WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.399 All right, we're going to be a little reflective and a little philosophical today 2 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:07.559 on Old John Girardi Show. I want to talk about some a little bit 3 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:10.720 from the Catholic side of the street. But I think it's an important thing 4 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:22.480 for Christianity in general because it's sort of the first major kind of theoretical way 5 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:30.120 of attacking the problem the issues surrounding transgenderism and gender ideology that I think any 6 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:38.920 Christian denomination as a body has done in like a really systematic way. Maybe 7 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:45.039 I'm maybe this is my Catholic supremacy coming out here, and maybe they're really 8 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:50.240 authoritative. Well, the structure of other Christian denominations and such that they don't 9 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.399 really have an authoritative sort of command and teaching structure the way that the Catholic 10 00:00:54.520 --> 00:01:00.640 Church does. So you know, if the Southern Baptists get together and issue 11 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.079 a statement, it's just kind of a statement that every Southern Baptist can kind 12 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:11.079 of take or leave as they will. With the Catholic Church, when the 13 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:18.000 Pope sort of formally sits down and teaches something that concerns faith in morals, 14 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:23.000 Catholics sit down and listen to it attentively, and it's the Pope sort of 15 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:29.560 working in consultation with all the bishops and teaching something that's something that has some 16 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:34.480 weight and authority to it. So the Monday before last, on April eighth, 17 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:44.319 I should say, Pope Francis issued a teaching document which is called Dignitas 18 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:49.079 infinita Infinite Dignity, and it had to do with the concept of human dignity. 19 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:53.640 But he then applied it to several kind of concrete situations. And I 20 00:01:53.680 --> 00:02:02.239 think the most significant kind of attention catching topic and the one that he's sort 21 00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:07.719 of his team of you know, theologians and writers who actually wrote this thing, 22 00:02:07.520 --> 00:02:12.319 the thing that they spent the most time focusing on was gender ideology, 23 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:24.120 sex change, transgenderism in general. Okay, So I want to talk about 24 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:30.960 it because I think it's kind of a it's a very significant intervention by Christianity 25 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:38.240 into these into these topics. Now, the structure of this document is for 26 00:02:38.240 --> 00:02:43.800 Pope Francis to talk about the concept of human dignity in the first half, 27 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:50.240 give a kind of theoretical support and justification and background for this idea that human 28 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:58.919 beings have value and worth that is intrinsic that can't be taken away and then 29 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:05.039 talk about the various kinds of modern day issues in which human dignity is being 30 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:13.439 attacked or weakened. So he spends sort of the first half giving this kind 31 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:17.120 of theoretical discussion, and then the second half of it he talks about various 32 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:23.680 individual things, poverty, war, the difficulties that miners face, that excuse 33 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:31.039 me that migrants face, human trafficking, sexual abuse, violence against women, 34 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:38.639 abortion, but the things that really I don't you know, Euthanasian assisted suicide, 35 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:44.400 marginalizing people with disabilities. But I think the two issues that he talks 36 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:49.800 about that haven't really gotten a large amount of prior discussion in the teaching of 37 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:54.840 the Catholic Church because they are relatively new are surrogacy and gender theory. Now, 38 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:02.599 how do we discuss gender theory? So the gender theory is sort of 39 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:08.479 the nomenclature that the Vatican tends to use for this. Whether that's wise or 40 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:12.280 not, I don't know, but that and whether that's comprehensible to people or 41 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:14.560 not, I don't know, but that's how they sort of talk about it, 42 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:21.480 and the church kind of the pope in sort of discussing this, I 43 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:28.160 think we need to understand sort of the background idea of dignity first before we 44 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:36.079 get to the specifics. So we start by affirming that every human being has 45 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:46.480 dignity and that there are different kinds of dignity. There is an ontological dignity. 46 00:04:46.519 --> 00:04:49.360 Ontology means like the study of what something is the nature of a thing. 47 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:56.199 Okay, so you have a certain ontological dignity just based on being human 48 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:02.959 being. You have more moral dignity, a dignity that respects your freedom of 49 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:10.120 choice, a moral dignity which you harm through choosing sin. Then you have 50 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:15.360 social and existential dignity, which relate to the kinds you know, poverty is 51 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:19.519 a sort of violation of your social dignity, the kinds of conditions around you 52 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:28.839 that allow you to develop in authentic human integrity and that allow you to develop 53 00:05:29.639 --> 00:05:34.079 as a moral person. So different kinds of things or violations of dignity. 54 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:41.879 Poverty is a is a kind of violation of dignity. But also, you 55 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:46.959 know, suffering certain you know, abortion is also a violation of the dignity 56 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.480 of the unborn child in a way that is a little bit more extreme obviously 57 00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:57.759 than poverty, and it impacts a sort of onto logical dignity, that any 58 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:01.800 human being has a certain kind of value you and worth, regardless of their 59 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:11.000 capacities. And there's this big discussion in it about we have dignity based on 60 00:06:11.079 --> 00:06:20.560 the definition of what human beings are and the kind of classical definition of various 61 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:32.040 Christian philosophers who define the person as an individual substance of a rational nature. 62 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:42.560 We receive our existence from God, we subsist, so we exercise our own 63 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:49.680 existence autonomously, just by ourselves, and we are rational beings, so we 64 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:55.279 have the capacities of the human person. Even if we don't, even if 65 00:06:55.399 --> 00:07:01.399 for some reason we're not not fully developed yet, maybe we've suffered some injury, 66 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:06.600 we can't exercise those capacities. So one of the things they're making, 67 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:14.639 the big point Pope Francis is making, is everyone is a person in this 68 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:19.680 sense of they are a ration, an individual substance with a rational nature. 69 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:24.560 If you're a human being, your nature is to be a rational being. 70 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:32.240 Now you might not be able to exercise your rationality because you're an unborn child 71 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:38.800 whose brain isn't fully developed yet, because you're a senile, elderly person, 72 00:07:39.959 --> 00:07:44.279 because you suffered a brain injury, because you have Down syndrome. Because you 73 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:50.079 have some disability, you might not be able to exercise your capacities, but 74 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:58.480 you have a rational nature. And this is really important for Pope Francis because 75 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:03.600 he's basically saying, look, we're not defining we're not defining human dignity on 76 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:11.040 the basis of what you can do. We're defining human dignity on the basis 77 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:18.920 of what a human being is, an individual substance of a rational nature. 78 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:24.000 That's what a human person is. A dog, yes, it's an individual 79 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:28.879 substance, no rational nature, though it's a doggy nature. Okay, So 80 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:37.759 we think dogs are categorically different than humans, categorically not quite as important as 81 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:43.399 human beings because they lack a rational nature. Even someone with Down syndrome, 82 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:48.440 even someone who has suffered a catastrophic brain injury, even an unborn child who's 83 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:54.919 not engaged in rational activity, does have a rational nature. And that rational 84 00:08:54.039 --> 00:09:03.600 nature is what we should respect, and it has a certain dignity that comes 85 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:09.159 with it certain duties of care. So it doesn't matter what you can do, 86 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:16.360 it matters who you are, and we have duties to people because of 87 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:22.559 who they are. Right, a newborn baby can't do much. We still 88 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:28.279 owe the newborn baby love and care and protection. A senile old person can't 89 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:33.480 do much, can't really take care of themselves. We still owe Grandma love 90 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:43.039 and care and attention. And there's throughout the document there's this beautiful discussion about 91 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:50.799 human weakness and frailty and how that relates to dignity. That suffering or weakness 92 00:09:50.080 --> 00:10:01.960 or frailty don't take away the dignity the value that someone has. Now, 93 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:07.159 I'm leaving out all the biblical quotations and kind of specific biblical arguments here, 94 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:11.120 but there's I think plenty of biblical support for a lot of these concepts. 95 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:26.120 Now. One of the ways are our individual substance that has rational nature includes 96 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:31.399 our bodies. Human beings are not just ghosts who happen to be in a 97 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:35.840 fleshy prison. We are made of a body and made of a soul. 98 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:45.200 Our bodies are part of this nature which God created in his own image and 99 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:50.519 likeness, in the image and likeness of God. And thus our bodies participate 100 00:10:52.679 --> 00:11:00.080 in this dignity that we have as human beings, this dignity that has to 101 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:05.000 be respected of a rational nature, of an individual substance, of a rational 102 00:11:05.080 --> 00:11:11.519 nature. So our bodies have to be respected, and in no small part 103 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:16.320 because God decided to assume to himself a human nature, including a body. 104 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:24.080 Okay, the second person of the Trinity assumed a human nature, retained second 105 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:28.159 Person of the Trinity retained his divinity, but assumed a human nature, a 106 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:35.200 human body and a human soul was both God and man. So how dignified 107 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:43.000 the body has become as a result of this. So that's the kind of 108 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:54.840 grounding where the Pope is able to teach about transgenderism as a violation of human 109 00:11:54.879 --> 00:12:03.399 dignity. It's taking the body and rejecting it, rejecting it in its essential 110 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:13.440 one of its essential characteristics, the characteristic of sexual difference, which is a 111 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:16.559 given. It is part of our nature as it is given to us by 112 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:24.960 God, and it's something that we cannot simply just reject. If it's a 113 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.480 rejection of the body, it's a rejection of something that's intrinsic to our own 114 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:41.320 human dignity. So I think this is a real This is something that I 115 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:45.039 really have appreciated this, and I think Bishop Brennan's maybe going to talk about 116 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:50.000 this more at some point, just locally as far as trying to discuss this 117 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:58.600 for folks, But I think it's one of the first detailed Christian efforts to 118 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:05.519 give an account of why transgenderism is wrong outside of a Christian sense of this 119 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:09.519 isn't right, and you know, male and female He created them. Certainly 120 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:13.440 there's you know, you can go to Genesis and give a couple of biblical 121 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:20.240 quotes, but to give a kind of more complete argument of moral reasoning that's 122 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:28.840 grounded in scripture, grounded in a solid anthropology. And I think this is 123 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:37.840 sort of the Catholic Church standing in the face of a very very controversial topic 124 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:43.240 in a way that I think can equip any Christian who's wanting to think about 125 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:46.600 and deal with this. Right, we have to give sort of rational reasons 126 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:52.639 for what we believe in beyond just you know, look, if you're arguing 127 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:56.159 with someone who's not a Christian and all you do is cite the Bible at 128 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.759 them, they're not really going to listen to you very much. You have 129 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:01.519 to have something that's kind of a common ground. So I find this to 130 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:05.600 be I thought this document was really interesting. If you go to my Twitter 131 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:07.519 account Twitter dot com slash president Johnny go Back a couple of days and I 132 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:11.879 do a tweet by tweet summary of the whole document. It's not super long, 133 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:18.399 it's about eleven thousand words, but i'd really recommend it now. When 134 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:22.320 we return, I'm going to dig into it just a little bit more and 135 00:14:22.360 --> 00:14:26.080 talk about the issues that are at play within the Catholic Church in debates over 136 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:31.759 LGBT stuff and transgender stuff, and how this document's going to be received. 137 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:37.799 That is next on The John Girardi Show. But Francis made news with a 138 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:43.759 long teaching document that he ordered to be released that talks about the concept of 139 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:46.639 human dignity in general and a lot of specific topics. But I think sort 140 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:54.039 of the biggest focus of attention was his tackling of the topics of gender theory 141 00:14:54.440 --> 00:15:01.039 and sex change and giving a very definitive condemnation to the const the concept of 142 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:11.960 attempting to change someone's sex via surgery or hormone intervention or whatever. And I 143 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:16.120 think this is a really significant thing for anyone who is a Christian, for 144 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:20.559 anyone who is religious, to have the largest single religious body in the world 145 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:31.879 giving a kind of defense of human dignity and applying that concept of human dignity 146 00:15:31.879 --> 00:15:35.960 to the topic of sex change. Basically, the argument being all human beings 147 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:43.440 have a certain kind of inherent ontological dignity, that the body participates in that 148 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:48.679 dignity, that we're not just ghosts flying around in useless, fleshy prisons, 149 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:52.600 that human beings are made of bodies and souls, that the two are joined 150 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:56.679 together, and that there's a certain goodness and dignity inherent in all of God's 151 00:15:56.679 --> 00:16:00.480 creation, including in the bodies of human beings. The bodies of human beings, 152 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:10.200 which apparently God thought was something so valuable that he created such a body 153 00:16:10.440 --> 00:16:15.200 for the second person of the Trinity to assume as part of the human nature 154 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:22.360 that the second Person of the Trinity assumed. So to, to sort of 155 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:25.080 quote from this document that Pope Francis order to be released, he said, 156 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:29.639 the dignity of the body cannot be considered inferior to that of the person as 157 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:33.720 such. Okay, such a truth deserves to be remembered, especially when it 158 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:37.840 comes to sex change, for humans are inseparably composed of both bodies and soul. 159 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:44.360 In this the body serves as the living context in which the interiority of 160 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:47.799 the soul unfolds. And manifests itself, as it does also through the network 161 00:16:47.799 --> 00:16:52.519 of human relationships constituting the person's being. The soul and the body participate in 162 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:59.399 the dignity that characterizes every human. Moreover, the body participates in that dignity 163 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.160 as it is inwed with personal meanings, particularly in its sexed condition. It 164 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:07.960 is in the body that each person recognizes himself or herself as generated by others 165 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:11.359 from their parents, and it is through their bodies that men and women can 166 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:17.400 establish a loving relationship capable of generating other persons. So he's making the point 167 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:22.359 that your body is not again, not just some useless fleshy thing. It's 168 00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:29.920 your way of expressing some of the most intimate and important relationships that you have. 169 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:36.119 It's a sign of the intimate relationship of one's parents. It's a sign 170 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:45.759 of your relationship with, say, your spouse. Pope Francis affirmed creation is 171 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:48.359 prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, 172 00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:51.799 we are called to protect our humanity, and this means in the first 173 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:56.440 place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created. Any sex change 174 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:03.880 intervention as a rule risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the 175 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:07.759 moment of conception. This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with 176 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:12.759 genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that developed later may choose to 177 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:17.680 receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities. See that. That's 178 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:19.839 the argument that transgender people always make, is that, well, some people 179 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:26.119 are born with uh with, you know, ambiguous genitalia or something which is 180 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:33.359 a genetic abnormality that does happens a small percentage of the population. So the 181 00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:37.559 Pope is not saying, no, those people can't have some kind of medical 182 00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:45.880 intervention to correct whatever is abnormal or to treat whatever is abnormal. He's talking 183 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:53.160 about what has become the dominant thing, which is someone with highly unambiguous genitalia, 184 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:57.559 a person who sex is completely unambiguous, wanting to change from one sex 185 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:04.720 to another. Now, I wonder how this is going to be received. 186 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:08.839 Now, let me do just a little bit about internal Catholic Church politics. 187 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:15.839 There's this little cult. Here's the thing with internal Catholic Church politics. There's 188 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:23.759 only so much you can openly dissent and disagree with the teaching of the Catholic 189 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:30.920 Church. While still actively remaining a participant within the life of the church. 190 00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:36.359 Like, we're not like the Episcopalian Church, for example, the Episcopalians have 191 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:41.720 people with wildly different notions, you know, within the Anglican Communion and more 192 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:45.799 generally, like there are some people who are like almost Catholics basically as far 193 00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:51.960 as how they worship, and some people who are like Presbyterians practically with how 194 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:56.839 they worship. And you have people who are you know, very morally strict 195 00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:00.640 and pretty much just Catholics as far as they're moral believe. And then within 196 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:03.680 Episcopalianism there are people who are pro abortion and pro gay marriage and pro you 197 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:12.319 know, pro everything. So we don't have that wide of a swath of 198 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:18.319 differing beliefs within the Catholic Church. What we have, rather are this little 199 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:26.200 group of sort of very lefty leaning American Catholics who really all they want to 200 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:29.680 do is just vote for Democrats. But what they tend to do with LGBT 201 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:34.920 issues is dance around the church's quote official teaching, which they would love to 202 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:40.039 dissent from if they could. They call it the church's official teaching as if 203 00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:45.519 well, this is just officially what the church teaches. But really, and 204 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:49.279 I think Pope Francis has wildly disappointed them all. I mean I haven't really 205 00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:56.240 talked about that at all, but the broad conception societally is that Pope Francis 206 00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:02.960 is this big flaming liberal, and lefties within the Church always try to, 207 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:06.319 you know, waive the banner of Pope Francis as if he's their greatest champion 208 00:21:06.359 --> 00:21:08.279 and supporter. Well, here's Pope France is issuing this big, long document 209 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:15.480 talking about how sex change is completely unacceptable and it's a rejection of human nature 210 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:19.279 and human dignity and blah blah. It's right, you know, alongside war 211 00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:25.799 and poverty and abortion and euthanasia as a bunch of bad things, bad in 212 00:21:25.880 --> 00:21:30.079 different ways. That's a topic for another day, but all bad things. 213 00:21:30.920 --> 00:21:38.240 So this is a massive disappointment for the Catholic lefties who sort of are quietly 214 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:44.400 wanting the Catholic Church to change what it teaches about same sex relations, about 215 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:48.319 gay marriage, about you know, same sex relations, gay marriage, et 216 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:53.160 cetera. They're all quite disappointed by this. Now, none of those people 217 00:21:53.240 --> 00:22:00.400 have really very many positions of authority. The most authority they have is that 218 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:08.599 they heavily staff the editorial staff of certain left leaning American Catholic publications like the 219 00:22:08.680 --> 00:22:15.400 National Catholic Reporter and America Magazine and things like that, and they're heavily represented 220 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:22.160 within Catholic academia, although even Catholic academia, I think is more just conventionally 221 00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:26.640 liberal rather than catholically liberal. So kudos to Pope Francis. I think this 222 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:30.519 was a good thing, and I think this was an important thing and a 223 00:22:30.519 --> 00:22:38.839 significant thing, a needed intervention by Christianity against transgenderism, against gender ideology. 224 00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:48.920 So kudos to Pope Francis. When we return, the unbelievable stupidity of Republicans 225 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:53.279 in the House to want to try to get rid of the speaker again next 226 00:22:53.279 --> 00:23:00.960 on the John Gerardy Show. So it appears Republicans in the House Represents want 227 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:07.279 to get rid of their speaker again, Marjorie Taylor Green, who you would 228 00:23:07.319 --> 00:23:14.720 have thought Marjorie Taylor Green. Like people paint Marjorie Taylor Green as an extremist 229 00:23:14.839 --> 00:23:18.240 and a radical, and certainly she's one of the more kind of hardcore members 230 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:25.599 within the Republican caucus. But surprisingly she was not part of the group that 231 00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:33.079 got rid of Kevin McCarthy. She was not. She was actually backing McCarthy 232 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:38.960 really strongly throughout the time that he was being kicked out. So you now 233 00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:51.519 have this situation where she because she's mad at she is angry at Mike Johnson, 234 00:23:51.559 --> 00:23:53.839 the new speaker. And it is a little surprising to me how all 235 00:23:53.880 --> 00:24:00.200 of a sudden, as soon as he becomes speaker, Johnson is promoting certain 236 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:07.960 of positions that are surprising to me. He's promoting a joint Ukraine Israeli funding 237 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:14.720 package, which I had thought Johnson was sort of opposed to more Ukraine funding. 238 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:22.039 And yeah, so he's introducing Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan aid bills. 239 00:24:22.359 --> 00:24:26.960 Now, in fairness to him, he is promoting them as separate bills, 240 00:24:27.119 --> 00:24:30.519 which I think is fair. I've always thought this, this weird notion that 241 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:34.359 we have to vote on Israel and Ukraine funding as one and the same sort 242 00:24:34.359 --> 00:24:38.240 of parcel. To be silly, They're different conflicts, they're different issues involved. 243 00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:42.880 We should have separate votes. See. This is the reason why I 244 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:47.839 wouldn't ever be a member of Congress is because I would probably say no to 245 00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:53.240 both. I'm just tired of like, how come America's support for other countries 246 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:59.640 fighting wars can't just be in the realm of you go, buddy, go 247 00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:03.240 for it. Like, why does it always have to be in the realm 248 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:10.359 of giving people billions of dollars, especially with for Ukraine funding, when we 249 00:25:10.440 --> 00:25:14.400 gave them all that money and it didn't really seem to work. And I 250 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:18.319 I don't understand what the end goal is with Ukraine funding. Is it to 251 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:23.960 keep giving them military aid until literally there is not one Russian boot left on 252 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:30.839 Ukrainian soil, because that's never gonna work. Also, I'm not quite sure 253 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:36.200 what the end game is with Hamas in the Gaza strip. What's the goal? 254 00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:42.640 What's the goal there to defeat Hamas? What does that mean? Does 255 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:51.880 Hamas have a membership roster? No, Okay, like I don't that's it's 256 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:56.720 to me that almost feels like saying, you know, we're gonna defeat Republicans. 257 00:25:56.920 --> 00:26:00.240 Wait, you're gonna kill every single men member of HAMAH. I mean 258 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:07.279 Hamas is kind of a Yes, there are military fighter types in Hamas and 259 00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:11.920 then there are people who vote for Hamas among the normal citizenry. And I 260 00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:17.759 think the this was kind of a problem in Vietnam with the Viet Cong was 261 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:22.960 the the difference between who is a civilian and who is a militant was blurry, 262 00:26:23.079 --> 00:26:29.319 and with Hamas it's deliberately blurry. So what's the end goal? What's 263 00:26:29.319 --> 00:26:33.839 the end goal? Also of our military support of Israel is it seems like 264 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:37.839 Israel's got plenty of stuff. To me, I don't know. They've got 265 00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:42.279 a world class air force, They've got, you know, very powerful, 266 00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:48.039 sort of first World style army. A bunch of their citizenry is part of 267 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:52.519 the reserve for their arm They have a big reserve. Like, what are 268 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:57.720 we doing by giving them more money? That's what I don't get. I 269 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:03.559 understand wanting to be part of Israel. I understand rooting for Israel. Okay, 270 00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:07.279 I get all that. I just don't understand why we got to give 271 00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:10.359 them billions of dollars. How come we can't just say, you know, 272 00:27:10.440 --> 00:27:14.960 you go guys, as opposed to giving them, you know, tens of 273 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:19.039 billions of dollars. See. And this is why I'll never make it in 274 00:27:19.079 --> 00:27:23.119 Congress because I would say stuff like that and people would say, you hate 275 00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:26.079 Israel, you're anti Israel. Well, no, I'm not anti Israel. 276 00:27:26.160 --> 00:27:37.079 I just am anti I'm anti the United States participating in wars, participating in 277 00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:41.359 wars when we don't have to participate in them. And when you give a 278 00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:45.839 bunch of weaponry and money to a country that is actively fighting a war, 279 00:27:47.720 --> 00:28:00.119 you're involved. Sorry anyway, So Mike Johnson gets into the speakers and immediately 280 00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:11.079 just sort of becomes what it's sort of what happens to every person who becomes 281 00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:14.680 speaker. They all sort of wind up adopting the same kinds of positions. 282 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:23.440 He sort of does the same kinds of things, promoting large bills with large 283 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:27.559 amounts of spending on a lot of different topics. Because guess what, Republicans 284 00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:33.680 have a super narrow majority. They can't get individual bills focused on individual issues 285 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:37.319 past, so the Speaker winds up having to do these last minute, big 286 00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:42.920 spending packages just to keep the government afloat. And so now all the Republicans 287 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.519 are mad at him for the same reasons they were mad at Kevin McCarthy. 288 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:52.440 So now they want to oust him. Now, I'm not here to defend 289 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:57.079 every single thing Johnson has said and done. It does seem like the people 290 00:28:57.079 --> 00:29:02.039 who voted for him have gotten a slightly different kind of speaker than they expected, 291 00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:10.920 because he's sort of now pro Ukraine funding anyway. In short, he's 292 00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:15.039 seemingly not what the Republicans were sort of enthusiastically backing. He hasn't seemed to 293 00:29:15.079 --> 00:29:19.160 change much about how about the way in which the House is run from McCarthy. 294 00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:22.559 All of his positions seem to be pretty much exactly the same as McCarthy's. 295 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:33.279 So here's the problem, though, getting rid of another speaker when we 296 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:38.559 are how many months out from an election, like it's April, the elections 297 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:44.079 in November. It's got to be the stupidest freaking idea I've ever heard. 298 00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:52.359 Why would we get rid of Mike Johnson? Why who is out there that's 299 00:29:52.400 --> 00:30:00.559 gonna be better? I mean, I'm not saying he's the greatest speaker in 300 00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:07.039 the world. I've got no great attachment to him. He is not as 301 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:10.359 great as I sort of hoped he would be. I didn't want to get 302 00:30:10.440 --> 00:30:15.480 rid of McCarthy either. What are we accomplishing? Like, are we just 303 00:30:15.559 --> 00:30:21.720 gonna keep cycling through speakers of the House? Like, also, let's let's 304 00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:26.680 not forget Johnson was like the fifth choice. You know, we skipped over 305 00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:29.240 Jim Jordan. We skipped over this person, we skipped over that person. 306 00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:34.559 Finally we landed on Johnson. Do we really expect we're gonna get anybody better 307 00:30:36.559 --> 00:30:40.640 in the next seven months? Okay? And that's the thing. It's seven 308 00:30:40.680 --> 00:30:45.799 months. There's an election in November. You're gonna swear in a whole new 309 00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:51.640 Congress on January third of twenty twenty five. What are we doing? Work 310 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:56.559 within the system? You have for now? Like I so, now the 311 00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:02.720 big news is Marjorie Taylor Green had filed this I had filed this motion to 312 00:31:03.599 --> 00:31:10.960 vacate the speakership. Now Thomas Massey, a sort of long time kind of 313 00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:15.559 Rand Paul libertarian kind of member of the House, often a gadfly for Republican 314 00:31:15.640 --> 00:31:22.720 leadership, he is now supporting Marjorie Taylor Green and calling for the speakership to 315 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:27.480 be vacated. I just don't understand the whole thing. It just seems like 316 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:36.039 all we are doing is that we are going to create chaos and a distraction 317 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:40.319 on the Republican side of things in a way that's not actually gonna help. 318 00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:44.359 Look, you have some vote to bring in a new Speaker of the House. 319 00:31:44.920 --> 00:31:48.400 Look, there's no way it's going to happen smoothly, all right. 320 00:31:48.440 --> 00:31:55.400 If Johnson is saying I'm not resigning, if he's said in that position, 321 00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:59.960 then there's no way it's going to happen smoothly, all right. John Bayner, 322 00:32:00.359 --> 00:32:02.599 when he stepped down, he announced that he was going to step down 323 00:32:04.119 --> 00:32:08.920 well in advance. It allowed Republicans to pick a news speaker while he was 324 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:12.519 still serving as speaker, so there was never a gap. And that's what 325 00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:16.000 Massey is calling on Johnson to do. He wants Johnson to announce that he's 326 00:32:16.039 --> 00:32:23.839 going to resign, pending the Republicans picking a new person. And I just 327 00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:30.240 don't anticipate that happening. Johnson got elected to this thing barely, I don't 328 00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:32.920 know, just a couple of months ago. We're already going to try and 329 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:36.720 kick him out. And I said at the time that's what was going to 330 00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:39.799 happen. All the same pressures that were on McCarthy are now on Johnson. 331 00:32:40.680 --> 00:32:46.279 It's all the same stuff. So the idea that we're going to get different 332 00:32:46.279 --> 00:32:53.480 outcomes is ridiculous. And that's precisely what's happened. There is clearly something about 333 00:32:53.519 --> 00:33:01.799 the job that turns hardcore conservatives more moderate. Somehow in the eyes of these 334 00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:07.480 people. There's something about the nature of the job that just does that so 335 00:33:07.559 --> 00:33:12.799 and certainly that's going to continue to happen in a Congress that's really narrowly divided, 336 00:33:13.079 --> 00:33:16.920 like Republicans barely have like two or three seat majority in the House Representatives 337 00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:22.000 right now. They'll get some breathing room when either Vince Fong or Mike Boudreau 338 00:33:22.200 --> 00:33:29.480 are elected in May to replace Kevin McCarthy in his seat, but it's a 339 00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:35.119 super narrow majority right now. Guess what. You're not gonna have some like 340 00:33:35.319 --> 00:33:42.200 hardcore you know, pounding the desk with his fist speaker who's a real hardcore 341 00:33:42.279 --> 00:33:45.000 right winger. You need someone who everyone's willing to vote for, including the 342 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:51.559 more moderate liberal Republicans, including the more moderate liberal Republicans who mind you like 343 00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:57.440 Ukraine funding, and there are some of them. So I don't know. 344 00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:04.319 I'm I find this exercise so stupid, even if I agree with every objection 345 00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:07.679 Marjorie Taylor Green has, even if I agree with every objection that Thomas Massey 346 00:34:07.719 --> 00:34:13.880 has about how Mike Johnson has run the speakership. It's seven months, guys, 347 00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:20.000 seven months till the election. Just hang in there. Don't look Joe 348 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.360 Biden may lose this election purely on the strength of being a senile, doddering 349 00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:29.800 old man. Why do we want to give him any ammo or distract from 350 00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:36.599 his incompetence with a bunch of Republican incompetence. It's dumb. I really hope 351 00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:40.159 they don't try and get a new speaker. This is such a stupid I 352 00:34:40.199 --> 00:34:46.480 cannot believe Republicans didn't learn their lesson the first time. And I feel like 353 00:34:46.519 --> 00:34:50.880 the Democrats are going to just join right in gleefully, just like they did 354 00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:54.199 with just like they did last time. Yeah, paralyzed the Republicans in the 355 00:34:54.239 --> 00:35:00.400 House for another month? Sure, why not when we return. I finally 356 00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:06.280 have seen them in the wild the new Tesla cyber truck My thoughts next on 357 00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:12.559 the John Girardi Show. So for the first time, I actually saw a 358 00:35:12.679 --> 00:35:16.840 Tesla cyber truck in the wild. So this is the new kind of truck 359 00:35:17.480 --> 00:35:27.760 that Tesla has released. I'm not sure who it's for, Cuz, like, 360 00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:34.000 if you're an actual guy who needs a pickup truck for work because you're 361 00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:37.840 a contractor, you're a gardener, you're do landscaping, or you do this 362 00:35:38.039 --> 00:35:43.599 or you do that whatever. I mean, you're in construction or whatever it 363 00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:49.599 is that you actually need a truck for. I'm not sure why on earth 364 00:35:49.760 --> 00:35:57.000 you would get that truck. Seems like it's got a pretty large bed, 365 00:35:57.039 --> 00:36:02.920 but you have to sort of like roll down the whole window apparatus. It's 366 00:36:02.960 --> 00:36:07.960 also, I mean, I'm sure it's ludicrously more expensive than getting you know, 367 00:36:09.199 --> 00:36:14.000 a four f one fifty or whatever, which I think you can even 368 00:36:14.039 --> 00:36:20.039 get like electric four f one fifties. Now, I'm not sure who it's 369 00:36:20.199 --> 00:36:22.719 four other than people who just want to show off that they have a lot 370 00:36:22.760 --> 00:36:30.079 of money. I guess they're huge. And it's I've look, I've talked 371 00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:36.639 about Tesla a bit. Elon Musk became a billionaire by you know, government 372 00:36:36.679 --> 00:36:40.639 subsidies. Basically, these all these states we're getting out government subsidies for electric 373 00:36:40.679 --> 00:36:45.079 cars. And he sort of rode that gravy train to where he is now. 374 00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:47.360 Although now that he said like three conservative things, liberal states don't like 375 00:36:47.440 --> 00:36:52.960 him, the federal government doesn't like him. I mean, I don't really 376 00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:57.920 have anything against most Tesla cars. I think most Tesla cars look pretty cool. 377 00:36:58.679 --> 00:37:06.840 But this it's so like everything's a straight flat panel, and it just 378 00:37:07.280 --> 00:37:10.519 it's all stainless steel, so it's like it gets all SMUDGYE. The one 379 00:37:10.599 --> 00:37:15.719 I saw was driving around in Clovis. It looked like the metal was already 380 00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:20.480 kind of like dimpled or something like. It just is the ugliest looking thing. 381 00:37:20.719 --> 00:37:23.679 I I really sort of think. I mean, it's obviously going for 382 00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:28.320 this sort of like futuristic sort of look that's almost like an eighties conception of 383 00:37:28.360 --> 00:37:34.960 the future. I just think it's gonna look so dated in like thirty minutes. 384 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:43.199 Gosh, it's just the but ugliest car and it's it's huge, and 385 00:37:43.320 --> 00:37:49.760 I guess I'm just wondering, like I don't know the whole the whole electric 386 00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:53.480 car thing, the idea that California thinks we're gonna have one hundred percent of 387 00:37:53.480 --> 00:37:57.480 all new car sales in twenty thirty five, are gonna be new Are gonna 388 00:37:57.480 --> 00:38:00.960 be electric cars that are electric grids? Gonna be able to staying it highly 389 00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:07.400 doubtful? Uh. It just we're gonna run into some sort of blunt realities 390 00:38:07.400 --> 00:38:09.320 at some point with this whole thing. That'll do it for John Girardi Show, 391 00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:10.679 See you guys next time on Power Talk