Wesley Biblical Seminary trains pastors to lead churches in the future
Ed Vitagliano At Wesley Biblical Seminary, we believe God is raising up a movement across our nation and around the world who hold fast to the inerrancy of scripture and the hope of holiness. We do this through bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, certificate programs, and even training for lay people. So whatever your next step is in being equipped for ministry, we're here for you. And if you believe these are the kind of pastors we need leading churches in the future, we invite you to think about giving to Wesley Biblical Seminary. Learn more about us at WBS Edu.
Tim Wildman: Chicago getting 9 inches of snow so far
Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family association.
Tim Wildmon 24 more days to buy your Christmas gifts. Welcome everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. I'm Tim Wildmon with Ed Battagliano. Did you know this, Ed?
Ed Vitagliano I did. And it's 24 more days to have Christmas gifts. Gifts bought for me, for any of my family members who are that, who are spirited.
Tim Wildmon That's a spirit. Good morning, Fred Jackson.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you.
Tim Wildmon December, first, 2025, that's today. So we got 24 more days until Christmas Day. And, it looks like me, Fred, it's gonna be a pretty cold, bitter winter. if early indications are here, it's.
Fred Jackson Been ugly the last several days. Chicago got 9 inches of snow so far.
Ed Vitagliano That'll teach them.
Tim Wildmon And talk about carjackings are way down.
Fred Jackson And there's more to come in Chicago. And then it's going to be down around plus one, plus two degrees. If you don't have to go to Chicago, don't, the flight cancellations are just, and cancellations and delays. And now up in the northeast, NewSong York, Boston, they're about to be hit with this bad weather too. And if you live further south, you're getting ice. It's just really ugly.
Tim Wildmon Well, I'm hoping this will build momentum for my movement to pass legislation to ban winter. I've had. This has been a big campaign issue that I've looked for somebody to latch on to.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And, and, well, Congress is all about getting things done, Tim. I mean, I think you got it. You get the ball in the right court.
Tim Wildmon It just seems to me like this ought to be a nonpartisan issue. I mean, taking, you know, banning, extreme cold weather. I was watching the, Of course, everybody knows I'm a college football fan. I do enjoy watching Saturdays. And I was watching some, of the games from the, from the north, the Midwest, and, the Ohio State, Michigan game, the snow started.
Ed Vitagliano Snow. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And then Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Ed Vitagliano I, do like watching snow during a football.
Tim Wildmon Football game is fine, isn't it? Watching them slip sliding.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Watching guys slip sliding all over.
Ed Vitagliano But we can't even get Congress to get rid of Daylight Savings time. How they. How are they going to.
Tim Wildmon But a winter. Yeah, I know, I know. But, anyway, it is a, It is a early, storm system that's, taking a third of the country being affected, maybe in terms of snow and ice.
Fred Jackson Having lived in the North. Yeah, it is. You. You're prepared for winter. What gets discouraging is when it starts so early.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson Because you know it's going to stretch for. You got another six months ahead of you in this stuff.
Tim Wildmon Hey, we're going to talk to Ray, Pritchard on tomorrow, okay? Ray Pritchard.
Fred Jackson Uh-huh.
Tim Wildmon You know what Ray did?
Ed Vitagliano Yes, I do.
Fred Jackson He dealt with winter this way.
Ed Vitagliano We mocked him last week when he was on. Okay, so he snowbirded.
Tim Wildmon He moved from. Just for the season, I think six months. He's going to be in Florida right down the Tampa area. And let's see what Ray's enjoying today, shall we?
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon Let's have a live look in at Tampa, Florida weather, ladies and gentlemen. Tim, will type that in my Weather Channel app and see what we're dealing with in Tampa, as they brace themselves for another.
Go ahead and tell our listeners what the chance of rain is
Okay. In Tampa, Florida. Right now it's 76, partly cloudy now, currently. Look at that. Tell me that's fair.
Ed Vitagliano 76.
Tim Wildmon 76.
Ed Vitagliano Chance of rain. Go ahead and tell our listeners what the chance of rain is.
Tim Wildmon zero percent. Florida does get a lot of rain. Now, if our brother Ray was back home where he was, where he's supposed to be, suffering for the Lord in Kansas City, Mo. Yeah, actually, he's on the Kansas side. It's 23.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Wow.
Fred Jackson 23. 76.
Tim Wildmon No wonder he moves. No wonder he moves for the winter. No wonder people become snowbirds.
Ed Vitagliano I used to mock snowbirds when I was growing up, living up in NewSong England. We'd mock the people we knew who would go down to Florida for the winter.
Tim Wildmon Little weenies.
Ed Vitagliano Little weenies. And now I'm just going, man, I should shut my mouth.
Tim Wildmon Now I know what they were doing.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely.
When does the Advent calendar begin for American Family Radio? 2025
Tim Wildmon All right, well, anyway, winter is here, and as I said, Christmas is just 24 days away. when does the, You gentlemen may or may not know this, when does the Advent, Calendar begin for, you know, is. Do you know this one does.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I'll check.
Tim Wildmon you know what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon For the, the Advent calendar.
Ed Vitagliano When does Advent start? 2025. Oh, it started yesterday.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano This date marks the first Sunday of Advent, which is the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day and is determined by the liturgical calendar. Season lasts for four weeks, concluding on Christmas Eve, December 24th.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, this is a, you know, a big, a big celebration for Christians around the world.
Fred Jackson Right.
Tim Wildmon Coming up, the birth of Jesus Christ. And, it's going to be, we're going to be doing our part here at American Family Radio to lead up to that, special day.
Ed Vitagliano When I was getting ready this morning, I was listening to Christmas music.
Tim Wildmon Oh, were you?
Ed Vitagliano I told my wife I had to go in, get some water or something and I said, I hope you like Christmas music. So, because you're about to get an earful for 30 days or whatever, the.
Tim Wildmon Number of days, actually sometimes in June or July, I'll punch in some Christmas music.
Ed Vitagliano Ain't nothing wrong with that, huh?
Tim Wildmon Well, Hallmark, does it?
Ed Vitagliano Yes, as does Cracker Barrel.
Tim Wildmon They hit Cracker Barrel.
Ed Vitagliano Cracker Barrel starts Hobby Lobby.
Tim Wildmon Hobby Lobby. They start their, Christmas, sales in, in August. so, yeah, we, we're looking forward to Christmas. All right, Fred, bring us down with some. I've talked about the beautiful celebration around the Christmas time and Fred's gonna bring us back to human nature here.
Fred Jackson Let me transition.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Software on Airbus 320s affected by solar flares caused flight cancellations
Fred Jackson All right. One more thing. Not so much weather related, but added to the problems of all the cancellations. You guys heard about this?
Tim Wildmon The flight cancellations?
Fred Jackson Yeah, well, the Airbus 320 groundings.
Tim Wildmon Have you guys. I read about that. Tell us about it.
Fred Jackson Well, apparently, there is a piece of software on these Airbus 320s that was affected by solar flares and it jig things up and they had to go in and make corrections. Now There are about 6,000 of these Airbus 320s across the system. Most of the major airlines in the United states fly the 320s. So they had to ground them, because it would have an impact, what it did to the software system. It would have an impact on perhaps a descent would begin when it wasn't called for by the pilots.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow.
Fred Jackson So, Chris, these things are wired to the teeth now, all these airplanes, computers and everything. But they were able to, the engineers, were able to fix it fairly quickly. But I've never heard of this before, a solar flare causing a problem with the software on an airplane.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I knew that. I had read about the unusual solar flare activity. I say unusual in terms of magnitude or whatever.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon And break it down for us.
Ed Vitagliano Well, on social media, of course, there were all kinds of people predicting everything from the end of the world to the collapse of, the grid or whatever. It was nothing quite that dramatic. But so this. Now were these planes that were in the air when the solar flare occurred or when the radiation.
Fred Jackson Some of them hit us. Some of them were. And others. Now they weren't all affected the same way. Somebody was telling me there was at least one incident where there was an uncalled for descent. Now it wasn't radical.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson but nonetheless, as a pilot, that would scare you? Oh yeah, you know, that you weren't calling for something and so anyway, the engineers, the Airbus engineers have been able to apparently for the most part fix all of this. they kept the planes on the ground until they were sure it was fixed. It's just amazing. These engineers, deserve a lot of credit. They know how to, you know, go in and scope the problem and get it fixed, but. Pretty scary when a solar flare can cause that kind of problem.
Ed Vitagliano Well, and to answer Tim's earlier question about what a solar flare is, I think most of us know it's a relative.
Tim Wildmon Break it down for us. Can you break it?
Ed Vitagliano It's a relatively intense local, emission.
Ed Vitagliano Of electromagnetic radiation in the sun's.
Tim Wildmon You can read?
Ed Vitagliano I can. And it can last from minutes to hours.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, there you have it. Yeah. Well, all right, so, that, but that was a. At the Airbus comp.
Fred Jackson That's 320.
Tim Wildmon That is that different. Airbus and Boeing are different. Are the two different companies and, but they're the two largest manufacturers of
Fred Jackson Yeah, Airbus.
Tim Wildmon Of jets, commercial jets.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Airbus is European based, but they have a big, assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.
Ed Vitagliano Oh yeah, Good.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Make America great again.
Tim Wildmon I go through Mobile a lot. I don't know where is that.
Fred Jackson Yeah. and I don't think you can see it from the interstate.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson Yeah, but my, I have family members down on the south Alabama area and they have neighbors who work, they're from Europe and they're working at the Airbus plant there.
Tim Wildmon Okay, didn't know that.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Two West Virginia National Guardsmen were shot last Wednesday; one has died
Tim Wildmon All right, next story.
Fred Jackson Well, we, we had the tragedy, last Wednesday of the shooting of these, West Virginia National Guard, two soldiers. One, has passed away, another one is in critical condition. And the, the person who allegedly, did the shooting he was hit by gunfire. He is being treated in hospital in Washington, D.C. his name is Raman Ulla, Lock and wall Afghan refugee who is living in Bellingham, Washington, and apparently drove all the way to Washington, D.C. to allegedly carry out this deed. So the finger pointing, has begun as to how could this guy who did this deed, allegedly, who approved him to come to this country. Here's what we know is that he was helping the CIA in Afghanistan. He was one of those that came out of after that debacle of a withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was approved initially by the Biden administration, but, however, his final asylum approval came in 2023. All right, so national, Security Advisor Kristi, Noem, says this guy, he was right. She is saying he was radicalized here in the United States. Cut number one, I will say we.
Ed Vitagliano Believe he was radicalized since he's been here in this country. We do believe it was through connections in his home, community, and state. And we're going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members, talked to them. So far, we've had some participation. But, anyone who has information on.
Speaker D This needs to know that we will.
Ed Vitagliano Be coming after you.
Fred Jackson Also, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was interviewed about this this morning, and he says the Biden administration was just simp 2 lakhs on vetting these Afghan partners coming into this country.
Speaker D Cut to, I think clearly vetting standards for every person who's been admitted in the country, especially from countries of concern like Afghanistan need to be revisited. When our military and our CIA goes around the world, they work with unsavory, characters. It's a necessary part of the job, and they engage in some vetting of those characters. but that's very different from the standards that we would apply to vet someone to come to this country, to live in our communities, to have a family, and to ultimately become American citizens. And that's what the Biden administration got so wrong.
Fred Jackson Now, ah, the allegation is, is that the Biden administration basically rubber stamped all these guys coming in from Afghanistan back in 2021. That's the allegation.
Tim Wildmon do you want to comment? Well, I'll meet to.
Ed Vitagliano Well, you can. Doesn't matter. I know what I'm going to say. It can wait.
Tim Wildmon okay, so that means me.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, go for it.
Tim Wildmon Well, okay, I'm reacting. I haven't thought a lot about this, but just. I don't. I don't like that immediately after something like this happens, we make it political. Okay. It's, Biden's fault. Well, if this fellow worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, then he deserved to come to America because otherwise he'd have been killed by the Taliban. Okay? So I don't have a problem on, that information alone. That's it. That's all I'm going on. He worked with the CIA to help our troops in Afghanistan. Then he would be at the top of the list on who we bring to the U.S. okay, so if that's the vetting process, did he help us, then, I'm okay with him coming to the US So I don't blame Biden or the Biden administration for what this guy did. This guy evidently lost his mind, all right? And may have been some kind of religious, Because Muslims do that from time to time, okay? That's their history. They. I say that's how we would define it. Lose their mind. They would say, no, I'm just acting out on. On killing the infidel. And so Allah's happy with me. That's why they. That's why they yell Allah Akbar. God is great. While they're committing these acts of. Of, murder, for example, in this case, attempted murder. And he did murder one, and the other one may die, sadly, these, National Guardsmen. So I only hold him responsible. The guy, the shooter. I don't hold Biden responsible. Now, you may have a case next week where you show me. Well, the Biden administration was lax in their betting process, and this guy committed some kind of criminal, actions. so I just don't like. Yeah, did, We.
Tim Noah: Should we have been in Afghanistan after getting bin Laden
We all saw. Was it a debacle over there? Our withdrawal in Afghanistan? Remember those people climbing on top of the airplane?
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon And all that. They were scared to death, those people. Now we can't bring them all over here because they. They're scared of living under the Taliban. Who wouldn't be if you had been protected by American soldiers all these years? Which. That's a whole separate argument. Should we have even been over in Afghanistan all those years? For what purpose and what reason were we really over there after we were able to get bin Laden? Which is why we went over there in the first place. Why not?
Ed Vitagliano Well, also to deal with the Taliban because they were allowing Al Qaeda to train over there.
Tim Wildmon That's true. Anyway, those are my. That's my feelings on this whole matter. Go ahead.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I agree with you. Yeah. And here's the thing. The Biden administration was actually criticized for not bringing enough of these people over to the u. S. After we started pulling out. Remember all these people that work with the CIA, many of whom probably were executed because the biden administration's withdrawal was a disaster and we left stranded over there people who worked with us. Now, I'm. I'm just like you, tim. I mean, you. You've got to vet these people. You don't want to. You don't fox coming in with the chickens.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano You know, but, this individual was apparently, according to christy noem, radicalized once he got here. So I don't know what proper vetting would have looked like. If he's pro American when he's in Afghanistan.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano We bring him over here, and then he turns against us. I'm not sure you can blame the biden administration for that. The biden administration did a lot of bad things.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano And not vetting people and just letting people across the border. We have people on the terror watch list coming across. So there's plenty to blame the biden administration for. But I'm with you. lock and wall, or however you pronounce it. He's, responsible for what he did.
Tim Wildmon Did this guy. Did he fly across? He was in. He was in bellingham, Washington. Living.
Fred Jackson My understanding is he drove.
Ed Vitagliano He drove. That's.
Tim Wildmon He drove 3,000 miles to do this, right? That's alleged. yeah. I mean, alleged. Yeah. so, that's. That's a long way to think about what you're about to do.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon And why you're.
Fred Jackson You don't know, and you don't think of bellingham, Washington has being a large community, whether afghans or a large islamic community. It wasn't when I lived on the way. That was just about 30 miles south where I lived. so something has happened in bellingham in the last 25 years. But I tell you, the other thing that's looking at right now is when you have large communities of Islamic, immigrants. You look at what's happening in Minneapolis right now with somalis, with the charges being laid with regards to all kinds of fraudulent activity. there's controversies coming out of dearborn, Michigan. you know, controversy over the loudspeakers, calls to prayer and all this sort of thing. I think that's being looked at now more carefully. And it's the same thing in europe. Europe is very concerned because there's. They're not assimilating into the culture. So I think this incident is going to generate another investigation as to what happens when you get these. You know, there's controversy in Texas because a group of Islamic people want to start their own community and there's concern about Sharia law being implemented.
Tim Wildmon The religion of Islam, those who are, I'm not talking about your, your, what do you call them? Nominal Muslims by culture, you know what I'm saying? Like we have nominal Christians, you know, they're Sunday, your Easter Christmas Christians we call them. I'm not talking about those people. That's the kind of people you want for Muslims. For Muslims, yeah, yeah. You don't want, you don't want them with, you know, sold out. Because Islam is incompatible with Western, civilization, with democracy, with the values of the Judeo Christian, system of way of life, put it that way. Islam is, that's the reason again you have to distinguish between the.
Ed Vitagliano Peaceful,
Tim Wildmon Muslims. And there are, that's the majority of them. But these, what we call radicalized, those really are the true adherents. they're the ones who get on their mats and pray five times a day and kneel toward Mecca and Medina or wherever. Mecca I think is where they, because this is what happened to this guy. That's what we call radicalized.
Tim Goodman: Muslims are generally peaceful as long as they're in a minority
Where they view the infidel as the enemy of Allah and it's their job to dismantle, to take out, to kill in some cases the infidel. And that pleases Allah. And that's undeniable in the Islamic religion. Look what's happening in Nigeria for example. Right now you have these Muslim terrorists and they're slaughtering the Christians. Why are they slaughtering the Christians? Christians aren't bothering them really. It's because they view this as their to prove their dedication to Allah so they can have an afterlife of paradise.
Ed Vitagliano is that a fair and the only way, as a Muslim, the only way you're guaranteed, an eternity, in heaven or paradise. The only way you're guaranteed is to die while doing jihad is to be a martyr. Okay? Otherwise you have to hope you were good enough, a good enough Muslim. So that drives people, especially young men, to consider going all the way.
Tim Wildmon That's why we had 9 11.
Ed Vitagliano That's why we had 9 11. that this is why my understanding is some of these so called martyrs for Islam, when they die taking infidels with them, they often spend the evening or the week before sinning because they believe that one act of dying as a martyr gets them in to into paradise. Listen, I just say two of the things because I agree with what you guys are saying. The size of the community, anymore. Fred, I'm not sure it matters if you have one fire breathing imam in that community who is getting them all hepped up and fired up to do the proper devout Muslim thing. And I would also add that Muslims. What you were saying, Tim. But Muslims are generally peaceful as long as they're in a minority. Once they start building up numbers. I'm not saying they have to be a majority, but once their numbers grow, then they do things like what was it, was it in Europe somewhere where they interrupted the, maybe Belgium where they interrupted the Christmas celebration with smoke bombs and everything like that. They started, shouting. They're doing their chanting. So once their numbers grow significantly, and we have several places, places in the US where this is true, man, it's Katy, bar the door. Then. Yeah, they're telling Christians at city council meetings you're not welcome here.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And they got trouble in Europe. look, now, and in the coming years, some have said Europe has fallen, in terms of, to the, because of the vast immigration of Muslims into European countries. I don't know whether that'll, you know, take, that'll really transpire or not, but it's a very, dangerous situation there in Europe. We'll be back momentarily. Stay with us.
Preborn network clinics help women choose life through a fruit free ultrasound
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Tim Wildmon This is today's issues.
Ed Vitagliano Email your comments to commentsafr.net Past broadcasts of today's issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of today's Issues.
Today's Issues comes from Ed and Fred on the American Family Radio Network
Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to the program Today's Issues. I'm Tim with Ed and Fred. Today's December 1st and we, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration and looking forward to Christmas. speaking of which, guys, and I know you go back to the break room during the. During our three minute break right there. Fred usually stays in here and holds down the fort.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon I go back with you to get a refill of coffee.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Which, by the way, is shown to make you live longer. Did you know this?
Ed Vitagliano I didn't.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, four cups. I think they said three, two. Three cups. Something like that a day. If you believe the surveys and the, research.
Ed Vitagliano I don't.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, that's.
Ed Vitagliano I don't like coffee.
Tim Wildmon You know, denial is just not a river in Egypt. No.
Did you notice the sweets that they put out there in December
anyway, but what I want to say is it has begun in the break room as it does every December. Did you notice the sweets that they put out there in front of us?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, no, I did not look. Yeah, no, it gets bad at the.
Tim Wildmon Top of the hour during the news break.
Ed Vitagliano Look, I will.
Tim Wildmon Because. What do you call people who tempt other people in the Christian world?
Ed Vitagliano is it maybe Satan?
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, then we've got food Satan back there. And they got all these sweets out hoping that we'll all pack on about £10. It can't fit in the. Can't fit in our pants in January. That's what's happening.
Ed Vitagliano And we do what's called healthy you here all year round until November. At middle of November, we encourage people to be, healthy to eat, you know, eat, eat. Right. And then from the Thanksgiving week. But really like you said at Christmas. And I think a good portion, like.
Tim Wildmon Catholics at Mardi Gras.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon Right here. Don't we?
Fred Jackson Don't we?
Ed Vitagliano Yes. Well, what's more insidious is that I think some of these sweets and things that appear are people dumping their stuff here so they don't eat it at home, causing others to stumble.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, there's just a hope. There's a three, three little area. Three little. Somebody brought them here. Eat them.
Fred Jackson Yeah. A, word of warning. Do not have your healthy you in December 15th.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson Because your triglycerides will just be right off the chart.
Tim Wildmon I know mine's in January, but I glanced over there. I did. I glanced over there and there was those chocolate covered Pretzels. Oh, man, they're 20ft away. 20ft away. And I wanted to get three of them, but I didn't have time to eat them, so that's. That's saved me.
Ed Vitagliano Never stopped you before.
Tim Wildmon I know, but I had to get back to the microphone here, so. Yeah, but I still got the five minute news break coming up the top of the hour.
Ed Vitagliano And plus, we have popcorn back there.
Tim Wildmon Well, popcorn doesn't hurt you, I don't think.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, it doesn't?
Tim Wildmon I don't think that puts weight on you.
Ed Vitagliano All right.
Fred Jackson Yeah, I. I suppose the air. We've been eating diet pumpkin pieces.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, diet.
Fred Jackson No, I'm kidding.
Ed Vitagliano Well, you know, I. Maybe you're using Splenda or something.
Fred Jackson Costco. There was a news story in the last few days. Costco made six million pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.
Tim Wildmon Six million.
Fred Jackson I know. Sam sells them, too.
Ed Vitagliano Are those big? Let me just ask you, is pumpkin pie. When I grew up, pumpkin pie up in NewSong England was huge. Okay. Is it. Is it big down here in the South?
Tim Wildmon It's.
Fred Jackson Well, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano All right. I didn't know that.
Fred Jackson Six million of them and it's a lost leader.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson Six bucks for a big pumpkin pie.
Ed Vitagliano Just to get you in store.
Fred Jackson Oh, yeah.
Tim Wildmon as a Southerner lifelong, I could tell you any kind of pie, any kind of pie.
Ed Vitagliano Sweet potato pies that will be devoured.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, sweet potato pie, apple pie, peach pie. that's my favorite.
Ed Vitagliano Y' all don't have custard pie down here though, do you?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but, Yeah, but I don't see it much. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You like custard pie?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I did, growing up. I like.
Dunkin Donuts is a New England brand from the Boston area
You're talking about whatever my grandparents brought when they came to visit. Dunkin Donuts. I've said this before. Dunkin Donuts is a NewSong England brand from the Boston area. That's where it started before, when, you know, regional. The national mystery. My grandparents on my dad's side. So my. Well, you know, my dad's grandparents, they. When they would come to visit across the state line, International NewSong Hampshire, they, before they came, they'd always stop at Dunkin Donuts and they'd bring pies. And I remember when doughnut holes were first a thing, because that was, That blew my mind.
Tim Wildmon You mean Dunkin Donut sells pies?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, yeah. Well, they had pies. the Dunkin Donuts. No, they had the donuts, but they would stop at Dunkin Donuts, bring donuts, and they stopped at a place that wasn't enough.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, Sweets. They wanted to make sure.
Ed Vitagliano That's right.
Tim Wildmon Okay, we'll end this discussion right here, but I'll just tell you. Have you already got me thinking the peach pie and the apple pie, hot, with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream on top that melts. That'll make you cry.
Ed Vitagliano I'm just going to say I don't know whether this is considered a terrible thing. Yeah, I prefer apple pie cold.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, with. Okay.
Fred Jackson Yeah, but.
Tim Wildmon But a hot apple pie with some vanilla ice cream on top. Vanilla bean.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, no, that's good.
Tim Zelinsky: Negotiations are continuing between Russia and Ukraine
Tim Wildmon All right, Fred, back to the, back to the world of depressing news. We go back to the news desk.
Ed Vitagliano And you're holding on by your fingertips, Tim, trying to stay with the good.
Tim Wildmon That's why we're here. Go ahead, Fred. What's next?
Fred Jackson All right, while the rest of us were eating turkey and pumpkin pie, negotiations are continuing, with our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, trying to bring an end to this, Russia, Ukraine, war. actually, on the weekend, Marco Rubio invited a delegation of Ukrainian, officials down to Florida, and they met there. we have a little bit for Marco Rubio here. Cut 10.
Tim Wildmon We had another very productive session, building off Geneva, building off the events of this week. As I told you earlier this morning, our goal here is to end the war. But it's more than just to end the war. We don't just want to end the war. We also want to help Ukraine be safe forever so never again will they face another invasion. And equally importantly, we want them to enter an age of true prosperity.
Fred Jackson And President Trump says a deal is possible, but it's tricky. Cut number nine.
Ed Vitagliano I've spoken to them, and they're doing well. Ukraine's got some, difficult little problems. Have some difficult problems, but, I think Russia would like to see it ended. I think Ukraine. I know Ukraine would like to see it. I think that, there's a good chance we can make a deal now. The little.
Fred Jackson Go ahead.
Tim Wildmon God bless President Trump. I know he wants to end the war, but I don't. I don't know what to believe by what he says anymore, because he changes every week on his predictions and his, analysis and what this side needs to do, what that side needs to do. Maybe Marco Rubio is a more authoritative voice right now on this. And President Trump, so that. That. Is that fair?
Ed Vitagliano I think I just toss this in. I think President Trump, he does say that. He has said this a number of times that I think we're Close to a deal. I think President Trump says that because in his mind this is a fair deal. but that isn't always what Putin or Zelinsky want. And so I think that's part of the frustration.
Tim Wildmon He acts as if he's speaking for them after having negotiated something and it turns out that's not true.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, go ahead, Fred.
Donald Trump is pushing Ukraine to give up territory in eastern Ukraine
Fred Jackson Well, and I think where we are right now is there's a lot of pressure on, Ukraine from the United States to accept to a certain extent giving up, some big chunk of territory in the eastern part of the Ukraine, because I don't think Putin's going to move off that at all. But I think what Trump is trying to do, what I understand from what I've read, is tell Ukraine, look, if you give up that chunk of land in the east, we will come in and enhance your economy. the Ukrainian economy will be strong again. And I think there is an element we will work to ensure your security. The question is, is Ukraine ready to accept that promise of security, that Putin won't try the same thing again a few years from now? That's where it seems to be.
Ed Vitagliano And my understanding is that area, I think they call it the Donbas, that it's got a lot of minerals, and also. So there's a lot of mineral wealth there, but also it's part, a significant part of the, wheat producing agricultural sector of Ukraine. There's other places in Ukraine that produce all that. But that Donbas region is, would be hard for Ukraine to lose. Which is why, to your point, Fred, that what Marco Rubio and others are trying to encourage Ukraine to do is we will help you make the rest of Ukraine, a, a wealth producer.
Tim Wildmon Right. What I'm more concerned about this Ukrainian Russia war may be going on two years from now. I mean, we don't, we don't, we don't know. It doesn't look to me like it's going to end anytime soon, especially with the Ukrainians. I mean they just bombed the heck out of the Russian, oil facilities over there. Some that's going to cause oil prices to go up in the region south anyway. It sounds like to me the Ukrainians are like we're going to go down in a blaze of glory.
Ed Vitagliano But, well, but the Russians are still attacking too. They're still attacking Kyiv.
Tim Wildmon Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't mean to suggest that the Ukrainians were wrong in their retaliation. I'm just saying, the Ukrainians are not, backing down either. They're, fighting.
Tom Cotton of Arkansas says Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro needs to go
But what's more concerning to, I think a lot of Americans is what's going to happen with Venezuela and what that means. Because you're talking about a country in our hemisphere, right?
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Isn't that true at the, northern part of South America?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So, because now we have the president, states Trump telling Maduro, the president, put that in quotations. He's the dictator really, Venezuela and has wrecked that country.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon and he's telling him he's got to go. Regime change is what Trump's apparently.
Fred Jackson I'm not sure, but apparently Trump dialed up Maduro last. They actually had a telephone conversation. Trump has confirmed the conversation, but he doesn't want to talk about it.
Tim Wildmon Cut.
Fred Jackson number eight, the NewSong York Times.
Ed Vitagliano Reported that you had a phone call with Maduro.
Tim Wildmon Did you?
Ed Vitagliano I don't want to comment on it. The answer is yes.
Speaker E And can you tell us a little bit?
Ed Vitagliano No, I can't do that, Mr. President. Did you say it went well? I would say it went well or badly.
Fred Jackson It was a phone call. Now, the report is, is that, ah, Trump, the Trump administration is offering Maduro and his family safe passage out of there, out of Venezuela. regardless, I think most people believe, and Senator, Tom Cotton of Arkansas is one of those people, he says Maduro has to go. Cut. Number seven.
Speaker D As long as Nicolas, Maduro is in power in Venezuela, you're going to continue to see the risk, not only of violence in Latin America, but the drugs that I've heard so much about from Arkansas sheriffs and police chiefs that are threatening our communities and that are killing our kids. Nicolas Maduro needs to go. That's what President Trump has made clear. I think that's probably what he told to him, told him last week on the phone. I'm sure that the Cuban intelligence services in Venezuela and Russian generals are urging him to stay. But if he knows what's good for him, like so many other Latin American strongmen over the years, I think that it's time for him to go.
Tim Wildmon Are we going to take him out?
Ed Vitagliano I don't. I think Trump's trying to avoid that. I don't think Maduro is one of those kinds of guys who's going to, you know, stay to the bitter end. Listen, this is a gamble for President Trump, okay? And I'll tell you why. If, if they can get rid of Maduro fairly painlessly, not have to attack Venezuela, certainly don't want a lot of boots on the ground. With minimal destruction. If Maduro will leave and Venezuela can have free and open elections finally, and they can vote and get rid of the Communists, which is what I think the Venezuelan people want, then it's a win for President Trump. If we wind up in some sort of protracted conflict and Venezuela lucks out and sinks a ship or something like that, ah, then I think President Trump is going to get in more trouble with his base because he promised not to get, not to have America involved in foreign wars. And if it looks like we're stuck in another foreign war, the American people who voted for Trump increasingly frustrated at the fact that the economy is not doing better. They're going to say, what do we care about Venezuela? You should be fixing prices in the US rightly, fairly or not. I think that's the risk.
Tim Wildmon Let me ask you this, Fred and Ed, Senator Cotton there from Arkansas, who have a lot of respect for. He's, he's making the argument that, drugs, illegal drugs coming from Venezuela are a legitimate reason to remove Maduro. Right?
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Is that his proper last name?
Fred Jackson Maduro, yes.
Tim Wildmon Maduro. You buy that?
Ed Vitagliano That it, that it's the primary or reason?
Tim Wildmon That, that, that. No, that. That alone would be the reason.
Ed Vitagliano No, no.
Tim Wildmon I don't know. I don't know if that would be a fair characterization of what Senator Cotton would say himself. I'm just going on the clip. He said, he said, maybe he said destabilization in the region, but he said, talking to Arkansas sheriffs and so forth, that drugs coming from Venezuela are a real problem.
Ed Vitagliano It's. That's part of it.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano I think there's a number of other things. Maduro is a bad guy. Okay, let me. I don't think.
Tim Wildmon Is he a threat to the U.S.
Ed Vitagliano I, I don't, I don't think anybody, except maybe China or Russia with nukes are a threat to the stability of the United States. I think we got our own problems. We're doing that to ourselves. But, Maduro is an enemy of the United States. I think he loves helping to flood the United States with drugs. I think he probably is a sponsor of instability in the region, but he also cozies up to Russia and China. And I think part of what the military is telling Trump is we can get rid of Maduro because China and Russia are becoming, entrenched in South America via, ah, Venezuela.
Tim Wildmon But you're saying that doesn't, that's not going to work with the America first, constituency of President Trump, in terms Of.
Ed Vitagliano Not if we're there for three months. Not if we're there in a battle, you know, if, if we have Marines going door to door, you know, in, in Venezuela somewhere, you know.
Tim Wildmon Fighting like we chased down Gaddafi.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I don't, I don't think that's going to go over well. This has to be. If we're going to do it, it has to be quick. I like the idea of promising Maduro. Look, we'll give you safe passage. Go anywhere you want with all the money you've stolen.
Tim Wildmon Exile.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. You're exiled. And I didn't mean to hog the time. Fred, what do you think?
Fred Jackson Well, there's another factor.
Florida congresswoman says Maduro has to go because of Venezuela's oil
There's a Florida Republican congresswoman last week who, in saying Maduro has to go not only because of the drugs, but also, the oil. the oil, Venezuela is right up there with Saudi Arabia when it comes with oil. If the United States was able to extract Maduro from the conversation, Fox, News does a lot of interviews with the opposition leader in exile. Right now she's in hiding because she's scared to death her life is in danger with Maduro. But if they put her in place, that would mean she would be a strong ally of the United States and would also push out Russia and China out of that influence. So I think oil is part of the equation here.
Ed Vitagliano That's a good point. And President Trump has said that as well.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon All right, you're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed and Fred. So we'll see what happens in the coming days, with respect to Venezuela. Next story. Fred?
Tennessee is holding a special election for a congressional seat
Fred Jackson Well, we all know that next year's midterm elections, but it is election eve right now in Tennessee, and it's. Normally these elections wouldn't draw a lot of attention, but, boy, this one is.
Tim Wildmon Is a special election.
Fred Jackson It's a special election for a congressional seat that has been held strongly by Republicans. And one of the reasons it's, getting a lot of attention is the Democrat. The polling is kind of showing that it's neck, and neck right now. The woman who is on the ballot for the Democrats, her name is Afton Ben. Now, you may have heard some of the stories in the past. She has said she hates Nashville, she doesn't like country music. She's also talked about, defunding police. So she was asked about all this, believe it or not, on cnn. Let's see how that interview went. Cut five.
A video surfaced of Nikki Haley saying she hates Nashville
Ed Vitagliano I want to ask you about an attack line From Republicans, because this has been. This is a comment you made in 2020 about Nashville. It's gotten a lot of attention in your race. Let's listen to this.
Speaker E I hate the city. I hate the Bachelorettes. I hate the pedal taverns. I hate country music. I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently, and its city to the rest of the country, but I hate it.
Ed Vitagliano I know you said those comments were taken out of context, but I want you to. I want to ask you about it because I'm wondering, do you think it was a mistake to say that, once.
Speaker E Again, I was a private citizen? Nashville is my home. Do I roll my eyes at the bachelorette parties and the pedal taverns that are blocking my access to, ah, my house? Yeah, every Nashville does. But, this race has always been something about something bigger. It's about families across middle Tennessee that are getting crushed by rising prices, while Washington politicians and billionaires argue about this type of nonsense. And so once again, I've been steadfast and dogged in my message about addressing the affordability crisis in Tennessee. and like I said, the race is close because that is what I've been doing.
Ed Vitagliano That's a good answer. Yeah, that.
Tim Wildmon That.
Ed Vitagliano That's a good answer because, it's a good sidestep, and I'm sure she's got.
Tim Wildmon It's a good. It's a good answer. Not answer. Is that what you're saying?
Ed Vitagliano Well, it's.
Tim Wildmon It's.
Ed Vitagliano It's. I'm sure she had consultants when. When this video surfaced of her saying all the stuff she hates about Nashville. I'm sure she got with her little group and they said, hey, this is what you need to say. You. The first thing you do is, Is you. You make a little light of it a little bit. Yeah. you know, who likes the traffic, who likes this? But then you appeal to some of the frustrations of other people in Nashville. I don't like them blocking my road. That kind of thing. And now you've disarmed it, you've defused it. Let me put it that way. And now. And. But that second part, when she says, this is what the election is about, this is what we're going to hear from now to the midterms.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Ed Vitagliano Is the American, family and the kitchen table that. That they're being crushed by economic pressures. They can't get their head above water. President Trump promised. Republicans promised this. And they promised what? Well, they promised, lower prices, lower food prices. The expectation was. And I'm not blaming anyone. I'm just saying you don't get elected in January and automatically cause prices to drop, grocery prices, for example. But gasoline prices have been dropping steadily, and I think the expectation was and is that that will contribute to a lowering of prices because it doesn't cost as much to ship, products to stores. I'm not sure. But the grocery stores aren't holding on to every cent they can themselves by keeping prices elevated. Maybe a little bit of price gouging, taking advantage of how high prices were when Covid started. Now here, five years, almost six years later. But that, what she just said, that's a winning message, especially among young voters.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano In this country. And when, when it's hard for you to buy a home, rent a home, get a job. I've seen stories all over the media, all over the weekend. Young people right out of college. I can't get a job. They're going to look to the party in power and the party represented by whoever's in the White House, which is why usually the party in power loses seats during the midterms. All the promises you made to get elected, you better bring them to pass or the frustration is taken out on you in the midterm.
Fred Jackson It was very interesting, to your comments, Ed. Nikki Haley's son was interviewed on Fox this morning. He looks about in his 20s, and he says the Republican Party is not listening to people his age, the Gen Z. And, he says they are the ones that can't buy houses. you know, they're coming out of college, they can't find jobs. Now, he is not an advocate for socialism, but he says the socialism message is selling well with that demographic, Those in their 20s, 30s, that sort of thing. It was very, very interesting interview. Steve is going to do a story using, his interview this morning on Fox, but it was, it was fascinating. He is not a liberal, but he is saying the Republican Party is not listening to that constituency and that is going to cause them problems. And I tell you what, if the Democrats win this seat, in, in Tennessee tomorrow, deep red, Deep red seat. Now, Nashville is changing, too.
Ed Vitagliano That's true.
Fred Jackson That's another part of the political equation there. Nashville is changing, especially the East End. They say Nashville is becoming very pro Democrat.
Ed Vitagliano Well, there's a lot of people fleeing blue states.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano And blue cities elsewhere.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And Nashville, Dallas, Atlanta.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Ed Vitagliano Those places are becoming popular. And you can see changes.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon Well, we'll see what happens.
A Republican is running for office in a red district in Tennessee
I still think the Republican will win there but, but we'll see if that's. That'll shock the world, so to speak, the political world. If she's able to pull off a, ah, win, you know, against. In a. In a red district. Yeah. Where is that? So that's outside of Nashville or downtown Nashville. Do you know where that district is?
Fred Jackson I'm not sure. I believe it is in the Nashville area.
Tim Wildmon So she hates country music?
Fred Jackson Yep, that's what she said.
Tim Wildmon She's running for office in Music City, usa.
Ed Vitagliano Uh-huh.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, but when people. When their prices are high and their, expenses are high, and that's Republicans fault, huh?
Tim Wildmon Huh?
Ed Vitagliano No, I'm just saying that's. That that's going to be the message. And love or hate of country music isn't going to matter, I don't think.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, I hope she has some friends in low places because she's gonna need them to beat a. You see what I did there?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon we'll be back in five minutes with more of today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
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Tim Wildman: Chicago getting 9 inches of snow so far
Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family association.
Tim Wildmon 24 more days to buy your Christmas gifts. Welcome everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. I'm Tim Wildmon with Ed Battagliano. Did you know this, Ed?
Ed Vitagliano I did. And it's 24 more days to have Christmas gifts. Gifts bought for me, for any of my family members who are that, who are spirited.
Tim Wildmon That's a spirit. Good morning, Fred Jackson.
Fred Jackson Good morning to you.
Tim Wildmon December, first, 2025, that's today. So we got 24 more days until Christmas Day. And, it looks like me, Fred, it's gonna be a pretty cold, bitter winter. if early indications are here, it's.
Fred Jackson Been ugly the last several days. Chicago got 9 inches of snow so far.
Ed Vitagliano That'll teach them.
Tim Wildmon And talk about carjackings are way down.
Fred Jackson And there's more to come in Chicago. And then it's going to be down around plus one, plus two degrees. If you don't have to go to Chicago, don't, the flight cancellations are just, and cancellations and delays. And now up in the northeast, NewSong York, Boston, they're about to be hit with this bad weather too. And if you live further south, you're getting ice. It's just really ugly.
Tim Wildmon Well, I'm hoping this will build momentum for my movement to pass legislation to ban winter. I've had. This has been a big campaign issue that I've looked for somebody to latch on to.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And, and, well, Congress is all about getting things done, Tim. I mean, I think you got it. You get the ball in the right court.
Tim Wildmon It just seems to me like this ought to be a nonpartisan issue. I mean, taking, you know, banning, extreme cold weather. I was watching the, Of course, everybody knows I'm a college football fan. I do enjoy watching Saturdays. And I was watching some, of the games from the, from the north, the Midwest, and, the Ohio State, Michigan game, the snow started.
Ed Vitagliano Snow. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And then Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Ed Vitagliano I, do like watching snow during a football.
Tim Wildmon Football game is fine, isn't it? Watching them slip sliding.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Watching guys slip sliding all over.
Ed Vitagliano But we can't even get Congress to get rid of Daylight Savings time. How they. How are they going to.
Tim Wildmon But a winter. Yeah, I know, I know. But, anyway, it is a, It is a early, storm system that's, taking a third of the country being affected, maybe in terms of snow and ice.
Fred Jackson Having lived in the North. Yeah, it is. You. You're prepared for winter. What gets discouraging is when it starts so early.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson Because you know it's going to stretch for. You got another six months ahead of you in this stuff.
Tim Wildmon Hey, we're going to talk to Ray, Pritchard on tomorrow, okay? Ray Pritchard.
Fred Jackson Uh-huh.
Tim Wildmon You know what Ray did?
Ed Vitagliano Yes, I do.
Fred Jackson He dealt with winter this way.
Ed Vitagliano We mocked him last week when he was on. Okay, so he snowbirded.
Tim Wildmon He moved from. Just for the season, I think six months. He's going to be in Florida right down the Tampa area. And let's see what Ray's enjoying today, shall we?
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon Let's have a live look in at Tampa, Florida weather, ladies and gentlemen. Tim, will type that in my Weather Channel app and see what we're dealing with in Tampa, as they brace themselves for another.
Go ahead and tell our listeners what the chance of rain is
Okay. In Tampa, Florida. Right now it's 76, partly cloudy now, currently. Look at that. Tell me that's fair.
Ed Vitagliano 76.
Tim Wildmon 76.
Ed Vitagliano Chance of rain. Go ahead and tell our listeners what the chance of rain is.
Tim Wildmon zero percent. Florida does get a lot of rain. Now, if our brother Ray was back home where he was, where he's supposed to be, suffering for the Lord in Kansas City, Mo. Yeah, actually, he's on the Kansas side. It's 23.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Wow.
Fred Jackson 23. 76.
Tim Wildmon No wonder he moves. No wonder he moves for the winter. No wonder people become snowbirds.
Ed Vitagliano I used to mock snowbirds when I was growing up, living up in NewSong England. We'd mock the people we knew who would go down to Florida for the winter.
Tim Wildmon Little weenies.
Ed Vitagliano Little weenies. And now I'm just going, man, I should shut my mouth.
Tim Wildmon Now I know what they were doing.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely.
When does the Advent calendar begin for American Family Radio? 2025
Tim Wildmon All right, well, anyway, winter is here, and as I said, Christmas is just 24 days away. when does the, You gentlemen may or may not know this, when does the Advent, Calendar begin for, you know, is. Do you know this one does.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I'll check.
Tim Wildmon you know what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon For the, the Advent calendar.
Ed Vitagliano When does Advent start? 2025. Oh, it started yesterday.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano This date marks the first Sunday of Advent, which is the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day and is determined by the liturgical calendar. Season lasts for four weeks, concluding on Christmas Eve, December 24th.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, this is a, you know, a big, a big celebration for Christians around the world.
Fred Jackson Right.
Tim Wildmon Coming up, the birth of Jesus Christ. And, it's going to be, we're going to be doing our part here at American Family Radio to lead up to that, special day.
Ed Vitagliano When I was getting ready this morning, I was listening to Christmas music.
Tim Wildmon Oh, were you?
Ed Vitagliano I told my wife I had to go in, get some water or something and I said, I hope you like Christmas music. So, because you're about to get an earful for 30 days or whatever, the.
Tim Wildmon Number of days, actually sometimes in June or July, I'll punch in some Christmas music.
Ed Vitagliano Ain't nothing wrong with that, huh?
Tim Wildmon Well, Hallmark, does it?
Ed Vitagliano Yes, as does Cracker Barrel.
Tim Wildmon They hit Cracker Barrel.
Ed Vitagliano Cracker Barrel starts Hobby Lobby.
Tim Wildmon Hobby Lobby. They start their, Christmas, sales in, in August. so, yeah, we, we're looking forward to Christmas. All right, Fred, bring us down with some. I've talked about the beautiful celebration around the Christmas time and Fred's gonna bring us back to human nature here.
Fred Jackson Let me transition.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Software on Airbus 320s affected by solar flares caused flight cancellations
Fred Jackson All right. One more thing. Not so much weather related, but added to the problems of all the cancellations. You guys heard about this?
Tim Wildmon The flight cancellations?
Fred Jackson Yeah, well, the Airbus 320 groundings.
Tim Wildmon Have you guys. I read about that. Tell us about it.
Fred Jackson Well, apparently, there is a piece of software on these Airbus 320s that was affected by solar flares and it jig things up and they had to go in and make corrections. Now There are about 6,000 of these Airbus 320s across the system. Most of the major airlines in the United states fly the 320s. So they had to ground them, because it would have an impact, what it did to the software system. It would have an impact on perhaps a descent would begin when it wasn't called for by the pilots.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, wow.
Fred Jackson So, Chris, these things are wired to the teeth now, all these airplanes, computers and everything. But they were able to, the engineers, were able to fix it fairly quickly. But I've never heard of this before, a solar flare causing a problem with the software on an airplane.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I knew that. I had read about the unusual solar flare activity. I say unusual in terms of magnitude or whatever.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Tim Wildmon And break it down for us.
Ed Vitagliano Well, on social media, of course, there were all kinds of people predicting everything from the end of the world to the collapse of, the grid or whatever. It was nothing quite that dramatic. But so this. Now were these planes that were in the air when the solar flare occurred or when the radiation.
Fred Jackson Some of them hit us. Some of them were. And others. Now they weren't all affected the same way. Somebody was telling me there was at least one incident where there was an uncalled for descent. Now it wasn't radical.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson but nonetheless, as a pilot, that would scare you? Oh yeah, you know, that you weren't calling for something and so anyway, the engineers, the Airbus engineers have been able to apparently for the most part fix all of this. they kept the planes on the ground until they were sure it was fixed. It's just amazing. These engineers, deserve a lot of credit. They know how to, you know, go in and scope the problem and get it fixed, but. Pretty scary when a solar flare can cause that kind of problem.
Ed Vitagliano Well, and to answer Tim's earlier question about what a solar flare is, I think most of us know it's a relative.
Tim Wildmon Break it down for us. Can you break it?
Ed Vitagliano It's a relatively intense local, emission.
Ed Vitagliano Of electromagnetic radiation in the sun's.
Tim Wildmon You can read?
Ed Vitagliano I can. And it can last from minutes to hours.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, there you have it. Yeah. Well, all right, so, that, but that was a. At the Airbus comp.
Fred Jackson That's 320.
Tim Wildmon That is that different. Airbus and Boeing are different. Are the two different companies and, but they're the two largest manufacturers of
Fred Jackson Yeah, Airbus.
Tim Wildmon Of jets, commercial jets.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Airbus is European based, but they have a big, assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.
Ed Vitagliano Oh yeah, Good.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Make America great again.
Tim Wildmon I go through Mobile a lot. I don't know where is that.
Fred Jackson Yeah. and I don't think you can see it from the interstate.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson Yeah, but my, I have family members down on the south Alabama area and they have neighbors who work, they're from Europe and they're working at the Airbus plant there.
Tim Wildmon Okay, didn't know that.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Two West Virginia National Guardsmen were shot last Wednesday; one has died
Tim Wildmon All right, next story.
Fred Jackson Well, we, we had the tragedy, last Wednesday of the shooting of these, West Virginia National Guard, two soldiers. One, has passed away, another one is in critical condition. And the, the person who allegedly, did the shooting he was hit by gunfire. He is being treated in hospital in Washington, D.C. his name is Raman Ulla, Lock and wall Afghan refugee who is living in Bellingham, Washington, and apparently drove all the way to Washington, D.C. to allegedly carry out this deed. So the finger pointing, has begun as to how could this guy who did this deed, allegedly, who approved him to come to this country. Here's what we know is that he was helping the CIA in Afghanistan. He was one of those that came out of after that debacle of a withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was approved initially by the Biden administration, but, however, his final asylum approval came in 2023. All right, so national, Security Advisor Kristi, Noem, says this guy, he was right. She is saying he was radicalized here in the United States. Cut number one, I will say we.
Ed Vitagliano Believe he was radicalized since he's been here in this country. We do believe it was through connections in his home, community, and state. And we're going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members, talked to them. So far, we've had some participation. But, anyone who has information on.
Speaker D This needs to know that we will.
Ed Vitagliano Be coming after you.
Fred Jackson Also, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was interviewed about this this morning, and he says the Biden administration was just simp 2 lakhs on vetting these Afghan partners coming into this country.
Speaker D Cut to, I think clearly vetting standards for every person who's been admitted in the country, especially from countries of concern like Afghanistan need to be revisited. When our military and our CIA goes around the world, they work with unsavory, characters. It's a necessary part of the job, and they engage in some vetting of those characters. but that's very different from the standards that we would apply to vet someone to come to this country, to live in our communities, to have a family, and to ultimately become American citizens. And that's what the Biden administration got so wrong.
Fred Jackson Now, ah, the allegation is, is that the Biden administration basically rubber stamped all these guys coming in from Afghanistan back in 2021. That's the allegation.
Tim Wildmon do you want to comment? Well, I'll meet to.
Ed Vitagliano Well, you can. Doesn't matter. I know what I'm going to say. It can wait.
Tim Wildmon okay, so that means me.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, go for it.
Tim Wildmon Well, okay, I'm reacting. I haven't thought a lot about this, but just. I don't. I don't like that immediately after something like this happens, we make it political. Okay. It's, Biden's fault. Well, if this fellow worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, then he deserved to come to America because otherwise he'd have been killed by the Taliban. Okay? So I don't have a problem on, that information alone. That's it. That's all I'm going on. He worked with the CIA to help our troops in Afghanistan. Then he would be at the top of the list on who we bring to the U.S. okay, so if that's the vetting process, did he help us, then, I'm okay with him coming to the US So I don't blame Biden or the Biden administration for what this guy did. This guy evidently lost his mind, all right? And may have been some kind of religious, Because Muslims do that from time to time, okay? That's their history. They. I say that's how we would define it. Lose their mind. They would say, no, I'm just acting out on. On killing the infidel. And so Allah's happy with me. That's why they. That's why they yell Allah Akbar. God is great. While they're committing these acts of. Of, murder, for example, in this case, attempted murder. And he did murder one, and the other one may die, sadly, these, National Guardsmen. So I only hold him responsible. The guy, the shooter. I don't hold Biden responsible. Now, you may have a case next week where you show me. Well, the Biden administration was lax in their betting process, and this guy committed some kind of criminal, actions. so I just don't like. Yeah, did, We.
Tim Noah: Should we have been in Afghanistan after getting bin Laden
We all saw. Was it a debacle over there? Our withdrawal in Afghanistan? Remember those people climbing on top of the airplane?
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon And all that. They were scared to death, those people. Now we can't bring them all over here because they. They're scared of living under the Taliban. Who wouldn't be if you had been protected by American soldiers all these years? Which. That's a whole separate argument. Should we have even been over in Afghanistan all those years? For what purpose and what reason were we really over there after we were able to get bin Laden? Which is why we went over there in the first place. Why not?
Ed Vitagliano Well, also to deal with the Taliban because they were allowing Al Qaeda to train over there.
Tim Wildmon That's true. Anyway, those are my. That's my feelings on this whole matter. Go ahead.
Ed Vitagliano Well, I agree with you. Yeah. And here's the thing. The Biden administration was actually criticized for not bringing enough of these people over to the u. S. After we started pulling out. Remember all these people that work with the CIA, many of whom probably were executed because the biden administration's withdrawal was a disaster and we left stranded over there people who worked with us. Now, I'm. I'm just like you, tim. I mean, you. You've got to vet these people. You don't want to. You don't fox coming in with the chickens.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano You know, but, this individual was apparently, according to christy noem, radicalized once he got here. So I don't know what proper vetting would have looked like. If he's pro American when he's in Afghanistan.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano We bring him over here, and then he turns against us. I'm not sure you can blame the biden administration for that. The biden administration did a lot of bad things.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano And not vetting people and just letting people across the border. We have people on the terror watch list coming across. So there's plenty to blame the biden administration for. But I'm with you. lock and wall, or however you pronounce it. He's, responsible for what he did.
Tim Wildmon Did this guy. Did he fly across? He was in. He was in bellingham, Washington. Living.
Fred Jackson My understanding is he drove.
Ed Vitagliano He drove. That's.
Tim Wildmon He drove 3,000 miles to do this, right? That's alleged. yeah. I mean, alleged. Yeah. so, that's. That's a long way to think about what you're about to do.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon And why you're.
Fred Jackson You don't know, and you don't think of bellingham, Washington has being a large community, whether afghans or a large islamic community. It wasn't when I lived on the way. That was just about 30 miles south where I lived. so something has happened in bellingham in the last 25 years. But I tell you, the other thing that's looking at right now is when you have large communities of Islamic, immigrants. You look at what's happening in Minneapolis right now with somalis, with the charges being laid with regards to all kinds of fraudulent activity. there's controversies coming out of dearborn, Michigan. you know, controversy over the loudspeakers, calls to prayer and all this sort of thing. I think that's being looked at now more carefully. And it's the same thing in europe. Europe is very concerned because there's. They're not assimilating into the culture. So I think this incident is going to generate another investigation as to what happens when you get these. You know, there's controversy in Texas because a group of Islamic people want to start their own community and there's concern about Sharia law being implemented.
Tim Wildmon The religion of Islam, those who are, I'm not talking about your, your, what do you call them? Nominal Muslims by culture, you know what I'm saying? Like we have nominal Christians, you know, they're Sunday, your Easter Christmas Christians we call them. I'm not talking about those people. That's the kind of people you want for Muslims. For Muslims, yeah, yeah. You don't want, you don't want them with, you know, sold out. Because Islam is incompatible with Western, civilization, with democracy, with the values of the Judeo Christian, system of way of life, put it that way. Islam is, that's the reason again you have to distinguish between the.
Ed Vitagliano Peaceful,
Tim Wildmon Muslims. And there are, that's the majority of them. But these, what we call radicalized, those really are the true adherents. they're the ones who get on their mats and pray five times a day and kneel toward Mecca and Medina or wherever. Mecca I think is where they, because this is what happened to this guy. That's what we call radicalized.
Tim Goodman: Muslims are generally peaceful as long as they're in a minority
Where they view the infidel as the enemy of Allah and it's their job to dismantle, to take out, to kill in some cases the infidel. And that pleases Allah. And that's undeniable in the Islamic religion. Look what's happening in Nigeria for example. Right now you have these Muslim terrorists and they're slaughtering the Christians. Why are they slaughtering the Christians? Christians aren't bothering them really. It's because they view this as their to prove their dedication to Allah so they can have an afterlife of paradise.
Ed Vitagliano is that a fair and the only way, as a Muslim, the only way you're guaranteed, an eternity, in heaven or paradise. The only way you're guaranteed is to die while doing jihad is to be a martyr. Okay? Otherwise you have to hope you were good enough, a good enough Muslim. So that drives people, especially young men, to consider going all the way.
Tim Wildmon That's why we had 9 11.
Ed Vitagliano That's why we had 9 11. that this is why my understanding is some of these so called martyrs for Islam, when they die taking infidels with them, they often spend the evening or the week before sinning because they believe that one act of dying as a martyr gets them in to into paradise. Listen, I just say two of the things because I agree with what you guys are saying. The size of the community, anymore. Fred, I'm not sure it matters if you have one fire breathing imam in that community who is getting them all hepped up and fired up to do the proper devout Muslim thing. And I would also add that Muslims. What you were saying, Tim. But Muslims are generally peaceful as long as they're in a minority. Once they start building up numbers. I'm not saying they have to be a majority, but once their numbers grow, then they do things like what was it, was it in Europe somewhere where they interrupted the, maybe Belgium where they interrupted the Christmas celebration with smoke bombs and everything like that. They started, shouting. They're doing their chanting. So once their numbers grow significantly, and we have several places, places in the US where this is true, man, it's Katy, bar the door. Then. Yeah, they're telling Christians at city council meetings you're not welcome here.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And they got trouble in Europe. look, now, and in the coming years, some have said Europe has fallen, in terms of, to the, because of the vast immigration of Muslims into European countries. I don't know whether that'll, you know, take, that'll really transpire or not, but it's a very, dangerous situation there in Europe. We'll be back momentarily. Stay with us.
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Tim Wildmon This is today's issues.
Ed Vitagliano Email your comments to commentsafr.net Past broadcasts of today's issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of today's Issues.
Today's Issues comes from Ed and Fred on the American Family Radio Network
Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to the program Today's Issues. I'm Tim with Ed and Fred. Today's December 1st and we, hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration and looking forward to Christmas. speaking of which, guys, and I know you go back to the break room during the. During our three minute break right there. Fred usually stays in here and holds down the fort.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon I go back with you to get a refill of coffee.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Which, by the way, is shown to make you live longer. Did you know this?
Ed Vitagliano I didn't.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, four cups. I think they said three, two. Three cups. Something like that a day. If you believe the surveys and the, research.
Ed Vitagliano I don't.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, that's.
Ed Vitagliano I don't like coffee.
Tim Wildmon You know, denial is just not a river in Egypt. No.
Did you notice the sweets that they put out there in December
anyway, but what I want to say is it has begun in the break room as it does every December. Did you notice the sweets that they put out there in front of us?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, no, I did not look. Yeah, no, it gets bad at the.
Tim Wildmon Top of the hour during the news break.
Ed Vitagliano Look, I will.
Tim Wildmon Because. What do you call people who tempt other people in the Christian world?
Ed Vitagliano is it maybe Satan?
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, then we've got food Satan back there. And they got all these sweets out hoping that we'll all pack on about £10. It can't fit in the. Can't fit in our pants in January. That's what's happening.
Ed Vitagliano And we do what's called healthy you here all year round until November. At middle of November, we encourage people to be, healthy to eat, you know, eat, eat. Right. And then from the Thanksgiving week. But really like you said at Christmas. And I think a good portion, like.
Tim Wildmon Catholics at Mardi Gras.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon Right here. Don't we?
Fred Jackson Don't we?
Ed Vitagliano Yes. Well, what's more insidious is that I think some of these sweets and things that appear are people dumping their stuff here so they don't eat it at home, causing others to stumble.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, there's just a hope. There's a three, three little area. Three little. Somebody brought them here. Eat them.
Fred Jackson Yeah. A, word of warning. Do not have your healthy you in December 15th.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson Because your triglycerides will just be right off the chart.
Tim Wildmon I know mine's in January, but I glanced over there. I did. I glanced over there and there was those chocolate covered Pretzels. Oh, man, they're 20ft away. 20ft away. And I wanted to get three of them, but I didn't have time to eat them, so that's. That's saved me.
Ed Vitagliano Never stopped you before.
Tim Wildmon I know, but I had to get back to the microphone here, so. Yeah, but I still got the five minute news break coming up the top of the hour.
Ed Vitagliano And plus, we have popcorn back there.
Tim Wildmon Well, popcorn doesn't hurt you, I don't think.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, it doesn't?
Tim Wildmon I don't think that puts weight on you.
Ed Vitagliano All right.
Fred Jackson Yeah, I. I suppose the air. We've been eating diet pumpkin pieces.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, diet.
Fred Jackson No, I'm kidding.
Ed Vitagliano Well, you know, I. Maybe you're using Splenda or something.
Fred Jackson Costco. There was a news story in the last few days. Costco made six million pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.
Tim Wildmon Six million.
Fred Jackson I know. Sam sells them, too.
Ed Vitagliano Are those big? Let me just ask you, is pumpkin pie. When I grew up, pumpkin pie up in NewSong England was huge. Okay. Is it. Is it big down here in the South?
Tim Wildmon It's.
Fred Jackson Well, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano All right. I didn't know that.
Fred Jackson Six million of them and it's a lost leader.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Fred Jackson Six bucks for a big pumpkin pie.
Ed Vitagliano Just to get you in store.
Fred Jackson Oh, yeah.
Tim Wildmon as a Southerner lifelong, I could tell you any kind of pie, any kind of pie.
Ed Vitagliano Sweet potato pies that will be devoured.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, sweet potato pie, apple pie, peach pie. that's my favorite.
Ed Vitagliano Y' all don't have custard pie down here though, do you?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but, Yeah, but I don't see it much. Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You like custard pie?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I did, growing up. I like.
Dunkin Donuts is a New England brand from the Boston area
You're talking about whatever my grandparents brought when they came to visit. Dunkin Donuts. I've said this before. Dunkin Donuts is a NewSong England brand from the Boston area. That's where it started before, when, you know, regional. The national mystery. My grandparents on my dad's side. So my. Well, you know, my dad's grandparents, they. When they would come to visit across the state line, International NewSong Hampshire, they, before they came, they'd always stop at Dunkin Donuts and they'd bring pies. And I remember when doughnut holes were first a thing, because that was, That blew my mind.
Tim Wildmon You mean Dunkin Donut sells pies?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, yeah. Well, they had pies. the Dunkin Donuts. No, they had the donuts, but they would stop at Dunkin Donuts, bring donuts, and they stopped at a place that wasn't enough.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, Sweets. They wanted to make sure.
Ed Vitagliano That's right.
Tim Wildmon Okay, we'll end this discussion right here, but I'll just tell you. Have you already got me thinking the peach pie and the apple pie, hot, with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream on top that melts. That'll make you cry.
Ed Vitagliano I'm just going to say I don't know whether this is considered a terrible thing. Yeah, I prefer apple pie cold.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, with. Okay.
Fred Jackson Yeah, but.
Tim Wildmon But a hot apple pie with some vanilla ice cream on top. Vanilla bean.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, no, that's good.
Tim Zelinsky: Negotiations are continuing between Russia and Ukraine
Tim Wildmon All right, Fred, back to the, back to the world of depressing news. We go back to the news desk.
Ed Vitagliano And you're holding on by your fingertips, Tim, trying to stay with the good.
Tim Wildmon That's why we're here. Go ahead, Fred. What's next?
Fred Jackson All right, while the rest of us were eating turkey and pumpkin pie, negotiations are continuing, with our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, trying to bring an end to this, Russia, Ukraine, war. actually, on the weekend, Marco Rubio invited a delegation of Ukrainian, officials down to Florida, and they met there. we have a little bit for Marco Rubio here. Cut 10.
Tim Wildmon We had another very productive session, building off Geneva, building off the events of this week. As I told you earlier this morning, our goal here is to end the war. But it's more than just to end the war. We don't just want to end the war. We also want to help Ukraine be safe forever so never again will they face another invasion. And equally importantly, we want them to enter an age of true prosperity.
Fred Jackson And President Trump says a deal is possible, but it's tricky. Cut number nine.
Ed Vitagliano I've spoken to them, and they're doing well. Ukraine's got some, difficult little problems. Have some difficult problems, but, I think Russia would like to see it ended. I think Ukraine. I know Ukraine would like to see it. I think that, there's a good chance we can make a deal now. The little.
Fred Jackson Go ahead.
Tim Wildmon God bless President Trump. I know he wants to end the war, but I don't. I don't know what to believe by what he says anymore, because he changes every week on his predictions and his, analysis and what this side needs to do, what that side needs to do. Maybe Marco Rubio is a more authoritative voice right now on this. And President Trump, so that. That. Is that fair?
Ed Vitagliano I think I just toss this in. I think President Trump, he does say that. He has said this a number of times that I think we're Close to a deal. I think President Trump says that because in his mind this is a fair deal. but that isn't always what Putin or Zelinsky want. And so I think that's part of the frustration.
Tim Wildmon He acts as if he's speaking for them after having negotiated something and it turns out that's not true.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, go ahead, Fred.
Donald Trump is pushing Ukraine to give up territory in eastern Ukraine
Fred Jackson Well, and I think where we are right now is there's a lot of pressure on, Ukraine from the United States to accept to a certain extent giving up, some big chunk of territory in the eastern part of the Ukraine, because I don't think Putin's going to move off that at all. But I think what Trump is trying to do, what I understand from what I've read, is tell Ukraine, look, if you give up that chunk of land in the east, we will come in and enhance your economy. the Ukrainian economy will be strong again. And I think there is an element we will work to ensure your security. The question is, is Ukraine ready to accept that promise of security, that Putin won't try the same thing again a few years from now? That's where it seems to be.
Ed Vitagliano And my understanding is that area, I think they call it the Donbas, that it's got a lot of minerals, and also. So there's a lot of mineral wealth there, but also it's part, a significant part of the, wheat producing agricultural sector of Ukraine. There's other places in Ukraine that produce all that. But that Donbas region is, would be hard for Ukraine to lose. Which is why, to your point, Fred, that what Marco Rubio and others are trying to encourage Ukraine to do is we will help you make the rest of Ukraine, a, a wealth producer.
Tim Wildmon Right. What I'm more concerned about this Ukrainian Russia war may be going on two years from now. I mean, we don't, we don't, we don't know. It doesn't look to me like it's going to end anytime soon, especially with the Ukrainians. I mean they just bombed the heck out of the Russian, oil facilities over there. Some that's going to cause oil prices to go up in the region south anyway. It sounds like to me the Ukrainians are like we're going to go down in a blaze of glory.
Ed Vitagliano But, well, but the Russians are still attacking too. They're still attacking Kyiv.
Tim Wildmon Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't mean to suggest that the Ukrainians were wrong in their retaliation. I'm just saying, the Ukrainians are not, backing down either. They're, fighting.
Tom Cotton of Arkansas says Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro needs to go
But what's more concerning to, I think a lot of Americans is what's going to happen with Venezuela and what that means. Because you're talking about a country in our hemisphere, right?
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Isn't that true at the, northern part of South America?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So, because now we have the president, states Trump telling Maduro, the president, put that in quotations. He's the dictator really, Venezuela and has wrecked that country.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon and he's telling him he's got to go. Regime change is what Trump's apparently.
Fred Jackson I'm not sure, but apparently Trump dialed up Maduro last. They actually had a telephone conversation. Trump has confirmed the conversation, but he doesn't want to talk about it.
Tim Wildmon Cut.
Fred Jackson number eight, the NewSong York Times.
Ed Vitagliano Reported that you had a phone call with Maduro.
Tim Wildmon Did you?
Ed Vitagliano I don't want to comment on it. The answer is yes.
Speaker E And can you tell us a little bit?
Ed Vitagliano No, I can't do that, Mr. President. Did you say it went well? I would say it went well or badly.
Fred Jackson It was a phone call. Now, the report is, is that, ah, Trump, the Trump administration is offering Maduro and his family safe passage out of there, out of Venezuela. regardless, I think most people believe, and Senator, Tom Cotton of Arkansas is one of those people, he says Maduro has to go. Cut. Number seven.
Speaker D As long as Nicolas, Maduro is in power in Venezuela, you're going to continue to see the risk, not only of violence in Latin America, but the drugs that I've heard so much about from Arkansas sheriffs and police chiefs that are threatening our communities and that are killing our kids. Nicolas Maduro needs to go. That's what President Trump has made clear. I think that's probably what he told to him, told him last week on the phone. I'm sure that the Cuban intelligence services in Venezuela and Russian generals are urging him to stay. But if he knows what's good for him, like so many other Latin American strongmen over the years, I think that it's time for him to go.
Tim Wildmon Are we going to take him out?
Ed Vitagliano I don't. I think Trump's trying to avoid that. I don't think Maduro is one of those kinds of guys who's going to, you know, stay to the bitter end. Listen, this is a gamble for President Trump, okay? And I'll tell you why. If, if they can get rid of Maduro fairly painlessly, not have to attack Venezuela, certainly don't want a lot of boots on the ground. With minimal destruction. If Maduro will leave and Venezuela can have free and open elections finally, and they can vote and get rid of the Communists, which is what I think the Venezuelan people want, then it's a win for President Trump. If we wind up in some sort of protracted conflict and Venezuela lucks out and sinks a ship or something like that, ah, then I think President Trump is going to get in more trouble with his base because he promised not to get, not to have America involved in foreign wars. And if it looks like we're stuck in another foreign war, the American people who voted for Trump increasingly frustrated at the fact that the economy is not doing better. They're going to say, what do we care about Venezuela? You should be fixing prices in the US rightly, fairly or not. I think that's the risk.
Tim Wildmon Let me ask you this, Fred and Ed, Senator Cotton there from Arkansas, who have a lot of respect for. He's, he's making the argument that, drugs, illegal drugs coming from Venezuela are a legitimate reason to remove Maduro. Right?
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Is that his proper last name?
Fred Jackson Maduro, yes.
Tim Wildmon Maduro. You buy that?
Ed Vitagliano That it, that it's the primary or reason?
Tim Wildmon That, that, that. No, that. That alone would be the reason.
Ed Vitagliano No, no.
Tim Wildmon I don't know. I don't know if that would be a fair characterization of what Senator Cotton would say himself. I'm just going on the clip. He said, he said, maybe he said destabilization in the region, but he said, talking to Arkansas sheriffs and so forth, that drugs coming from Venezuela are a real problem.
Ed Vitagliano It's. That's part of it.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano I think there's a number of other things. Maduro is a bad guy. Okay, let me. I don't think.
Tim Wildmon Is he a threat to the U.S.
Ed Vitagliano I, I don't, I don't think anybody, except maybe China or Russia with nukes are a threat to the stability of the United States. I think we got our own problems. We're doing that to ourselves. But, Maduro is an enemy of the United States. I think he loves helping to flood the United States with drugs. I think he probably is a sponsor of instability in the region, but he also cozies up to Russia and China. And I think part of what the military is telling Trump is we can get rid of Maduro because China and Russia are becoming, entrenched in South America via, ah, Venezuela.
Tim Wildmon But you're saying that doesn't, that's not going to work with the America first, constituency of President Trump, in terms Of.
Ed Vitagliano Not if we're there for three months. Not if we're there in a battle, you know, if, if we have Marines going door to door, you know, in, in Venezuela somewhere, you know.
Tim Wildmon Fighting like we chased down Gaddafi.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I don't, I don't think that's going to go over well. This has to be. If we're going to do it, it has to be quick. I like the idea of promising Maduro. Look, we'll give you safe passage. Go anywhere you want with all the money you've stolen.
Tim Wildmon Exile.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. You're exiled. And I didn't mean to hog the time. Fred, what do you think?
Fred Jackson Well, there's another factor.
Florida congresswoman says Maduro has to go because of Venezuela's oil
There's a Florida Republican congresswoman last week who, in saying Maduro has to go not only because of the drugs, but also, the oil. the oil, Venezuela is right up there with Saudi Arabia when it comes with oil. If the United States was able to extract Maduro from the conversation, Fox, News does a lot of interviews with the opposition leader in exile. Right now she's in hiding because she's scared to death her life is in danger with Maduro. But if they put her in place, that would mean she would be a strong ally of the United States and would also push out Russia and China out of that influence. So I think oil is part of the equation here.
Ed Vitagliano That's a good point. And President Trump has said that as well.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon All right, you're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed and Fred. So we'll see what happens in the coming days, with respect to Venezuela. Next story. Fred?
Tennessee is holding a special election for a congressional seat
Fred Jackson Well, we all know that next year's midterm elections, but it is election eve right now in Tennessee, and it's. Normally these elections wouldn't draw a lot of attention, but, boy, this one is.
Tim Wildmon Is a special election.
Fred Jackson It's a special election for a congressional seat that has been held strongly by Republicans. And one of the reasons it's, getting a lot of attention is the Democrat. The polling is kind of showing that it's neck, and neck right now. The woman who is on the ballot for the Democrats, her name is Afton Ben. Now, you may have heard some of the stories in the past. She has said she hates Nashville, she doesn't like country music. She's also talked about, defunding police. So she was asked about all this, believe it or not, on cnn. Let's see how that interview went. Cut five.
A video surfaced of Nikki Haley saying she hates Nashville
Ed Vitagliano I want to ask you about an attack line From Republicans, because this has been. This is a comment you made in 2020 about Nashville. It's gotten a lot of attention in your race. Let's listen to this.
Speaker E I hate the city. I hate the Bachelorettes. I hate the pedal taverns. I hate country music. I hate all of the things that make Nashville apparently, and its city to the rest of the country, but I hate it.
Ed Vitagliano I know you said those comments were taken out of context, but I want you to. I want to ask you about it because I'm wondering, do you think it was a mistake to say that, once.
Speaker E Again, I was a private citizen? Nashville is my home. Do I roll my eyes at the bachelorette parties and the pedal taverns that are blocking my access to, ah, my house? Yeah, every Nashville does. But, this race has always been something about something bigger. It's about families across middle Tennessee that are getting crushed by rising prices, while Washington politicians and billionaires argue about this type of nonsense. And so once again, I've been steadfast and dogged in my message about addressing the affordability crisis in Tennessee. and like I said, the race is close because that is what I've been doing.
Ed Vitagliano That's a good answer. Yeah, that.
Tim Wildmon That.
Ed Vitagliano That's a good answer because, it's a good sidestep, and I'm sure she's got.
Tim Wildmon It's a good. It's a good answer. Not answer. Is that what you're saying?
Ed Vitagliano Well, it's.
Tim Wildmon It's.
Ed Vitagliano It's. I'm sure she had consultants when. When this video surfaced of her saying all the stuff she hates about Nashville. I'm sure she got with her little group and they said, hey, this is what you need to say. You. The first thing you do is, Is you. You make a little light of it a little bit. Yeah. you know, who likes the traffic, who likes this? But then you appeal to some of the frustrations of other people in Nashville. I don't like them blocking my road. That kind of thing. And now you've disarmed it, you've defused it. Let me put it that way. And now. And. But that second part, when she says, this is what the election is about, this is what we're going to hear from now to the midterms.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Ed Vitagliano Is the American, family and the kitchen table that. That they're being crushed by economic pressures. They can't get their head above water. President Trump promised. Republicans promised this. And they promised what? Well, they promised, lower prices, lower food prices. The expectation was. And I'm not blaming anyone. I'm just saying you don't get elected in January and automatically cause prices to drop, grocery prices, for example. But gasoline prices have been dropping steadily, and I think the expectation was and is that that will contribute to a lowering of prices because it doesn't cost as much to ship, products to stores. I'm not sure. But the grocery stores aren't holding on to every cent they can themselves by keeping prices elevated. Maybe a little bit of price gouging, taking advantage of how high prices were when Covid started. Now here, five years, almost six years later. But that, what she just said, that's a winning message, especially among young voters.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano In this country. And when, when it's hard for you to buy a home, rent a home, get a job. I've seen stories all over the media, all over the weekend. Young people right out of college. I can't get a job. They're going to look to the party in power and the party represented by whoever's in the White House, which is why usually the party in power loses seats during the midterms. All the promises you made to get elected, you better bring them to pass or the frustration is taken out on you in the midterm.
Fred Jackson It was very interesting, to your comments, Ed. Nikki Haley's son was interviewed on Fox this morning. He looks about in his 20s, and he says the Republican Party is not listening to people his age, the Gen Z. And, he says they are the ones that can't buy houses. you know, they're coming out of college, they can't find jobs. Now, he is not an advocate for socialism, but he says the socialism message is selling well with that demographic, Those in their 20s, 30s, that sort of thing. It was very, very interesting interview. Steve is going to do a story using, his interview this morning on Fox, but it was, it was fascinating. He is not a liberal, but he is saying the Republican Party is not listening to that constituency and that is going to cause them problems. And I tell you what, if the Democrats win this seat, in, in Tennessee tomorrow, deep red, Deep red seat. Now, Nashville is changing, too.
Ed Vitagliano That's true.
Fred Jackson That's another part of the political equation there. Nashville is changing, especially the East End. They say Nashville is becoming very pro Democrat.
Ed Vitagliano Well, there's a lot of people fleeing blue states.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano And blue cities elsewhere.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And Nashville, Dallas, Atlanta.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Ed Vitagliano Those places are becoming popular. And you can see changes.
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon Well, we'll see what happens.
A Republican is running for office in a red district in Tennessee
I still think the Republican will win there but, but we'll see if that's. That'll shock the world, so to speak, the political world. If she's able to pull off a, ah, win, you know, against. In a. In a red district. Yeah. Where is that? So that's outside of Nashville or downtown Nashville. Do you know where that district is?
Fred Jackson I'm not sure. I believe it is in the Nashville area.
Tim Wildmon So she hates country music?
Fred Jackson Yep, that's what she said.
Tim Wildmon She's running for office in Music City, usa.
Ed Vitagliano Uh-huh.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, but when people. When their prices are high and their, expenses are high, and that's Republicans fault, huh?
Tim Wildmon Huh?
Ed Vitagliano No, I'm just saying that's. That that's going to be the message. And love or hate of country music isn't going to matter, I don't think.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, I hope she has some friends in low places because she's gonna need them to beat a. You see what I did there?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon we'll be back in five minutes with more of today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim and Ed talk with Fred on top news headlines of the day including an update on the National Guard shooting that happened in D.C.
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