's happening is
very interesting to observe because you can see
how the algorithm on comments, people often think
about that. It literally is. pro against, pro
pro against against, pro pro pro against against.
They are continuously, and that's very easy to
rank. I've never thought about Al Goh's impacting
comments. Oh yeah, brother. That's the big one.
But it's not even, it's not like a bunch of people
at Metta or Elon Musk is not sitting there going,
ha ha ha ha, watch this. It is built into the
algorithm. It's built into the system to do that.
That is our American way. We want to always create
strife. That's why politicians do it. This is
how we win attention. That's how advertising
works. The whole thing is based on that. It's
starting to sound like CB radio. Remember when
it got really saturated? That guy's no good.
You hear what he said to you? What kind of antenna
you got there? Is that a Moonraker? Remember
those? I had a Moonraker. I had a GPA actually.
You probably have a lot more going. Halfway,
baby. But it's good for us to stop and once you
realize that the machine is doing that intentionally.
That's when you have to figure out it's time
to step. It's gotten so crazy It's got I mean,
it's not even about Israel anymore. Now. It's
just about who said what? Literally, and I don't
even spend time on this stuff. You don't even
have to it's so obvious and in your face. Mm
-hmm So I connected a dot here between Oh, and
I lost it gosh talk about old man stuff No, noise
pollution, noise pollution. We were talking about
noise pollution before being like physical noise
pollution. Like you will go into a coffee house,
you want it to be quiet, but you got the roar
of 18 refrigerators in a row, right? So that's
just noise pollution everywhere. Sirens on, you
know, there's an intersection, there's a siren
going on. There's always something going on because
we're talking about how it can damage your hearing.
But think about the noise pollution online that
we're experiencing. Massive. When I think about
comments, I think about that CB radio scene you
just did. Just this chatter and this nonstop
verbal assault, which is at the end of the day,
it's an assault on your heart. Yes. Because that's
the point. Yes. That's what the enemy is doing.
He's assaulting our hearts because if he can,
it's the same thing in advertising and promotion.
If you can get their heart. Yeah. If I could
get your attention. Yes, sir. That's it. And
so you called it audience capture, is the word
you used. This is what we're talking about. Whether
it's spiritual audience capture, it's all the
same. At the end of the day, it's an assault
on the heart. So I don't really have a conclusion
other than exactly what that verse says. It's
like, you know, in fact, let me pick it up again.
Because the one who is in you is greater than
the one who is in the world. Come on Yeah, I
mean and we just have to remember these things.
I woke up. I wake up almost every single day
the first Seven seconds I can feel my brain going.
Oh, no. Oh, no this that that that and and because
I'm weak when I awaken Yeah, we're in a bit of
the vulnerable moment completely vulnerable and
and now I can reckon I'm like oh Uh -uh. No,
you don't. Good morning, Holy Spirit. Good morning,
Lord Jesus. Good morning, Abba. Our Father, which
art in heaven, I do it if I'm awake enough, my
extended version with all of my extra bits and
bobs in there, and then I'm ready. And then straight
to, in this case, I usually do the you version
now. Just give me the verse of the day. And I
can physically feel myself calming down and at
the same time recognizing how before three years
ago when I got saved, how that would determine
my mood, the mood in my house, the mood with
my reactions towards other people. Absolutely.
And it's like, what does it really take out of
my day? I mean, I do a lot more, but 10 minutes,
10 minutes from start to finish, and you are
good. And it's going to change your life, man.
There's both a spiritual and a scientific explanation
for that. we wake up, we're having a cortisol
dump to start with. Cortisol takes you down.
It's a stress hormone. You're starting to feel
that spin up. It's autopilot. It's auto. So that
starts the minute you wake up, cortisol is flowing.
And there's various stages through sleep, in
REM sleep and then other types of sleep, where
cortisol gets released. And depending on how
you wake up and the first thing you do, the first
few minutes of what you do, determines. It literally
can set the course for your day. You just said
that literally. That's exactly how it feels.
I actually talked to the staff yesterday about
this very thing. Everything you're saying, I'm
like, I just had this conversation with our team
because I want them to, as I'm getting older,
I'm learning things that work, and things that
don't. The biggest thing I said yesterday about
waking up, same thing, routine. Good morning,
Holy Spirit. All that. But then is to put Scripture
before screens. Do not grab your phone first
thing and see how many notifications you get
head through the night. You're toast. You're
toast. I mean, you're done. Even if you see the
notification, but you don't go to it, the quarter
saw dumps happening already and you're already
in a stress moment and you don't even realize
it. And now you're jittery. Now you rush through
your quiet time, you rush through your prayer
time, you rush through your Bible reading. Why?
Because I need to get to that notification. It's
already got your heart. Your phone is a cortisol
activation unit. Totally. Here's how I leave
my phone. Upside down, no vibrator, no vibration,
just exactly. Only thing goes off is the alarm
and it's not even the phone. It's in my earbuds,
my Oslos, my sleeping ear buds. I only use one.
I'm weirdo. I'm so whacked of my hearing with
the right side and left. So I just put it in
the left so I could have also, and all it runs
is brown noise. How is that different from white
noise? It's a deeper sound. It's lower frequency.
White noise makes me nervous. It makes me edgy.
Because it's interesting. It's high pitched.
I like the low pitch. I don't think I could sleep
with that. When Tina's not home, which doesn't
happen often, I can easily put on a sermon or
a podcast and listen to it and fall asleep to
it. And I always have the feeling, I got it.
I got something from that. Your spirit's definitely
getting something from it. I got something while
I was sleeping. Absolutely. So kind of on that,
because Everything is so unreliable and so full
of, pardon my French, crap. I took a gander at
a very important document that our president
published. Because if you look at the news feeds,
like it's drug boats, it's we're going to take
over Venezuela. We're slaughtering people on
the seas. It's innocent people. It's innocent
drug runners. Trump cares more about other countries
than our country. And so this document is something
every president releases. It's the National Strategic
Security briefing document. I think that's what
it's called. Let me see what the official term
is. I have it on my pad here. I have the PDF.
National Security Strategy of the United States
of America. And so this is literally, this is
what we're doing. Sounds weighty. It's only 33
pages. I know, magic number. But it's 33 pages.
It is plain English. It is well worth everybody's
time to read if you want to understand what the
president is doing. And, you know, you and I
have talked about this. It's not really 5D chess.
It's just it looks like that because your attention
is pulled to, you know, Candace Owens, you know,
Tim Poole, Fuentes. Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk.
Sadly, he's at the bottom of the discussion now,
even though it all started with him. Right. I
won't read the opening from the opening. So he
had a one page and it's basically, everything
sucked until I showed up. We understand that.
And he says, what follows is a national security
strategy to describe and build upon the extraordinary
strides we have made. This document is a roadmap
to ensure that America remains the greatest and
most successful nation in human history and the
home of freedom on earth. In the years ahead,
we will continue to develop every dimension of
our national strength and we will make America
safer, richer, freer, greater and more powerful
than ever before." So very Trump -esque. This
document is well written, not by him. And it
starts off with what is the American strategy?
And if you ask people on the street, I don't
think they'd have a clue. as to what is our strategy?
What is our strategy as a country, as a nation?
And, you know, of course, to ensure that we achieve
our goals, we have to have a strategy. So lay
the whole strategy out. Is that on your Remarkable?
It is. You can import PDFs and you can highlight
it. Oh, yeah, this is a note. That's why he was
showing me his today. I love the highlighting
ability of PDFs. So I'm just going to do a paragraph
here or there. I just want people to hear it
so that you can say, yeah, I read that. It's
a great document, even if you didn't. Our elites
badly miscalculated America's willingness to
shoulder forever global burdens to which the
American people saw no connection to the national
interest. So he's talking about elites. I love
that. You know, this is a term that the common
man, you know, the elites over there. Right.
They overestimated America's ability to fund
simultaneously a massive welfare regulatory administrative
state. alongside a massive military, diplomatic
intelligence and foreign aid complex. They placed
hugely misguided and destructive bets on globalism
and so -called free trade that hollowed out the
very middle class and industrial base on which
America's economic and military preeminence depend.
They allowed allies and partners to offload their
cost of their defense onto the American people
and sometimes suck us into conflicts and controversy
central to their interests, but peripheral or
irrelevant to ours. So this is exactly the complaint
that people have, that some detractors of the
president will say, he's only doing that. He's
saying, no, this is what we were doing. The questions
before us now are, what should the United States
want? What are available means to get it? How
can we connect ends and means into a viable national
security strategy? So obviously I'm not going
to go through the whole thing. I will give some
highlights, but there's important words in here.
Right off the bat, what do we want overall? First
and foremost, we want the continued survival
and safety of the United States as an independent
sovereign republic whose government secures the
God -given natural rights of its citizens and
prioritizes their well -being and interests.
Love it when he puts God right on page one, you
know that that really that that that just Gave
me a good feeling love that so What he's doing
what people but you're not being told because
we're too busy with other things in the media
is there really Look over here. Look over here
alert alert We want the world's most robust industrial
base. And if you see, we're going to be building
more Toyotas in America. We're going to be building
ships in America. Yeah, the data centers is all
in America. And there's a million apprenticeships
which have been stimulated by the U .S. government.
So for the Gen Zs out there listening, and maybe
even the Alphas, Is that your coffee machine?
I'm hearing that. Yeah, the coffee machine is
doing its thing. It's growling at us, Jimmy.
Don't worry about it. It's fine. It's only me
who hears that stuff. How do you have those turned
up? It's just me. You're rocking your hearing
aids. If we can get away from the, I need to
go to college, go into debt and get a poli sci
degree or whatever, And think about, I mean,
there's going to be an opportunity for people
to make $150 ,000 to $250 ,000 as electricians,
welders, builders, construction. And when we
have that, then we will have companies that need
marketing executives and other things. He is
rebuilding our country from the bottom up and
kicking all the nasty stuff out. It truly...
And everything I read in this document, kind
of like the Monroe Doctrine, which is like, we
want to be us and we're going to be mainly concerned
with the Western hemisphere. So from north to
south, instead of continuously focusing on the
East and the Middle East and Asia. And it's just.
It is an incredible... When did this document
come out? When was this released? This came out
about a week ago. Okay. And there's a couple
of other things. Has anyone talked about it?
Because it seems like... Well, the only way it's
talked about is, Trump says that the European
Union will be extinct in 20 years. Well, he does
kind of say that. He said, if you continue with
your immigration policy and by removing the natural
resources of energy that you have, energy equals
life. So the European Union just today said,
we're going to be 90 % renewables by 2030. You
will be dead. Yeah. My daughter literally got
a shell of who you were. My daughter lives in
Holland. She literally got a brochure, a full
color, five page booklet, what to do in an emergency
when the electricity goes out. like, you know,
you need candles and a flashlight and food. They're
scaring these kids because they know that if
they go down this path, eventually, yeah, you
can't have all electric cars and have windmills
powering it at the end of the day. You know,
it's just, they're crazy. I just want to read
this one. Oh yeah, here it is. So what are America's
available means to get what we want? The courage,
willpower and patriotism of the American people.
I love these kinds of words. Returning economic
freedom to our citizens via historic tax cuts
and deregulatory effects. He just changed the
mileage requirements for automobiles, which is
the reason we couldn't build really cheap cars
in America. Because you have to get 50 miles
to the gallon. Oh, right. Yes. We remember that
right? So that's now gone, you know, so now there
will be $14 ,000 brand new cars available Yeah,
that's that's why I made to yeah Wow. Yeah, you
literally couldn't build that stuff Okay, let
me just find the last bit here Non -intervention
is Primacy of our nation pro -american worker.
He's literally this is the split You're kind
of seeing this MAGA versus America and he says
America first everywhere here Which is he was
just trying to make sure he reclaims that word.
Yeah, but people who are Confused that what he
is doing overseas is for other countries. They
are confused It is for is bringing the money
and the production to us. They've been manipulated
to be completely whole point. Yes completely,
which is Always a political move. The era of
mass migration is over. Then he says, hey, if
NATO doesn't want to pay up, then they can go
figure it out, which is probably energy dominance.
We'll get to that in a moment. I have brought
some clips about that. We will deny non -hemispheric
competitors the ability to position forces or
other threatening capabilities or to own or control
strategically vital assets in our hemisphere.
Yay. So this is kind of critical when it comes
to what's really going on with Venezuela. And
I have a couple of clips that I brought so that
we can understand what's really happening. And
you have to understand that Venezuela should
be one of the richest countries in the world,
considering the resources they have, which are
mainly to oil and drugs. I hate to say it, but
you know, and I was listening to podcast, it
was actually a Christian podcast and they're
saying well you know if if Trump is willing to
kill those guys with those boats why don't you
kill the drug dealers like you know You have
to cut the head off, the snake off at the head.
You can't just be wagging at the tail the whole
time. So here's two clips from the same report
about Venezuela, because it's really two issues.
Just this year, the U .S. Coast Guard has seized
almost a half a billion dollars worth of cocaine
off the coast of Venezuela. And the Trump administration
has gone on the offensive. In recent weeks, the
U .S. military deployed eight warships, surveillance
planes, a nuclear submarine, and 10 stealth fighters
to the region. Last week, the U .S. struck a
suspected smuggling vessel killing 11 in a mission
authorized directly by the president. Officials
say the surge is part of an aggressive counter
-narcotics campaign. Billions of dollars of drugs
are pouring out of Venezuela and other countries.
Venezuela has been a very bad actor and we understand
that. Maduro's government denies the charges
and insists the drug war is being used as a reason
to destabilize his government. Venezuela is not
a relevant country in terms of drug trafficking
and in all related matters. So this lie is as
crude and false as the claim that Iraq had weapons
of mass destruction. Maduro has mobilized millions
of militia members and warned Venezuela could
declare a republic in arms if attacked. Venezuelan
fighter jets have twice buzzed U .S. Navy ships
in international waters. The U .S. commanders
say any further threats could be met with force.
So it's important to understand that that is
of course an analogy that's not true. There may
have not been weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq. But there's most definitely drug production
in Venezuela. And this is cutting off of important
money supplies. I think we've talked about this
before. By the time it gets down to the street,
and if you go all the way back to who's running
it, it is hundreds of billions of dollars, which
is flowing all throughout the money system. If
all of that went away worldwide, Wall Street
would literally collapse. You just have to look
at some of the numbers to understand. how important
that is. So reducing that slowly is good. In
Europe, illegal drug prices have doubled. So
what happens? Maybe I'm not going to buy some
drugs today. Maybe I'm not going to do that.
So it has a very positive effect. This is a true
war on drugs, which you've never actually had.
I've heard it throughout my lifetime. Now there's
something else going on. If you look at the map,
You've got Venezuela and right next to Venezuela,
snap quiz, Guiana. So they border on each other.
And there's been a dispute between Venezuela
and Guiana. And this is the thing that no one
talks about that started. Well, it's been going
on for 100 years, but it really started to heat
up about a year ago when the president of Venezuela,
Maduro said, yeah, I think I think that's our
land. This report will kind of explain why this
is a problem for the United States. And this,
by the way, is only, you know, you can fly for
30 minutes, you know, or a little bit longer.
You're right down in Venezuela. It's not that
far from the south of our country. You know,
this is, and it's Western Hemisphere. Another
facet to this conflict is playing out here in
Guyana. Venezuela's tiny neighbor has been under
threat as Venezuela claims sovereignty over approximately
two -thirds of the country, along with massive
offshore oil reserves. One key in this conflict
is the U .S. has major business interests here,
with ExxonMobil and other companies developing
huge new fields. Washington's security posture
may also be aimed at deterring Venezuelan moves
against Guyana. Venezuela doesn't even have any
roads that connect it to its neighbor to the
east here in Guyana, and the border dispute between
the two countries was supposed to have been settled
more than a hundred years ago. Venezuela never
really made much of a fuss about it until 11
billion barrels of oil was discovered offshore,
and now Venezuela wants to take over an area
of Guyana about the size of Florida. And that's
why when Secretary of State Marco Rubio came
here in March, he made it very clear to the Venezuelan
government, keep your hands off. There will be
consequences for adventurism. There will be consequences
for aggressive actions because you have a very
difficult challenge on your hands with a dictator
that's making illegitimate territorial claims.
Pressed on whether the U .S. would back Guyana
militarily, Rubio left little doubt. It would
be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if
they were to attack Guyana or attack ExxonMobil
or anything like it. It would be a very bad day,
a very bad week for them. The Trump administration
has a $50 million bounty on Maduro. So while
U .S. officials frame the buildup as counter
narcotics, the sheer firepower deployed raises
questions whether Washington is preparing to
go beyond interdiction and possibly move to oust
Nicolas Maduro from power. For certain, the stakes
are rising. Whether this confrontation stops
at drug enforcement or escalates into regime
change may depend on Maduro's next move. ExxonMobil
has had the oil contract with Guyana for several
years. That's an American company. And when you
have a neighboring president saying, well, we're
just going to move in. Right. That's our interest.
Right. And it's like there's no doubt. We're
not there illegally. We're not hijacking. We
pay. We pay Guyana. It is a huge resource. It
is so big that the president actually did two
things in one, because if you have too much oil
flowing, you're going to hurt the producers in
Texas and South Dakota because the price is already
kind of at a break even point for them. So you
want to reduce the oil somewhere else. So he
just said to Chevron, another one of our companies,
we're going to do a twofer here. You're not going
to drill in Venezuela anymore and pay the Venezuelan
government. As the Trump administration is ending
Chevron's license to operate in Venezuela, which
allows the Maduro regime to export oil to the
U .S. Oil experts are a financial lifeline for
the Maduro regime. Chevron producing about 220
,000 barrels of oil in Venezuela every day. Joining
us now, Ryan Berg, Director of the America's
Program at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. Ryan, thank you very much for being
with us today. You study Venezuela. How significant
is President Trump's decision? Well, thanks for
having me on, Jose. This decision cannot be underestimated.
It's very significant. You said it yourself in
the opening. Chevron produces well over 200 ,000
barrels of oil per day. In Venezuela, on average,
the country only produces about 850 to 950 ,000
barrels of oil per day, depending upon the month
that you're looking at. And so this is 20 to
25 % of Venezuela's overall production. So much
so that Venezuelan economists were starting to
refer last year to El Efecto Chevron in Spanish,
or the Chevron Effect, how Chevron is actually
revitalizing our oil industry and therefore our
economy with its partnerships with the Pedevesa,
the state -owned Venezuelan enterprise. So this
is very, very significant that the Trump administration
is deciding to end GL 41, which is the license
that gives Chevron the ability to operate in
Venezuela. So reading the national security strategic
document and seeing what's happening, he is following
exactly on what he said he would do. And there's
no reason for us to invade Venezuela. I think,
you know, we have an entire fleet there for two
reasons. One, If you decide to go into Venezuela
or into Guiana, as Secretary of State Rubio said,
it's going to be a bad week for you. Yeah, because
that is actually an act of war if they did that.
It's crazy. That actually came from CBN, that
report. I was blown away because you won't find
it on any other news network because they're
all wrapped up in all kinds of things. So, that's
part of the reason we're there. Also, I think
the signals intelligence, if you're right off
the coast, they know exactly how the drug routes
work, where it's being fabricated, etc. And I
do expect that to be taken out. Trump is anti
-drug. He's anti a lot of stuff like that. So,
it's to keep us safer and keep us prosperous
with international deals we have that we just
love to keep without any intervention. So does
Venezuela, do they run their drugs through Cuba,
Havana, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico? Or are
those just gas points for them? Well, you mentioned
a lot. A lot of it goes to the British islands.
And from there, it's shipped out. Because most
of these drugs, I think, are probably going to
Europe. Some of it's coming to the US. But that's
where the money laundering all takes place. So
it's much bigger than just Venezuela. But it
does not go to Cuba, no. And they'll hand it
off, either they'll refuel. Most of these drug
boats are filled with fuel at the bottom. They'll
refuel, or they'll hand it off to a ship at sea.
It all kind of depends on where you're at. And
so everyone who's complaining about this, and
I don't like, death is no good. Killing people
is no good. But they're not complaining about
the people. They're complaining about the value
of what has been destroyed. Because it's even
hard to explain how much money that is and how
important it is to people who are not necessarily
our friends. And it's also sending a signal to
the rest of the world. It sure is. I mean, this
is like a wake up call. And if you look at the
document, President Trump is kind of clear. There's
three big sovereign nations. America, Russia,
China. We want everybody to have their own vibe,
be yourself, have your culture, whatever. Let's
have trade amongst each other. Let's make it
balanced and fair. And I think this ARC idea,
America, Russia, China, I think that is going
to be our future. It's a total zig to the to
everybody else's zag. Wow. It's all in the document.
We don't want globalist institutions telling
us what to do. That's your World Health Organization.
That's your NATO. That's the United Nations.
World Economic Forum is a drinking club. I was
going to say, that's why I didn't finish that
statement. No, that's not up there. Well, they
had Klaus Schwab. He got kicked out because of
some funny business with expenses and other things.
But he was the perfect lightning rod for globalism
because he just has the voice, everything. He
looks evil. They say evil things. He's the villain.
He looks like a villain. Completely. But the
real villainous organizations are the ones that
are right in your face, United Nations being
one of them. So I'm really bullish on what's
happening. And man, I love these cabinet meetings
that the president does, three hours, four. It's
like a board meeting. It's like the staff meeting.
I mean, yours is shorter, I'm sure, although
maybe not all the time. But everyone does their
report. Here's what we're doing. Here's what
we're getting to. And I literally saw the Secretary
of Agriculture bring in the rice farmers. And
the rice farmer, she said, you know, think Mr.
Trump thinks President Trump things are going
well, but we have a problem because India and
Japan are dumping their rice, which means they're
getting rid of it under the price into America.
And the president does what any CEO would do.
Who is it? Give me two paragraphs. I'll end that
tomorrow. I mean, this is running a business.
He's running the business of America. Yes. So
when we need to be run that way. Well, political
patty cake, the business of America is business.
It's always been that. Mainly farming, which
I love that his whole mantra is the farmers don't
want handouts. They just want a fair shake. And
so I just hope that people pay attention to some
of the things that are not in the noise. or they're
actually hidden in the noise. Maybe I should
say it that way. Because you're missing one of
them. You should be able to say to your grandkids,
I was there when all that happened. It was amazing
what took place. It was transformational. Now,
maybe he doesn't pull it all off. I don't know.
But man, for just less than a year, I'm seeing
this happen. I am very excited about this. So
talk about for a minute, because this goes hand
in hand with this. the bait and switch things
that happen with the media. I know you talk about
it a lot. I've heard heard you on no agenda.
You and I have had many conversations about this.
I've talked about it from the pulpit. Yeah. But
we need to like say there's new listeners. Somebody's
just jumped in on us. Talk about over here, over
here. Why that's a problem. What media is trying
to draw you into? Well, media. Well, everybody
has their own agenda for whatever reason. And
not Fox News. Everybody has their own agenda.
As odd as it seems, the best thing sometimes
is just to go to the source. What is the source?
Well, they're talking about some document. You
can ask your AI, you can type it into Google.
And it's always amazing to me. I took three months
of college and dropped out. I've been a disc
jockey most of my life. I can read this. You
can read this too. It's not all that hard. It's
not written for elites. It's written for you.
This is probably the thing I like the most. So
if you want to know what the president is actually
doing and what each one of his cabinet members,
it's on C -SPAN. You can get the live streams
on YouTube. Just watch it. They're speaking English.
And it's actually, it's like The Apprentice.
I mean, he's running it like The Apprentice.
He's trying to make this an exciting, interesting
type of show. And it's really, you know, you're
not incentivized by anybody to do it. But if
you actually do that, you'd be surprised how
much you learn. And you can do the same with
the European Union. You may feel dark or gray
after watching some of their European Commission
sessions. But that's really, I started watching
C -SPAN 20 years ago. Wow. And I was always always...
Because it just runs constantly. It's just ongoing
feed. It's now on YouTube TV. They just added
it. And even the clips they have, I've always
been amazed at like, well, this is exactly the
opposite of the way I heard the news talk about
it, which includes Fox News. Or, how come no
one's talking about this? This is actually interesting.
Now, a lot of it is show, particularly when you
get like the house and they're doing their back
and forth. But there are committee meetings and
other things that are actually super interesting.
And of course, you want to be listening to, we
get to do this podcast. This is your little palate
cleanser midweek. You need that. And yeah, no
agenda. But there are others out there. But try
to go to the source as much as possible. You'd
be so surprised. And ultimately, what is the
source, brother? Come on. The source is the book.
Truth. When you get back to that and you're just
looking for something to help you understand
what's going on in the world. I'm starting to
figure that out. It's perspective. What happens
is it puts your feet back on solid ground where
you can get perspective on what's going on because
there's nothing new under the sun. I mean, Solomon
had it right in Ecclesiastes. There is nothing
new under the sun. Everything is spin. Everything's
a rehash. Same song, 7 ,000th verse. And what
happens is that We keep thinking there's something
new coming along. There's something different,
or this is different. We've never seen things
like this before. You hear that all the time
in media. And the truth is, yes, we did. 1967,
1974, whatever. This has happened before. Nothing
new under the sun. That has helped me just understanding
the truth of that. So that when I walk into Planet
Fitness and there's 32 screens up there and they
all say, alert, breaking news. I yawn now. I
used to like, oh my gosh. And you can see the
whole gym stop. People stop and they're gawking.
Oh really? The stop that stopped working out?
Gawking at the screen. Oh yeah, they're gawking
at the screens. No way. Oh, that's crazy. Oh
yeah. And I mean, they may still be on their
elliptical. Okay, they're still moving. They're
still moving. Yeah. But they're like looking
and I'm watching this dynamic and I'm going,
they're saying, look over here, look over here.
There's something else going on. If there's anything
you've taught me, it's that. There is something
else going on and we've got to begin to get The
sons of Issachar, we've talked about this, the
men of Issachar understood the times and knew
what Israel should do. I think that Ecclesiastes
is really good right now because of the time
and Solomon was the richest, wealthiest king
in the world. And for him, it always came back
to... Yeah, but that didn't satisfy me. That
didn't do it for me. That's just vanity. It's
all vanity. It's all vanity. It is. What other
scripture do you think would fit in for this
time that we're in right now? Well, I mean, definitely
the first Samuel, that's the Mendevissa car.
But I think too, we got to think in terms of
truth, what truth is. So in John 15, let me just
find this real quick. I love this scripture.
It talks about the spirit of truth will lead
you and guide you into all truth. So hold on.
I'm going to give a trade secret away. Bible
verse. Here's his prompt, everybody. About the
spirit of truth. Quote, ellipsis. Yeah, trying
to help people out who want to do research and
stuff. So it's John 16, 13. I love this scripture.
So it wasn't 15, it was John 16, 13. Oh, we'll
let you slide. One off, oh boy. Off a chapter.
So with that whole, that's all about the Last
Supper. That's when Jesus is sitting around the
table with his guys. So it says this, he says
in verse 12, I have much more to say to you,
more than you can now bear. There's more to say,
but you can't handle it all. You're already weight
content loaded. Verse 13. but when He, the Spirit
of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.
He will not speak on His own. He'll speak only
what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet
to come." So we're told by Jesus that the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of truth, He's been talking
about the Holy Spirit through this whole thing.
It's the Holy Spirit will come after Jesus was
crucified and ascended, which He did. We saw
that in Acts chapter 2. He says, He will guide
you into all truth. All right. That is a defining
statement. All truth. And He will guide you into
all truth. So if we're willing to listen and
we're willing to press pause or shut our computer
screen or put our phone face down for five minutes
and say, Lord, is this true? Holy Spirit, you're
the spirit of truth. Your word also says, I have
the mind of Christ so I can think different.
I can reason well. It also says, you've not been
given the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind, the ability to think
well. So we've got all of these tools, but a
tool is only as good as the person who actually
picks it up and uses it. So we've got this. So
when I read this, the spirit of truth comes when
he comes, which he already has, and he takes
up residence in a believer. He will guide you
into all truth. If it said nothing more, that's
all I need. He already know I've got somebody
in me, with me, dwelling in me, that will literally
guide me into all truth. So we need to be able
to ask and listen. Now you can read your news
feeds, you can watch C -SPAN. Those are good
things. Just in terms of being aware of more
specifics. But at the end of the day, what matters
more, facts or truth? Yeah, truth. Facts are
temporary and subject to change. Truth is eternal
and never changes. So he's saying he's going
to lead us into all truth. So that to me speaks
to what we're learning here. Yeah, we're learning
this stuff. the title of the two shows ago, Hair
on Fire, my favorite title so far in our series
of doing podcasts. We could do it every single
show. Hair on Fire 2 .0, 3 .0. I mean, we can
literally rename all these that, but that'd be
a good podcast. Hair on Fire podcast. But to
me, that's what happens is people run off. And
I see people I love and respect. People go to
our church and I just love them. I know them.
I do life with them. And I see them posting and
reposting. Again running with their hair on fire
when when we have the spirit of truth available
to us who will guide us into all truth Which
means when I hear truth it trumps facts Every
time yes, it always trumps facts. And so that's
how I lean into Breaking alert, you know all
the stuff that's going on, you know Well exclusive
this kind of brings us all the way back to where
we started exactly that is all that is all noise
It's just noise. That's what it is. Noise pollution.
It's noise pollution coming in through all your
senses, through your ears, your eyes, not smell.
But I think if you really got close to the screen,
you'd probably sniff it. It definitely hits you
auditory with all the background. tracks they're
running, the sound of busyness and running and
sirens. When they first started, I was laughing
because I'd go on, soundtrack. You've got to
get it dramatic. Well, you'll start to recognize
they're called nat pops, natural pops. I didn't
bring that up. I learned something new every
day. Someone actually did a report of this national
security document. 15 seconds, you heard a missile
going off or a machine gun. Wow. And you're like,
well, the national security, strategic document.
Wow. Like they're somewhere out on the battlefield
giving this report. And it's not even that. It's
just there to form your opinion. And it's subtle.
It was like, go to the movie theater. Yeah. Jaws,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Classic,
right? Classic. Even that, you just made my pulse
go up. And then even though it turned out to
be some kid with a fin on his back swimming,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you
get all worked up and then, ah. I hear tubular
bells to this day freaks me out from the exercise.
Old field, man. I'm just like, dah. Yeah, I know.
So let's go back to where we started. It's an
assault on your heart and it's an attempt to
steal your attention. Audience capture. At some
point is not even stealing your attention, it's
holding on to it. That's the true capture. We
have to wrestle ourselves out of it. Because
the minute you get triggered by, and it's easy,
you know, we still have the COVID trauma, like
we don't trust our government, you know, this
is a different government. You shouldn't trust
them everybody all the time. I'm not saying that.
But the noise that's being created is pretty
thick and dense and it's pretty dirty. I'm going
to put an Easter egg for Annette. Sitting across
the living room. At the end of the show, really?
That's almost unfair. We'll see what happens.
We'll be sitting across the living room and our
TV's off or whatever and I hear her go, oh my
goodness. Oh my gosh. Out loud. And it's hard
not to say, what? I know. I do the same thing
with Tina. And she says, have you read this?
No, I haven't actually. She's been keeping me
more informed than anything right now because
I'm literally running from this stuff. And she
said, well, this is what so -and -so said. Let
me read it to you, you know, or let me play this.
I'm laughing now because I used to be the one
that was swimming in that water. Really? Oh,
yeah. Man, I was news feeds. I'm an info junkie.
Before the internet came along, I was an info
junkie. It just fed what was already there and
made it worse or better, depending on what you're
being a junkie over. But because I'm a study,
I'm a nerd. I like information. I like to get
in the weeds of words and semantics and all that
and vocabulary. So the internet comes along and
I'm like a sitting duck. You're like mainlining
it. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. So I've gotten
better about pushing back. And so it's so funny
to hear, oh my gosh, just a visceral reaction.
She didn't realize she said it out loud. What
is that? That's audience capture. It's getting
hooking, hooking you. It's like a good song has
a good hook, but so does a good... Good news
article a good news article always has a good.
Oh speaking of her How are you doing? Yeah, well
we're landing the plane we're landing it right
now. Yeah With that, why don't we end it? Come
on, brother. Everybody, check us out on the Godcaster
app. You'll find a lot of... It's spirit -filled,
all kinds of beautiful stuff there, or of course,
anywhere where you get your podcast. Brother,
thank you so much for another... Always a pleasure.
...another catch up with the mic on, man. Always
a pleasure. I love you, brother. We get to do
this, and we will do it again next week. Join
us there. Bye, everybody.