Tim Wildman has some great tours lined up for 2026
Tim Wildmon Hello, everyone. Tim Wildmon here. We've got some great tours lined up. 2026, Washington, D.C. george Washington's Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, historic Jamestown, Boston, Massachusetts, and that Greater area. So, so much to see and do in 2026. If you want information on any of these trips, go to wildmangroup.com wildmon group.com and we'll see you on, one of our tours in 2026.
Tim Wildman hosts Today's Issues on American Family Radio
Ed Vitagliano Welcome to today's Issues, offering a Christian.
Tim Wildmon Response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. Okay, I literally just put my headset on, so I made it.
Wesley Wildmon Really?
Ed Vitagliano Technically.
Wesley Wildmon Technically, you're not huffing a puff.
Tim Wildmon this is live radio, right? So if I'm not in my seat by the time it goes live, you guys have to take it or dead air or we play Perry Como.
Ed Vitagliano So we were actually having this discussion because I think you were, getting your coffee.
Tim Wildmon I got caught by jj.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, well, that's.
Tim Wildmon You get caught by JJ in the hall.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Because he says, this will just take a second. This will just take a second.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano so I just. So, folks, if you're a regular listener of this show and you tune in, right, and you're expecting to hear Tim, but you hear me, okay, that means Tim is in the hallway on his way in for whatever the reason, and. And.
Tim Wildmon Or I'm out of town.
Ed Vitagliano Well, yeah, if I continue to talk as the host of the show, that means Tim's out. I usually will say Ed Tagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon today.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Anyway, welcome to the program, everybody. It's called Today's Issues on American Family Radio. We're here every Monday through Friday, and Wesley Wildmon. Good morning, brother Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon Good morning.
Tim Wildmon Wesley's my Christian brother. He's also my boy. He's my oldest son. doesn't act like it all the time, but, he is Fred Jackson, our veteran newsman. How you doing, brother Fred?
Fred Jackson I'm doing just fine.
American Family Radio asks its listeners to tell others about the station
Tim Wildmon Okay, so, we wanted to. What? Was there anything right there? I got something in the mail. Listen. We get letters almost daily.
Wesley Wildmon Either emails or letters or sometimes handwritten notes.
Tim Wildmon Handwritten notes. And, they're almost always encouraging.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon and so I brought one yesterday, and I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I just wanted to read to people to know how we are generally. We are genuinely ministering to people here on American Family.
Ed Vitagliano Amen.
Tim Wildmon I know that sometimes our news is all always good in terms of world events and what's going on in our country. But, but, I read a letter yesterday from a handwritten note from. From a lady, who was 93. Oh, wow. And she had great penmanship. 93 years old. She wrote me.
Ed Vitagliano People who are 93 years old, general genuine, generally are going to have great penmanship. nowadays, not so much because there's. Everyone uses devices.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, this was a typed out letter from a gentleman in Virginia and I won't give his name because he didn't. I didn't ask him for permission.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon But he said, dear Mr. Wildmon, I hope you receive this letter and consider my heartfelt appreciation for your ministry and the work of American Family radio. I discovered AFR in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and believe it was God's guidance that led me to your radio station. As a police officer, I spend most of my time on the road and find comfort in listening to AFR during my daily travels. I have been a daily listener since then and enjoy programs like Today's Issues. I have recently become a partner that is a financial partner with us. He supports us and look forward to contributing more to your ministry in the future. he said, I recently joined a Baptist church with my wife and our three sons and they're being raised with Christian values, including our oldest who attends a Christian school. Anyway, he just wanted to say, I pray for American Family Radio will continue to grow, reaching new listeners and bring glory to the Lord by honoring him during these uncertain times. And just some other things that he said here. But it was a police officer in Virginia who found us on the radio during COVID and has been listening ever since. And what he wanted to say was he also goes on to say here that it impacted our ministry, impacted his life for him sort of to get back in church and get back to taking his faith seriously.
Wesley Wildmon M. And obviously the ripple effect to his family.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Ed Vitagliano And probably other people he knows. He just joined a church.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Folks, we do ask our listeners to tell your friends and family and church fellow church members about American Family Radio. You're our best form of advertisement. And it's it's something that helps your friends and family.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano As they listen to God.
Tim Wildmon You know, we can advertise, and we can, you know, do our own promotions all day, every day. But you know how when you somebody you trust says, you really need.
Wesley Wildmon To read this or you really need.
Tim Wildmon To go listen, go to the. Or we go to this restaurant. You know, people say something like that and you say, well, you make a mental note. Well, if so and so said, it's good food. It is.
Ed Vitagliano Right?
Tim Wildmon Let's go try it. Something like that. So what I'm saying to your point is word of mouth in promoting, something, in this case, if you would tell others about American Family Radio, we may be able to impact more lives. Amen. All right, so, thank you for all those who write checks to us and contribute to AFR because we couldn't make it without you. And thank you for your prayers. And we thank the Lord God Almighty that we are impacting lives so that we can, you, know, impact the kingdom of God on earth and also, who knows, impact our country. Preserve our country, save our country. Right? Amen. All right, thank you for listening.
Our military seized two oil tankers associated with Venezuela this morning
All right, Fred, on to the, on to the negative news. No, I'm just kidding. Not all news is negative, but we do have to cover things that happen in the world that aren't always pleasant. But there's a big story today, right?
Fred Jackson A big story today. You know, our story meeting kind of couple of hours ago. I said the big. One of the big stories today was that our military had seized an oil tanker sanctioned by the U.S. i was wrong. We seized two oil tankers this morning. Number one, a ship that was known as the Bella One. All right, the Bella One, was cruising this morning heading, we believe towards Russia. It's one of these sanctioned vessels. it was just south of Iceland. And our military forces boarded that vessel, oil tanker, as I said, was sanctioned some time ago, back in 2024. it was known then as the Bela one. What happened in recent days is that the Russians renamed it the Marinara and painted a Russian flag on it. Well, it has been observed for some time, but that wasn't going to fool anybody. And so our forces went in and took control of that this morning. Now, since our story meeting this morning, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has revealed that US forces also took control of the tanker Sofia in the Caribbean this morning. Both of these vessels, believed to have been involved not only, with Venezuela, taking oil to various, countries. According to this Associated Press piece, the ship Bela, back in 2024 was allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. Alright, so a lot of this coming together. So with regards to the Venezuela story, that story continues to unfold on multiple fronts. But the big news this morning, we've taken control of two of these vessels that were associated with Venezuela. Both has oil tankers and other cargo, even, involving this terrorist group, Hezbollah.
Ed Vitagliano Well, the Trump administration don't play. I mean, what we've seen in the last. It's not even. I don't think it's a week. I mean, just the last several days, has. Has really been extraordinary. And, listen, I was talking to someone here, on staff this morning about what is happening, what is clearly happening and what might be happening behind the scenes. But the. The Trump administration seems to be, absolutely trying to lock down its own hemisphere, and nothing's going to happen here that we don't want to happen. I don't think that what we did in Venezuela was legal in the, kind of old way of doing things that, you know, just, just war theory or the way the international order has been conducted. But that is, I think, because, circumstances are changing. There's so much uncertainty in the world with, you know, China and Taiwan and Russia and Ukraine and the Middle east, what have you. I think the Trump administration is pivoting to make sure America is protected. And, we're going to make sure we have access to oil, which is, I think, the real reason we did what we did in Venezuela. I don't think it was drugs, but most of the drugs, fentanyl, come, you know, China, through Mexico. and we're going to. We're going to. We're going to make sure we have access to minerals. and I think that's why Greenland's been mentioned, and it doesn't appear to be tongue in cheek anymore. to President Trump's credit, I think he is taking steps to make sure we are protected. We have resources coming to this country that. Because the future is very uncertain.
Tim Wildmon Well, he did announce that. All right, Wesley, go ahead. You have any thoughts on this? And then I'll. Then I'll wax eloquent.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, you will. nothing more to add? I think two things can be. Not much more to add, than what Ed said, other than I think two things can be true at the same time. I do think arrested Maduro, was a part of the factor, I think. But to your point, I think the oil was probably the bigger part, but I think, I just. It's impressive that he's been able.
Tim Wildmon He.
Wesley Wildmon Well, I shouldn't even say Trump, the military has been able to do what they've done without taking any lives. and how. How swift were able to do what they did.
Tim Wildmon Losing your lives on our side. That's right.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, that's right.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon That's What I meant.
Tim Wildmon Thank you. Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon That's why you're there. Right?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Well, you know, one of the reasons, here. I'm not looking for credit.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I never look for credit.
Wesley Wildmon But we haven't lost any lives on our end.
Tim Wildmon Yes. Amen.
Wesley Wildmon And we've been in, and it's been swift and quick. And, I do agree. The biggest part that I agree with that on is that we are, making our presence known in our hemisphere, and it's very effective.
Fred Kaplan: The United States imposed an embargo on Venezuela three weeks ago
Tim Wildmon Listen, a couple things here about this. There's so much related to this Venezuela story, and we're going to get into more of it, and it's happening, you know, in real time, and events are happening almost daily that's impacting, the world, quite frankly. This. We, the United States military, imposed an embargo. Is that what you call it? Or a blockade or both?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, sanctions. Kind, of a blockade. You're not allowed to, what, two, three weeks ago?
Tim Wildmon Something like that? Or was it more than longer than that?
Fred Jackson Well, our ships arrived off of Venezuela back two or three months ago.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but anyway, the blockade went into effect, I want to say, like three weeks ago. Okay. So, I believe I'm correct on this. This particular one ship got through some way because they. They re flagged. Now, I'm not a maritime expert. Fred, you might know more about this than I do, but ships, out on the open seas, it's very important what flag they're flying. Okay. That's a, signal to everybody. you know what, what country is represented here? Ah, with this commerce, usually. So what, this. Because we had an embargo on Venezuela, they, they replaced the Venezuelan flag with the Russian flag because the ship was ultimately going to Russia. Again, I, hope I have my facts right on this, and I think I do. So when the ship reflagged, they did that so that the Americans wouldn't mess with the ship. Right. Because if it's Venezuelan, we'll go in and we'll seize it. But if it's Russian, that requires a second thought, because would this provoke something worse and militarily, a conflict with Russia if we seized a ship flying under their flag? So that's what happened. We waited till it got near Iceland, Right?
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon Well, you talk about a whiplash of weather. We're going from Venezuela and sailing the Pratts in the Caribbean. And next. And next thing we know, here come these American stormtroopers, in the North Atlantic. In the North Atlantic. So, anyway, do you know, Fred yet? Has there Been any response from Russia on this?
Fred Jackson not as of this moment. We did have reports earlier this morning that the Russians had sent one of their submarines out to escort, the marinara.
Tim Wildmon This is a hunt for Red October right here. This is getting good.
Fred Jackson This is movie stuff. You're exactly right. yeah. This vessel was between Iceland and northern Scotland, and somewhere in there, our forces, which have been monitoring it, coast guard vests, all that sort of thing, and they decided, they weren't going to let this ship go any further, and they boarded it. This morning.
Ed Vitagliano I saw a little notice on the BBC here. we do get the news feeds from four major networks inside the studio while we're on the air. And the little crawler said that the UK helped the US with, boarding this ship.
Fred Jackson which is really interesting.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, listen, that's why I said there are. There's all kinds of things going on underneath.
Tim Wildmon Moving parts.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, all kinds of moving parts.
I did not mean to imply getting Maduro was not part of what we did
By the way, let me, let me just kind of clarify something I'd said earlier because Wesley makes a good point. I, I did not mean to imply that getting Maduro was not really part of, what we did in Venezuela. It was all about getting Maduro, because we don't want a communist country in Venezuela that has been cozying up to China and Russia and Iran. And Iran and supplying oil to China.
Tim Wildmon Who have the largest oil reserves in the world.
Ed Vitagliano Largest oil reserves in the world. And the United States just, I think, just made in the Trump administration, just made a very practical strategic decision. We're not having that in our hemisphere. Maduro's the problem. He's been indicted with. We're going to use that as a pretext.
Wesley Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano and, and say we're going to go get him. But I don't think it was really about the indictment. I think we, we want Venezuela being returned to the Venezuelan people who are not going to choose communists. Right, to run them. And then the oil then becomes what our oil companies did. And creating the infrastructure to make that oil accessible will now be back in business.
Tim Wildmon So in addition to the narco charges, he also has a late library card.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, that's right.
Tim Wildmon There are three books that are missing.
Ed Vitagliano He has videos that were due back at Blockbuster.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano Years ago. 20 years ago.
Tim Wildmon Years ago. So he's had this against him for this long.
Wesley Wildmon We waited the first time until today's issues that I've been on here, where y' all throw. Thrown back something in history that I actually can relate to, which is Blockbuster. Blockbuster's right there so anything beyond anything before Blockbuster, y' all talk about. I'm out.
Ed Vitagliano You just. You're just.
Wesley Wildmon I just sit here.
Ed Vitagliano You might as well just scroll the Internet.
Wesley Wildmon Coffee?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Who would have ever. Blockbuster doesn't even exist anymore. Who would ever thought it?
Wesley Wildmon Well, who would have thought the, the DVDs used to go up the red boxes?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, they're gone, too. They're gone, too.
Wesley Wildmon They were for about three to five years. They're gone.
Tim Wildmon They're gone.
Central and South America are celebrating President Trump's decision to oust Maduro
All right, you're listening to today's issues on American Family radio. Go to afr.net or listen online or download our app. Listen anywhere you go. Afr, American Family Radio. Tim, Ed, Wesley and Fred, by the way, the news that Maduro had been captured and extradited to the U.S. was met with, happiness and elation and jubilation all over Central and South America. Right, Fred?
Fred Jackson That is correct. Countries like Chile and others, where many Venezuelans have fled because of the dictator Maduro, are celebrating this.
Tim Wildmon Well, not only Venezuelans who fled, but other people, just natives of those countries in South America, Central America, realized what Ed was talking about, how Maduro had destabilized, basically, the region and was terrorizing people and gangs. the gangs that were out of Venezuela were starting to spread. And so he,
Ed Vitagliano think so.
Tim Wildmon The polling, that they're getting from, these places. Do you have that in front of you?
Wesley Wildmon I can pull it up.
Ed Vitagliano well, it was in the 70s and 80% in terms of approval.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano In. In, Latin America.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah. So they, they are celebrating this, decision by President Trump to, go in and get Maduro out. all right, Fred, next story.
President Trump has said he's interested in gaining control of Greenland
Fred Jackson All right, next story. Greenland has another spot. President, Trump in recent days has said once again he's interested in, gaining control of Greenland for much the same reasons. Concerns about, Russia and China and their military threats to this country. And, there's been even talk President Trump sometimes says things, this is going to shock you. Kind of comes off maybe as sounding something, maybe he didn't mean. He said something yesterday about even using the military. Now, that. That upset a lot of people. To the point.
Tim Wildmon You mean to take the fishing village, right? That is Greenland.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Or a little bit more. anyway, Denmark. There's a headline this morning. Denmark and Greenland want a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to have a discussion about this. Now, Senator Lindsey Graham, was asked about this. He was on Air Force One the other day with the president. He was Asked about, you know, where does he see the Greenland thing going. Here's what he had to say. Cut number 14.
Ed Vitagliano I'd like to build up the American.
Tim Wildmon Presence in Greenland economically and militarily. That would be beneficial to NATO.
Wesley Wildmon I got a call today from the Danish, ambassador.
Ed Vitagliano this will be a work in progress. That was Lindsey Graham.
Fred Jackson That was Lindsey Graham, yes.
Tim Wildmon Why would the Danish ambassador call him?
Ed Vitagliano Well, Greenland is under Danish control.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Is it called. Isn't called the Kingdomnomics.
Ed Vitagliano Kingdomnomics of Denmark.
Tim Wildmon Denmark.
Ed Vitagliano I mean, it's. It's got a democratic, government, but still have a king.
Tim Wildmon Like a Disney movie, doesn't it? The Kingdomnomics of Denmark.
Ed Vitagliano The Kingdomnomics of Denmark. King Triton.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. I just say let it go. That's what I say about it.
Ed Vitagliano Well, you could sing it if you.
Tim Wildmon If I will, I will later. This is a. I think the reason I'm asking that the Denmark, ambassador is calling Lindsey Graham, a senior, you know, member of the United States Senate and probably on the Armed Services Committee. I'm not sure, but, is probably to talk, say, probably calling him to say, what in the world is your president talking about here taking over our country? not our country, but territory. Our territory that we were a part of. Denmark.
Ed Vitagliano So, Greenland. I mentioned earlier the oil in Venezuela. Greenland. So I typed in a little search for this. This, this says Greenland possesses vast and largely untapped mineral resources, including rare earth elements. So this is incredibly important for, for computers and computer chips and chips and phones and all of that. and it lists a lot of those. One of them is called scandium. I've never heard of these. Neodymium toothpaste.
Tim Wildmon Scandium is. Look on your ingredients on a toothp, see.
Ed Vitagliano If you don't see.
Tim Wildmon If you don't see scanning them on.
Wesley Wildmon There, you get distracted quickly though, as you begin to read them because you'll say, now is that one on there?
Tim Wildmon Very important, very important mineral.
Ed Vitagliano These are critical for electric vehicles, wind turbines, advanced electronics and defense technologies. The island hosts some of the largest alkaline rock hosted, rare earth elements deposits in the world. Okay, so that is something obviously of interest to the US because, China is a, competitor when it comes to these rare earth, minerals.
Tim Wildmon It. It is.
Wesley Wildmon And then. Yes, but yesterday to dad, in addition to that, dad mentioned, he read an article about the importance of the military, strategic military locations as well, because.
Ed Vitagliano Of the, not only the closeness, proximity to Europe, but also to the Arctic region.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon Which is being contested by they say if missiles come. Comes over. Come over. If missiles come over from Russia. Yeah. they're going to come right to the US Or Canada. They come over, right, come over that. If they go there, they come over that. That's right.
Ed Vitagliano So I will, I will give it to hand it to President Trump. He is making every effort when he says make America great again. He is making every effort to ensure our future. you can debate about and argue again about the technical legality of what we did in Venezuela, but should the world come into a time of, a lot of instability or Even World War 3, we will want to have resources close at hand to keep our economy functioning.
Tim Wildmon And this is not exactly just a, what do you call it when, grab and go situation with, with respect to Greenland. This isn't just, there are some legitimate claims to why we need a presence, on that island. We'll talk about that when we get back from, beyond what you talked about.
Today's Issues is sponsored by Preborn. To donate, dial £250
Fred Jackson We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial £250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com.
Tim Wildmon This is Today's Issues.
Ed Vitagliano Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcast of today's Issues are available for listening.
Tim Wildmon And viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of Today's Issues.
Tim: I'm thinking ahead with US And Greenland. How many people are thinking like that
Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Today's Issues, the name of this program. Tim, Ed, Wesley and Fred here. Okay, fellas. So I'm seeing what's happening, but with the US And Greenland.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You said, Ed, we off the, We were off the air and we were talking. There's, I read it, reports of 30 to 50,000 people.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, that's it.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. That's how many we have in Tupelo.
Ed Vitagliano Exactly.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Where our flagship station is.
Tim Wildmon Right. So my question is. Well, I'm thinking ahead. I, mean, I'm 63. Yeah. No, I'm 62 and a half. I'm gonna be 60.
Ed Vitagliano I know what you're gonna say.
Tim Wildmon 63 in March. I'm not a fan of cold weather at all. Right below 50, I start complaining. that shouldn't.
Ed Vitagliano A lot.
Tim Wildmon That shouldn't. But. But I do it anyway. So when I get to heaven, I'm expecting 72 and clear. That isn't what I was going to say.
Ed Vitagliano You really will get 72.
Tim Wildmon But we're looking out ahead here and we all have to look out for our own retirement. Right?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon It's some money.
Ed Vitagliano I know what you're saying.
Tim Wildmon So you, you follow me here.
Ed Vitagliano I'm going to move right next door.
Tim Wildmon That's what I'm talking about. Ed and I, we're on the same thing. We know that the United States of America is fixing to go over there and write million dollar checks to every one of those fishermen. Okay. We all know that's going to happen. Yeah. To buy so that they can buy. We can buy Greenland without having to send the rangers in or buy.
Ed Vitagliano Or a 99 year lease.
Tim Wildmon A 90. That's right. A 99 year lease.
Wesley Wildmon Very strategic. China's buying up crop land in the United States.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So that's true. That's true, Wesley. So Ed and I, we get a summer home.
Ed Vitagliano Yes. In our primary residence in Greenland we'll call it.
Tim Wildmon And we'll get. And we'll. We'll wait for the US Government to come around with their million dollar check for us.
Ed Vitagliano Yep.
Tim Wildmon How many people are thinking like that? Right.
Ed Vitagliano Because what Europe is saying and what the kingdom of Denmark is. Denmark is that Greenland's future should be determined by Greenlanders.
Tim Wildmon And it's about to be. Well, open up the check and every. So the, so the fishermen in Greenland. Yeah. Are going to have to decide do we want to continue to go out here and try to harpoon whales or we just want to take, take the cash from the. From, can do that part time.
Ed Vitagliano They can harpoon whales all they want.
Tim Wildmon They could do that.
Ed Vitagliano Club seals.
Tim Wildmon They could do it for recreation, not for survival.
Wesley Wildmon Hey, did y'.
Tim Wildmon All.
Wesley Wildmon Did y' all know trivia question that the majority of Greenlanders were just, they had. They came from North America. So I just want to say they're. They're part Americans already anyway.
Tim Wildmon well, yeah. So I don't know that I thought they were European.
Wesley Wildmon No.
Tim Wildmon So, I'll find here probably Canadians over there. Fred might be a natives. Decided to go east. Go east, young man.
Fred Jackson They follow the cod wherever the cod goes.
Ed Vitagliano Gotta love that codfish. Good codfish sandwich.
You say migrated Michigan. You're saying migration, right? You can. Read it however your dialect speaks to you
Tim Wildmon All right, Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon There we go. Descendants. They're descendants who migrated from north.
Tim Wildmon You say migrated?
Wesley Wildmon Migrated.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Just want to make sure I'm interpreting it.
Wesley Wildmon Migrated.
Tim Wildmon You want migrated Michigan. So they could understand what you're saying. You're saying migration, right?
Ed Vitagliano You can.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, go ahead and read it.
Wesley Wildmon You want the shun on there?
Tim Wildmon Oh, no, I'm gonna be quiet. Read it however your dialect speaks to you. Go ahead, read it.
Wesley Wildmon Descendants who might. These are the. The origins of the people that live there.
Tim Wildmon In Greenland.
Wesley Wildmon In Greenland. Or descendants who migrated from North America with some Norse settlers. Nor's source.
Tim Wildmon Norsc. That's the Viking people.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Big.
Tim Wildmon Right in.
Ed Vitagliano Big Vikings.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon Ah, around 1200 A.D. so there.
Tim Wildmon anyway.
Tim Ferriss: President Trump reinserts Monroe Doctrine to make us safer
All right, well, we'll see what happens there. You're listening to today's issues. and joining us now is Sandy, Rios, host of Sandy Rios 247 podcast, which is a very popular podcast here on our website. If you go to afr.net you can download any of Sandy's shows she does two times a week. just a lot of excellent inside information you won't get anywhere else. You, can find that on afr.net with Sandy Rios 24 7. good morning, Sandy.
Sandy Rios Good morning, Tim and gang. How are you guys?
Ed Vitagliano Good. Sandy, do you, do you want to, buy a home in the neighborhood? We're going to develop.
Sandy Rios Absolutely, absolutely. You know, but could I give a sober response? Say what's happening, you guys, is, this whole. Relate to the Monroe Doctrine, which I don't think people are familiar with. And the president. Remote. I can't talk. I was just very.
Tim Wildmon You were going to give a sober response? Go ahead.
Sandy Rios My brain has emptied itself of his contents in the last meeting. But no, President Monroe, made this part of our foreign policy. And the reason he did, I think it was 1832, something like that, because it was, European powers like France, Britain, Spain, all had designs on North America. They were still trying to do colonies. and so America at that time was concerned that we were vulnerable if any of these foreign entities from another hemisphere came in and started building bases and structures and building power bases in our hemisphere. And so it has been American law since that time that Americans have a right. We are the, big dog in the Western hemisphere and that we have the right to go in and, and extract any, any group or nation group that's coming into our hemisphere and trying to do something dangerous now with Greenland, China is very involved there. There's a lot of fishing. You probably heard this, a lot of fishing. There's waterways. That's what's involved there. And then, of course, you know, in Venezuela, the real, the deep issue there is that we have Russia, we Have China, we have, Iran. All of our enemies, are using, Venezuela as a launching pad, taking the oil and using it to do, all kinds of terrorism around the world and drugs. For us, it's a mess. It should have been stopped a long time ago. So this is all, from my perspective, part of President Trump really restating reinserting Monroe Doctrine to make us safer. Because as long as they can have a base and Chinese can travel in those, waterways in Greenland and build up a power, a, military power up there, we are in much more danger. And so that's, that's why this is happening.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And I kind of, tongue in cheek, some people had started calling this now the Don Row Doctrine.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Ed Vitagliano For Donald Trump instead of Monroe, it was Don Row.
Tim Wildmon Well, this reminds me, although, I was a mere infant at the time, I think. I don't know, when was the, when was the Cuban, missile crisis?
Ed Vitagliano 62. Okay, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Tim Wildmon I was in my mama's belly.
Ed Vitagliano Oh.
Tim Wildmon And at that time. But, but, but I know about that. The Bay of Pigs, what happened there? Well, that was separate from Bay of Pigs. Never mind. That was separate from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Am I right? Yeah.
Sandy Rios So it gets confusing. But there's two different. They're big issues, but they're separate.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but. Okay, but, but back to my point about the, Russian Missile crisis, which was the issue that John F. Kennedy had to deal with when he was in office, is the Russians were wanting to, establish a beachhead, so to speak, in the Caribbean, 90 miles from Florida and with missiles. And President Kennedy said, no, you're not going to do that. Not in our neighborhood.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon You're not going to, you want to, set up, ah, missiles in Cuba. And so, you know, that was a very tense moment, in the history of our country. But, to Kennedy's credit and to the, you know, to. Lord, yeah. We were able to avoid a nuclear confrontation there in that situation, or at least some kind of war, act of war. So, But, that was really invoking the Monroe Doctrine as well. Right, right.
Sandy Rios Well, yes, the whole notion, yes, the whole notion that we are not going to let some foreign entity from a different hemisphere come here and establish a stronghold, military and otherwise. we have the right, right to, to control them, to kick them out. And that's why, you know, that's why Venezuela. You know, the other thing is just on China, you know, China has. They've done so many things to expand their influence, but one of Them is the Belt and Road Initiative. I'm sure you heard of that. They've gone into Africa. They've practically swallowed up all of Africa with, you, know, promising to build roads and all of these things for the sake of presence and power. I have a friend that's from Zimbabwe, and she told me the Zimbabweans hate the Chinese because they have just virtually come in and they're sucking out the lifeblood and the economy of Zimbabwe. That's just one country. Well, they're doing the same thing in South America, and they were just getting ready to. To sign whatever you do with China to make an agreement with Venezuela to develop a Belt and Road initiative in Venezuela. So that's one of the very important things that was happening that we had to stop.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. With respect to, Communist China and Africa, they are. It isn't that Africa is a militarily strategic place to be. It's that the businessmen, representing the communist Chinese government want access to all the.
Sandy: President Trump talked about taking the Panama Canal back
We've mentioned this before, just talking about it with Greenland. The natural resources.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Sandy Rios Yes, exactly.
Tim Wildmon And the minerals and all those things that are available. So the Chinese very influential on the continent of Africa by, you know, as you say, Sandy, promising to do things. And sometimes in the case, doing things.
Sandy Rios Yes.
Tim Wildmon To help the infrastructure or the people of Africa because Africa is poor and Africa's, you know, many, ways a, Third world continent. So they're going there for those reasons. But yeah. So the Chinese are spreading, you know, their tentacles are reaching around the globe right now. And I think with respect to Venezuela, President Trump said, he hasn't. I don't think he's talked. Maybe he's talked about China here, but, you know, related again back to, back to the Monroe Doctrine. You know, President Trump came in and said, the Panama Canal. You remember this, right? The Panama Canal, which is essential to commerce of the United States. My goodness. I mean, otherwise.
Sandy Rios And Jimmy Carter sold it to China. Let Panama sell it to China.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. What an idiotic move that was. and you could argue treasonous in a way. But anyway, the ships would have to go around the tip of South America. So, I mean, it's not. And not to mention, I think President Trump was more concerned too, about our military.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Be having access to the. To the Panama Canal. Right.
Wesley Wildmon That's on his list.
Sandy Rios And I think you can look for Panama to be. Yeah, I can't count. Cuba and Panama may be next.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so. So let me just say this. And ah, you know, I'M not a military expert or a geopolitical expert, although I get confused for. From. For being one at times.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon You know, when I'm out at dinner with people.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And. But let me just say this. When President Trump came in and he started talking about taking the Panama Canal. Okay. I think we've all learned now with President Trump, he, his words are just. He just throws them out there. Okay. That's just his personality. And sometimes he says things that you would go, you really, as president shouldn't say that. Like that. Okay. Or at least that's not always the way we've done it or that's not going to be helpful. I mean. All right. So with. But then, oftentimes we learn six months later, later or a year later, you go, now I see why he said what he said. Yeah. So that's just the way it is, with him. And he. His political instincts on these matters are.
Wesley Wildmon In the team around them.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. On the team. The team around him are very, very important. so, So when. When we heard him say, well, we're going to take the Panama Canal back, you're going, what in the world. You just. So you're just going to go in there and take over the Panama Canal because you can. That just sounds wrong, you know, to most people. But then you go, wait a minute. he's talking about, there's a strategy.
Wesley Wildmon There's a reason.
Tim Wildmon He knows that China is coming in and they may take the Panama Canal themselves.
Sandy Rios And then they already. Of course, they already had. And here's the thing.
Tim Wildmon They already had.
Sandy Rios Tim, We. Yes. The Panama. I can't talk today. The Panamanians had turned over control of the Panama Canal to the Chinese. So that's, That was already. And as I said, that happened during Jimmy Carter's time. So that was just horrible what he did. And so no one did anything about it. and so that's. He's taking care of business. And,
Tim Ferriss: The Chinese have been selling military equipment to Venezuela
One thing kind of funny. Well, amusing to me, you know, the Chinese, you don't know probably. But I know because I just did a show.
Tim Wildmon Ah.
Sandy Rios On this a couple of days ago. The Chinese have been selling military equipment to Venezuela. And, guess how that worked last week. That military equipment that China sold to the citizens.
Tim Wildmon Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah. It didn't work. Well, and then, you know, the bodyguards from Maduro were Cuban.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Sandy Rios Oh, yes. Well, yes, The Cubans have been in Venezuela for years. let me.
Tim Wildmon Or they're advanced now.
Sandy Rios Let Me try to make. Make this clear and save my, you know, long passages here, but when the Soviet Union fell, the Cubans kind of took over, because the Russians had, come down in South America and Central America. You remember all of those uprisings because the communists believed in taking over by military control, you know, forcing their way into governments. But after Russia fell, they devised a new plan, and that was to take over, through the democratic system. Maduro was one of the first in central South America that did that. He was elected fairly way, back when he was elected, but he immediately started. Not Maduro. Yes, thank you. Chavez did that. He got elected, and then he began to disband the Supreme Court, the, legislative establishment. He began to take over businesses, persecute churches. Yes. And then you couldn't get him out because he did away with the constitution, but he was elected to the democratic system. And so that's what's been happening, Tim. And that came from Cuba, so. Because Castro was one of the ones that devised that plan. So the Cubans came into Venezuela, I guess after Chavez, I'm not exactly sure where, but they've been there for years, and they have been the ones controlling the place. They've been the ones enforcing all of those horrible, draconian things on the people of Venezuela. The persecution that's been. The Cubans.
Tim Wildmon Do you know whose stature has risen greatly in politics in the last few months?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, please, Tim, don't. Don't do this.
Tim Wildmon Well, don't talk about me.
Ed Vitagliano You need to stay where you are.
Tim Wildmon I really don't think you should run for anything. You're more valuable to us.
Ed Vitagliano Okay.
Tim Wildmon yeah, being county commissioner, you don't. You don't. You don't need that. people calling you, telling their ditch is backed up. Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Trust me, you don't want that. Or I gotta get these wild dogs out of my yard. Something like that.
Ed Vitagliano You've been listening to my phone call the alligator.
Sandy Rios Alligators? After the Florida.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Where Sandy lives. You get calls about how commissioner got alligator in my backyard. What are you gonna do about it? so, Marco Rubio, the former senator from Florida.
Ed Vitagliano That's true.
Tim Wildmon And the current secretary of State, because, you know, I know President Trump's. President Trump himself deserves the most credit for some of these, big items that have taken place that benefited peace and stability in the world. Like taking out the Iranian nuclear facilities. Yeah, I mean, I just. I think Marco Rubio stature has risen, whatever that looks like in the future. I'm not sure. I've heard that he and Vice President Vance are. They've both set out their buddies, their time, friends in the administration, and if they may end up running together next time around, of course, we're, we're a ways out from that. A couple years.
Wesley Wildmon Three more years of taking over. Blowing up boats and taking over land.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano so anyway, questions later.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
There are stunning new revelations about the 2020 election and the fraud thereof
Tim Wildmon All right, Sandy, well, what do you got coming up on your, on your next podcast?
Sandy Rios that's a good question. No, I do know. I did. I just did a bunch of them. I got to remember what I just did.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Sandy Rios The ones that just ran. I interviewed Dr. Paul Coyer, who's an international expert, works, for the Institute of World Politics. His wife is Venezuelan. And we talk about why Trump took out Maduro, which was. And then, oh, gosh, this one. There are absolutely stunning new revelations about the. Excuse me just a second. Sorry, my voice is giving me trouble. there are stunning new revelations about the 2020 election and the fraud thereof. and there is a whole team that's been convened that you wouldn't have heard of. And I just heard of it because I know someone involved. I just got through with, an hour and a half briefing, further information on this, and I can't, I guess I can say. What I can say is, you might recall that Tulsi Gabbard, at a cabinet, meeting, I believe the first one said, out of the blue, we are, we are all over what happened with the voting machines in 2020. That's basically what she said. And so. Excuse me. I can tell you that there are people that are pulling out all the stops. there are people who have turned evidence. This is going to go into the courts. there are people that were very involved in making, this happen, this fraud, and they've been under protection now for the last year or so, and they're going to be testifying, and there's a whole lot more to the story. It's, it's not time to break it, but let me just say it is. I did, we did talk about it in my last podcast, stunning revelations on the 2020 election. So I would just recommend that to people.
Ed Vitagliano Well, as long as someone goes to prison, I, I, I'm tired of investigations, and no one pays a price. You know, revelations out of Georgia, about voting irregularities and outright fraud. I just want someone to go to prison.
Sandy Rios Yeah, well, that's actually, that is part of this effort. Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, there's all kinds of stuff breaking loose. and there. And what's going to happen is they're going to have factual information. You know what the media always says this is not really true, but they always say the courts heard this and, you know, there was no real evidence. Well, that was never true. But now they're going deeper and there's going to be real indisputable testimony and evidence and real, documents to prove what many of us have thought for a long time.
Tim Wildmon All right, Sandy, take care. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Sandy Rios My pleasure.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, Sandy, before you go, Tim and I will send you a brochure right. About the, cul de. Cul de sac we're going to be setting up.
Sandy Rios That sounds like fun, actually.
Tim Wildmon Again, the idea is, sinister on our part, but it will benefit us financially greatly if we go ahead, get our property set up in Greenland. They we act shocked and surprised when the American government offers us to pay us a lot of money so that we become a territory.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. A vassal state.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And no longer. We don't have to worry about, as Fred said, fishing for cod like a living. Okay. We just play the part of fishermen.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon All right, thanks, Sandy. Appreciate it.
Sandy Rios All right, good to talk to you guys.
Tim Wildmon Bye. Bye.
Wesley: Go to afr. net that's our website
All right, if you want to listen to Sandy's, twice a week podcast release, what do they need to do?
Wesley Wildmon Wesley, go to afr.net that's afr.net click podcast and there you can. She has all, all of her program or all of her podcasts archived there.
Ed Vitagliano You just scroll down.
Wesley Wildmon Yep, scroll down.
Tim Wildmon I want to tell it. Yeah, I want to tell everybody to, go take time today to go to afr.net because I was looking at it this morning. Afr.net that's our website. And then you have the podcast, which are. You can listen on demand. You just, It's very easy to do. Don't be intimidated by the word podcast. It's very easy to do. And, we have podcasts here from all our shows. And Sandy, show is very popular. Sandy Rios podcast. It's called Sandy Rios 24 7. All you do is go to afr.net and you can see it for yourself. And then, I text Stephen McDowell, my friend at the Providence Foundation. He's the president, of the Providence foundation and the historian. And many people listening to us have been on our tours where Stephen provides, commentary. And his podcast is getting like 20, I think in December had like 22, 23,000 downloads which were who is this for? Whisper and for. Relatively.
Wesley Wildmon I was one of the 20.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Stephen McDowell's. Oh, okay. It's called. It's the America's Providential History Podcast.
Ed Vitagliano I see it right here.
Tim Wildmon And if you go there and click on there, you'll see he's got shows running back from, Let's see.
Wesley Wildmon He did a really good Christmas series leading up to Christmas Day.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Where's the history of the podcast, though? scroll down. if I go on afr.net okay, click on that.
Wesley Wildmon Click on it and scroll down. And that's how you pick the topic that you.
Tim Wildmon Okay, mine's not showing that, so.
Ed Vitagliano Well, just click on it. Okay.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, it's because you've already clicked on it. So if you were to go back now.
Tim Wildmon Okay, you'd say, pardon us, folks, talk amongst yourselves while we, fool around on the Internet here for a minute. What am I supposed to do here?
Ed Vitagliano All right, Click on that.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Ed Vitagliano All right, now scroll down. Keep going. Keep. Oh, no, Tim's right. It's. It's not showing it. It's showing up on mine.
Tim Wildmon I'm telling you, the Chinese have bugged my computer. People don't believe me.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, but, it's showing what you're looking at.
Tim Wildmon I see what he's looking at, but it's not on my mind. Maybe we got different browsers.
Wesley Wildmon No, I m meant showing what you're looking at so you can continue describing what you were trying to do.
Ed Vitagliano Okay, well, yeah, so there's a. There's a list. January 6th. America's decline and what to do about it. Part one, obviously, that's going to continue. December 30th. Christ ever increasing Kingdomnomics. Part I listen to part, part two, three, four, all.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, there's some. There's some great podcasts there on our website, afr.net I was just recommending two there. Sandy Rio 24 7, and then Stephen McDowell's America's Providential History. The only place you can get that is right here on afr.net afr.
Ed Vitagliano Frank Turek. Yeah. Jenna Ellis, You've got Trivia Friday.
Tim Wildmon Trivia Friday. We archive those shows, the podcast, those shows, today's issues, which is, the number one downloaded podcast show on afr.
Ed Vitagliano Maybe in the world. We don't know. We.
Tim Wildmon We don't know. But maybe it sounds like. Sounds like we're bragging, right? But they say that if. If you can do it, it's not bragging. Have you ever heard that before?
Ed Vitagliano Yes, I have.
Fred: Happy cod fishing, Fred
Tim Wildmon Okay. We will take a short time out for Fred. Sorry you couldn't speak any more than you did, but happy cod fishing.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon We'll be back. The views and opinions expressed in this.
Sandy Rios Broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of.
Tim Wildmon The American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim Wildman has some great tours lined up for 2026
Tim Wildmon Hello, everyone. Tim Wildmon here. We've got some great tours lined up. 2026, Washington, D.C. george Washington's Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, historic Jamestown, Boston, Massachusetts, and that Greater area. So, so much to see and do in 2026. If you want information on any of these trips, go to wildmangroup.com wildmon group.com and we'll see you on, one of our tours in 2026.
Tim Wildman hosts Today's Issues on American Family Radio
Ed Vitagliano Welcome to today's Issues, offering a Christian.
Tim Wildmon Response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. Okay, I literally just put my headset on, so I made it.
Wesley Wildmon Really?
Ed Vitagliano Technically.
Wesley Wildmon Technically, you're not huffing a puff.
Tim Wildmon this is live radio, right? So if I'm not in my seat by the time it goes live, you guys have to take it or dead air or we play Perry Como.
Ed Vitagliano So we were actually having this discussion because I think you were, getting your coffee.
Tim Wildmon I got caught by jj.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, well, that's.
Tim Wildmon You get caught by JJ in the hall.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Because he says, this will just take a second. This will just take a second.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano so I just. So, folks, if you're a regular listener of this show and you tune in, right, and you're expecting to hear Tim, but you hear me, okay, that means Tim is in the hallway on his way in for whatever the reason, and. And.
Tim Wildmon Or I'm out of town.
Ed Vitagliano Well, yeah, if I continue to talk as the host of the show, that means Tim's out. I usually will say Ed Tagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon today.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Anyway, welcome to the program, everybody. It's called Today's Issues on American Family Radio. We're here every Monday through Friday, and Wesley Wildmon. Good morning, brother Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon Good morning.
Tim Wildmon Wesley's my Christian brother. He's also my boy. He's my oldest son. doesn't act like it all the time, but, he is Fred Jackson, our veteran newsman. How you doing, brother Fred?
Fred Jackson I'm doing just fine.
American Family Radio asks its listeners to tell others about the station
Tim Wildmon Okay, so, we wanted to. What? Was there anything right there? I got something in the mail. Listen. We get letters almost daily.
Wesley Wildmon Either emails or letters or sometimes handwritten notes.
Tim Wildmon Handwritten notes. And, they're almost always encouraging.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon and so I brought one yesterday, and I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I just wanted to read to people to know how we are generally. We are genuinely ministering to people here on American Family.
Ed Vitagliano Amen.
Tim Wildmon I know that sometimes our news is all always good in terms of world events and what's going on in our country. But, but, I read a letter yesterday from a handwritten note from. From a lady, who was 93. Oh, wow. And she had great penmanship. 93 years old. She wrote me.
Ed Vitagliano People who are 93 years old, general genuine, generally are going to have great penmanship. nowadays, not so much because there's. Everyone uses devices.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, this was a typed out letter from a gentleman in Virginia and I won't give his name because he didn't. I didn't ask him for permission.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon But he said, dear Mr. Wildmon, I hope you receive this letter and consider my heartfelt appreciation for your ministry and the work of American Family radio. I discovered AFR in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and believe it was God's guidance that led me to your radio station. As a police officer, I spend most of my time on the road and find comfort in listening to AFR during my daily travels. I have been a daily listener since then and enjoy programs like Today's Issues. I have recently become a partner that is a financial partner with us. He supports us and look forward to contributing more to your ministry in the future. he said, I recently joined a Baptist church with my wife and our three sons and they're being raised with Christian values, including our oldest who attends a Christian school. Anyway, he just wanted to say, I pray for American Family Radio will continue to grow, reaching new listeners and bring glory to the Lord by honoring him during these uncertain times. And just some other things that he said here. But it was a police officer in Virginia who found us on the radio during COVID and has been listening ever since. And what he wanted to say was he also goes on to say here that it impacted our ministry, impacted his life for him sort of to get back in church and get back to taking his faith seriously.
Wesley Wildmon M. And obviously the ripple effect to his family.
Tim Wildmon Amen.
Ed Vitagliano And probably other people he knows. He just joined a church.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Folks, we do ask our listeners to tell your friends and family and church fellow church members about American Family Radio. You're our best form of advertisement. And it's it's something that helps your friends and family.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano As they listen to God.
Tim Wildmon You know, we can advertise, and we can, you know, do our own promotions all day, every day. But you know how when you somebody you trust says, you really need.
Wesley Wildmon To read this or you really need.
Tim Wildmon To go listen, go to the. Or we go to this restaurant. You know, people say something like that and you say, well, you make a mental note. Well, if so and so said, it's good food. It is.
Ed Vitagliano Right?
Tim Wildmon Let's go try it. Something like that. So what I'm saying to your point is word of mouth in promoting, something, in this case, if you would tell others about American Family Radio, we may be able to impact more lives. Amen. All right, so, thank you for all those who write checks to us and contribute to AFR because we couldn't make it without you. And thank you for your prayers. And we thank the Lord God Almighty that we are impacting lives so that we can, you, know, impact the kingdom of God on earth and also, who knows, impact our country. Preserve our country, save our country. Right? Amen. All right, thank you for listening.
Our military seized two oil tankers associated with Venezuela this morning
All right, Fred, on to the, on to the negative news. No, I'm just kidding. Not all news is negative, but we do have to cover things that happen in the world that aren't always pleasant. But there's a big story today, right?
Fred Jackson A big story today. You know, our story meeting kind of couple of hours ago. I said the big. One of the big stories today was that our military had seized an oil tanker sanctioned by the U.S. i was wrong. We seized two oil tankers this morning. Number one, a ship that was known as the Bella One. All right, the Bella One, was cruising this morning heading, we believe towards Russia. It's one of these sanctioned vessels. it was just south of Iceland. And our military forces boarded that vessel, oil tanker, as I said, was sanctioned some time ago, back in 2024. it was known then as the Bela one. What happened in recent days is that the Russians renamed it the Marinara and painted a Russian flag on it. Well, it has been observed for some time, but that wasn't going to fool anybody. And so our forces went in and took control of that this morning. Now, since our story meeting this morning, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has revealed that US forces also took control of the tanker Sofia in the Caribbean this morning. Both of these vessels, believed to have been involved not only, with Venezuela, taking oil to various, countries. According to this Associated Press piece, the ship Bela, back in 2024 was allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. Alright, so a lot of this coming together. So with regards to the Venezuela story, that story continues to unfold on multiple fronts. But the big news this morning, we've taken control of two of these vessels that were associated with Venezuela. Both has oil tankers and other cargo, even, involving this terrorist group, Hezbollah.
Ed Vitagliano Well, the Trump administration don't play. I mean, what we've seen in the last. It's not even. I don't think it's a week. I mean, just the last several days, has. Has really been extraordinary. And, listen, I was talking to someone here, on staff this morning about what is happening, what is clearly happening and what might be happening behind the scenes. But the. The Trump administration seems to be, absolutely trying to lock down its own hemisphere, and nothing's going to happen here that we don't want to happen. I don't think that what we did in Venezuela was legal in the, kind of old way of doing things that, you know, just, just war theory or the way the international order has been conducted. But that is, I think, because, circumstances are changing. There's so much uncertainty in the world with, you know, China and Taiwan and Russia and Ukraine and the Middle east, what have you. I think the Trump administration is pivoting to make sure America is protected. And, we're going to make sure we have access to oil, which is, I think, the real reason we did what we did in Venezuela. I don't think it was drugs, but most of the drugs, fentanyl, come, you know, China, through Mexico. and we're going to. We're going to. We're going to make sure we have access to minerals. and I think that's why Greenland's been mentioned, and it doesn't appear to be tongue in cheek anymore. to President Trump's credit, I think he is taking steps to make sure we are protected. We have resources coming to this country that. Because the future is very uncertain.
Tim Wildmon Well, he did announce that. All right, Wesley, go ahead. You have any thoughts on this? And then I'll. Then I'll wax eloquent.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, you will. nothing more to add? I think two things can be. Not much more to add, than what Ed said, other than I think two things can be true at the same time. I do think arrested Maduro, was a part of the factor, I think. But to your point, I think the oil was probably the bigger part, but I think, I just. It's impressive that he's been able.
Tim Wildmon He.
Wesley Wildmon Well, I shouldn't even say Trump, the military has been able to do what they've done without taking any lives. and how. How swift were able to do what they did.
Tim Wildmon Losing your lives on our side. That's right.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, that's right.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon That's What I meant.
Tim Wildmon Thank you. Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon That's why you're there. Right?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Well, you know, one of the reasons, here. I'm not looking for credit.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I never look for credit.
Wesley Wildmon But we haven't lost any lives on our end.
Tim Wildmon Yes. Amen.
Wesley Wildmon And we've been in, and it's been swift and quick. And, I do agree. The biggest part that I agree with that on is that we are, making our presence known in our hemisphere, and it's very effective.
Fred Kaplan: The United States imposed an embargo on Venezuela three weeks ago
Tim Wildmon Listen, a couple things here about this. There's so much related to this Venezuela story, and we're going to get into more of it, and it's happening, you know, in real time, and events are happening almost daily that's impacting, the world, quite frankly. This. We, the United States military, imposed an embargo. Is that what you call it? Or a blockade or both?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, sanctions. Kind, of a blockade. You're not allowed to, what, two, three weeks ago?
Tim Wildmon Something like that? Or was it more than longer than that?
Fred Jackson Well, our ships arrived off of Venezuela back two or three months ago.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but anyway, the blockade went into effect, I want to say, like three weeks ago. Okay. So, I believe I'm correct on this. This particular one ship got through some way because they. They re flagged. Now, I'm not a maritime expert. Fred, you might know more about this than I do, but ships, out on the open seas, it's very important what flag they're flying. Okay. That's a, signal to everybody. you know what, what country is represented here? Ah, with this commerce, usually. So what, this. Because we had an embargo on Venezuela, they, they replaced the Venezuelan flag with the Russian flag because the ship was ultimately going to Russia. Again, I, hope I have my facts right on this, and I think I do. So when the ship reflagged, they did that so that the Americans wouldn't mess with the ship. Right. Because if it's Venezuelan, we'll go in and we'll seize it. But if it's Russian, that requires a second thought, because would this provoke something worse and militarily, a conflict with Russia if we seized a ship flying under their flag? So that's what happened. We waited till it got near Iceland, Right?
Fred Jackson Yep.
Tim Wildmon Well, you talk about a whiplash of weather. We're going from Venezuela and sailing the Pratts in the Caribbean. And next. And next thing we know, here come these American stormtroopers, in the North Atlantic. In the North Atlantic. So, anyway, do you know, Fred yet? Has there Been any response from Russia on this?
Fred Jackson not as of this moment. We did have reports earlier this morning that the Russians had sent one of their submarines out to escort, the marinara.
Tim Wildmon This is a hunt for Red October right here. This is getting good.
Fred Jackson This is movie stuff. You're exactly right. yeah. This vessel was between Iceland and northern Scotland, and somewhere in there, our forces, which have been monitoring it, coast guard vests, all that sort of thing, and they decided, they weren't going to let this ship go any further, and they boarded it. This morning.
Ed Vitagliano I saw a little notice on the BBC here. we do get the news feeds from four major networks inside the studio while we're on the air. And the little crawler said that the UK helped the US with, boarding this ship.
Fred Jackson which is really interesting.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, listen, that's why I said there are. There's all kinds of things going on underneath.
Tim Wildmon Moving parts.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, all kinds of moving parts.
I did not mean to imply getting Maduro was not part of what we did
By the way, let me, let me just kind of clarify something I'd said earlier because Wesley makes a good point. I, I did not mean to imply that getting Maduro was not really part of, what we did in Venezuela. It was all about getting Maduro, because we don't want a communist country in Venezuela that has been cozying up to China and Russia and Iran. And Iran and supplying oil to China.
Tim Wildmon Who have the largest oil reserves in the world.
Ed Vitagliano Largest oil reserves in the world. And the United States just, I think, just made in the Trump administration, just made a very practical strategic decision. We're not having that in our hemisphere. Maduro's the problem. He's been indicted with. We're going to use that as a pretext.
Wesley Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano and, and say we're going to go get him. But I don't think it was really about the indictment. I think we, we want Venezuela being returned to the Venezuelan people who are not going to choose communists. Right, to run them. And then the oil then becomes what our oil companies did. And creating the infrastructure to make that oil accessible will now be back in business.
Tim Wildmon So in addition to the narco charges, he also has a late library card.
Ed Vitagliano Yes, that's right.
Tim Wildmon There are three books that are missing.
Ed Vitagliano He has videos that were due back at Blockbuster.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Ed Vitagliano Years ago. 20 years ago.
Tim Wildmon Years ago. So he's had this against him for this long.
Wesley Wildmon We waited the first time until today's issues that I've been on here, where y' all throw. Thrown back something in history that I actually can relate to, which is Blockbuster. Blockbuster's right there so anything beyond anything before Blockbuster, y' all talk about. I'm out.
Ed Vitagliano You just. You're just.
Wesley Wildmon I just sit here.
Ed Vitagliano You might as well just scroll the Internet.
Wesley Wildmon Coffee?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Who would have ever. Blockbuster doesn't even exist anymore. Who would ever thought it?
Wesley Wildmon Well, who would have thought the, the DVDs used to go up the red boxes?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, they're gone, too. They're gone, too.
Wesley Wildmon They were for about three to five years. They're gone.
Tim Wildmon They're gone.
Central and South America are celebrating President Trump's decision to oust Maduro
All right, you're listening to today's issues on American Family radio. Go to afr.net or listen online or download our app. Listen anywhere you go. Afr, American Family Radio. Tim, Ed, Wesley and Fred, by the way, the news that Maduro had been captured and extradited to the U.S. was met with, happiness and elation and jubilation all over Central and South America. Right, Fred?
Fred Jackson That is correct. Countries like Chile and others, where many Venezuelans have fled because of the dictator Maduro, are celebrating this.
Tim Wildmon Well, not only Venezuelans who fled, but other people, just natives of those countries in South America, Central America, realized what Ed was talking about, how Maduro had destabilized, basically, the region and was terrorizing people and gangs. the gangs that were out of Venezuela were starting to spread. And so he,
Ed Vitagliano think so.
Tim Wildmon The polling, that they're getting from, these places. Do you have that in front of you?
Wesley Wildmon I can pull it up.
Ed Vitagliano well, it was in the 70s and 80% in terms of approval.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano In. In, Latin America.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah. So they, they are celebrating this, decision by President Trump to, go in and get Maduro out. all right, Fred, next story.
President Trump has said he's interested in gaining control of Greenland
Fred Jackson All right, next story. Greenland has another spot. President, Trump in recent days has said once again he's interested in, gaining control of Greenland for much the same reasons. Concerns about, Russia and China and their military threats to this country. And, there's been even talk President Trump sometimes says things, this is going to shock you. Kind of comes off maybe as sounding something, maybe he didn't mean. He said something yesterday about even using the military. Now, that. That upset a lot of people. To the point.
Tim Wildmon You mean to take the fishing village, right? That is Greenland.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Or a little bit more. anyway, Denmark. There's a headline this morning. Denmark and Greenland want a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to have a discussion about this. Now, Senator Lindsey Graham, was asked about this. He was on Air Force One the other day with the president. He was Asked about, you know, where does he see the Greenland thing going. Here's what he had to say. Cut number 14.
Ed Vitagliano I'd like to build up the American.
Tim Wildmon Presence in Greenland economically and militarily. That would be beneficial to NATO.
Wesley Wildmon I got a call today from the Danish, ambassador.
Ed Vitagliano this will be a work in progress. That was Lindsey Graham.
Fred Jackson That was Lindsey Graham, yes.
Tim Wildmon Why would the Danish ambassador call him?
Ed Vitagliano Well, Greenland is under Danish control.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Is it called. Isn't called the Kingdomnomics.
Ed Vitagliano Kingdomnomics of Denmark.
Tim Wildmon Denmark.
Ed Vitagliano I mean, it's. It's got a democratic, government, but still have a king.
Tim Wildmon Like a Disney movie, doesn't it? The Kingdomnomics of Denmark.
Ed Vitagliano The Kingdomnomics of Denmark. King Triton.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. I just say let it go. That's what I say about it.
Ed Vitagliano Well, you could sing it if you.
Tim Wildmon If I will, I will later. This is a. I think the reason I'm asking that the Denmark, ambassador is calling Lindsey Graham, a senior, you know, member of the United States Senate and probably on the Armed Services Committee. I'm not sure, but, is probably to talk, say, probably calling him to say, what in the world is your president talking about here taking over our country? not our country, but territory. Our territory that we were a part of. Denmark.
Ed Vitagliano So, Greenland. I mentioned earlier the oil in Venezuela. Greenland. So I typed in a little search for this. This, this says Greenland possesses vast and largely untapped mineral resources, including rare earth elements. So this is incredibly important for, for computers and computer chips and chips and phones and all of that. and it lists a lot of those. One of them is called scandium. I've never heard of these. Neodymium toothpaste.
Tim Wildmon Scandium is. Look on your ingredients on a toothp, see.
Ed Vitagliano If you don't see.
Tim Wildmon If you don't see scanning them on.
Wesley Wildmon There, you get distracted quickly though, as you begin to read them because you'll say, now is that one on there?
Tim Wildmon Very important, very important mineral.
Ed Vitagliano These are critical for electric vehicles, wind turbines, advanced electronics and defense technologies. The island hosts some of the largest alkaline rock hosted, rare earth elements deposits in the world. Okay, so that is something obviously of interest to the US because, China is a, competitor when it comes to these rare earth, minerals.
Tim Wildmon It. It is.
Wesley Wildmon And then. Yes, but yesterday to dad, in addition to that, dad mentioned, he read an article about the importance of the military, strategic military locations as well, because.
Ed Vitagliano Of the, not only the closeness, proximity to Europe, but also to the Arctic region.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon Which is being contested by they say if missiles come. Comes over. Come over. If missiles come over from Russia. Yeah. they're going to come right to the US Or Canada. They come over, right, come over that. If they go there, they come over that. That's right.
Ed Vitagliano So I will, I will give it to hand it to President Trump. He is making every effort when he says make America great again. He is making every effort to ensure our future. you can debate about and argue again about the technical legality of what we did in Venezuela, but should the world come into a time of, a lot of instability or Even World War 3, we will want to have resources close at hand to keep our economy functioning.
Tim Wildmon And this is not exactly just a, what do you call it when, grab and go situation with, with respect to Greenland. This isn't just, there are some legitimate claims to why we need a presence, on that island. We'll talk about that when we get back from, beyond what you talked about.
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Tim Wildmon This is Today's Issues.
Ed Vitagliano Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcast of today's Issues are available for listening.
Tim Wildmon And viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of Today's Issues.
Tim: I'm thinking ahead with US And Greenland. How many people are thinking like that
Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on American Family Radio. Today's Issues, the name of this program. Tim, Ed, Wesley and Fred here. Okay, fellas. So I'm seeing what's happening, but with the US And Greenland.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon You said, Ed, we off the, We were off the air and we were talking. There's, I read it, reports of 30 to 50,000 people.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, that's it.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. That's how many we have in Tupelo.
Ed Vitagliano Exactly.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Where our flagship station is.
Tim Wildmon Right. So my question is. Well, I'm thinking ahead. I, mean, I'm 63. Yeah. No, I'm 62 and a half. I'm gonna be 60.
Ed Vitagliano I know what you're gonna say.
Tim Wildmon 63 in March. I'm not a fan of cold weather at all. Right below 50, I start complaining. that shouldn't.
Ed Vitagliano A lot.
Tim Wildmon That shouldn't. But. But I do it anyway. So when I get to heaven, I'm expecting 72 and clear. That isn't what I was going to say.
Ed Vitagliano You really will get 72.
Tim Wildmon But we're looking out ahead here and we all have to look out for our own retirement. Right?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon It's some money.
Ed Vitagliano I know what you're saying.
Tim Wildmon So you, you follow me here.
Ed Vitagliano I'm going to move right next door.
Tim Wildmon That's what I'm talking about. Ed and I, we're on the same thing. We know that the United States of America is fixing to go over there and write million dollar checks to every one of those fishermen. Okay. We all know that's going to happen. Yeah. To buy so that they can buy. We can buy Greenland without having to send the rangers in or buy.
Ed Vitagliano Or a 99 year lease.
Tim Wildmon A 90. That's right. A 99 year lease.
Wesley Wildmon Very strategic. China's buying up crop land in the United States.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So that's true. That's true, Wesley. So Ed and I, we get a summer home.
Ed Vitagliano Yes. In our primary residence in Greenland we'll call it.
Tim Wildmon And we'll get. And we'll. We'll wait for the US Government to come around with their million dollar check for us.
Ed Vitagliano Yep.
Tim Wildmon How many people are thinking like that? Right.
Ed Vitagliano Because what Europe is saying and what the kingdom of Denmark is. Denmark is that Greenland's future should be determined by Greenlanders.
Tim Wildmon And it's about to be. Well, open up the check and every. So the, so the fishermen in Greenland. Yeah. Are going to have to decide do we want to continue to go out here and try to harpoon whales or we just want to take, take the cash from the. From, can do that part time.
Ed Vitagliano They can harpoon whales all they want.
Tim Wildmon They could do that.
Ed Vitagliano Club seals.
Tim Wildmon They could do it for recreation, not for survival.
Wesley Wildmon Hey, did y'.
Tim Wildmon All.
Wesley Wildmon Did y' all know trivia question that the majority of Greenlanders were just, they had. They came from North America. So I just want to say they're. They're part Americans already anyway.
Tim Wildmon well, yeah. So I don't know that I thought they were European.
Wesley Wildmon No.
Tim Wildmon So, I'll find here probably Canadians over there. Fred might be a natives. Decided to go east. Go east, young man.
Fred Jackson They follow the cod wherever the cod goes.
Ed Vitagliano Gotta love that codfish. Good codfish sandwich.
You say migrated Michigan. You're saying migration, right? You can. Read it however your dialect speaks to you
Tim Wildmon All right, Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon There we go. Descendants. They're descendants who migrated from north.
Tim Wildmon You say migrated?
Wesley Wildmon Migrated.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Just want to make sure I'm interpreting it.
Wesley Wildmon Migrated.
Tim Wildmon You want migrated Michigan. So they could understand what you're saying. You're saying migration, right?
Ed Vitagliano You can.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, go ahead and read it.
Wesley Wildmon You want the shun on there?
Tim Wildmon Oh, no, I'm gonna be quiet. Read it however your dialect speaks to you. Go ahead, read it.
Wesley Wildmon Descendants who might. These are the. The origins of the people that live there.
Tim Wildmon In Greenland.
Wesley Wildmon In Greenland. Or descendants who migrated from North America with some Norse settlers. Nor's source.
Tim Wildmon Norsc. That's the Viking people.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Big.
Tim Wildmon Right in.
Ed Vitagliano Big Vikings.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon Ah, around 1200 A.D. so there.
Tim Wildmon anyway.
Tim Ferriss: President Trump reinserts Monroe Doctrine to make us safer
All right, well, we'll see what happens there. You're listening to today's issues. and joining us now is Sandy, Rios, host of Sandy Rios 247 podcast, which is a very popular podcast here on our website. If you go to afr.net you can download any of Sandy's shows she does two times a week. just a lot of excellent inside information you won't get anywhere else. You, can find that on afr.net with Sandy Rios 24 7. good morning, Sandy.
Sandy Rios Good morning, Tim and gang. How are you guys?
Ed Vitagliano Good. Sandy, do you, do you want to, buy a home in the neighborhood? We're going to develop.
Sandy Rios Absolutely, absolutely. You know, but could I give a sober response? Say what's happening, you guys, is, this whole. Relate to the Monroe Doctrine, which I don't think people are familiar with. And the president. Remote. I can't talk. I was just very.
Tim Wildmon You were going to give a sober response? Go ahead.
Sandy Rios My brain has emptied itself of his contents in the last meeting. But no, President Monroe, made this part of our foreign policy. And the reason he did, I think it was 1832, something like that, because it was, European powers like France, Britain, Spain, all had designs on North America. They were still trying to do colonies. and so America at that time was concerned that we were vulnerable if any of these foreign entities from another hemisphere came in and started building bases and structures and building power bases in our hemisphere. And so it has been American law since that time that Americans have a right. We are the, big dog in the Western hemisphere and that we have the right to go in and, and extract any, any group or nation group that's coming into our hemisphere and trying to do something dangerous now with Greenland, China is very involved there. There's a lot of fishing. You probably heard this, a lot of fishing. There's waterways. That's what's involved there. And then, of course, you know, in Venezuela, the real, the deep issue there is that we have Russia, we Have China, we have, Iran. All of our enemies, are using, Venezuela as a launching pad, taking the oil and using it to do, all kinds of terrorism around the world and drugs. For us, it's a mess. It should have been stopped a long time ago. So this is all, from my perspective, part of President Trump really restating reinserting Monroe Doctrine to make us safer. Because as long as they can have a base and Chinese can travel in those, waterways in Greenland and build up a power, a, military power up there, we are in much more danger. And so that's, that's why this is happening.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano And I kind of, tongue in cheek, some people had started calling this now the Don Row Doctrine.
Tim Wildmon Yes.
Ed Vitagliano For Donald Trump instead of Monroe, it was Don Row.
Tim Wildmon Well, this reminds me, although, I was a mere infant at the time, I think. I don't know, when was the, when was the Cuban, missile crisis?
Ed Vitagliano 62. Okay, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Tim Wildmon I was in my mama's belly.
Ed Vitagliano Oh.
Tim Wildmon And at that time. But, but, but I know about that. The Bay of Pigs, what happened there? Well, that was separate from Bay of Pigs. Never mind. That was separate from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Am I right? Yeah.
Sandy Rios So it gets confusing. But there's two different. They're big issues, but they're separate.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but. Okay, but, but back to my point about the, Russian Missile crisis, which was the issue that John F. Kennedy had to deal with when he was in office, is the Russians were wanting to, establish a beachhead, so to speak, in the Caribbean, 90 miles from Florida and with missiles. And President Kennedy said, no, you're not going to do that. Not in our neighborhood.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon You're not going to, you want to, set up, ah, missiles in Cuba. And so, you know, that was a very tense moment, in the history of our country. But, to Kennedy's credit and to the, you know, to. Lord, yeah. We were able to avoid a nuclear confrontation there in that situation, or at least some kind of war, act of war. So, But, that was really invoking the Monroe Doctrine as well. Right, right.
Sandy Rios Well, yes, the whole notion, yes, the whole notion that we are not going to let some foreign entity from a different hemisphere come here and establish a stronghold, military and otherwise. we have the right, right to, to control them, to kick them out. And that's why, you know, that's why Venezuela. You know, the other thing is just on China, you know, China has. They've done so many things to expand their influence, but one of Them is the Belt and Road Initiative. I'm sure you heard of that. They've gone into Africa. They've practically swallowed up all of Africa with, you, know, promising to build roads and all of these things for the sake of presence and power. I have a friend that's from Zimbabwe, and she told me the Zimbabweans hate the Chinese because they have just virtually come in and they're sucking out the lifeblood and the economy of Zimbabwe. That's just one country. Well, they're doing the same thing in South America, and they were just getting ready to. To sign whatever you do with China to make an agreement with Venezuela to develop a Belt and Road initiative in Venezuela. So that's one of the very important things that was happening that we had to stop.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. With respect to, Communist China and Africa, they are. It isn't that Africa is a militarily strategic place to be. It's that the businessmen, representing the communist Chinese government want access to all the.
Sandy: President Trump talked about taking the Panama Canal back
We've mentioned this before, just talking about it with Greenland. The natural resources.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Sandy Rios Yes, exactly.
Tim Wildmon And the minerals and all those things that are available. So the Chinese very influential on the continent of Africa by, you know, as you say, Sandy, promising to do things. And sometimes in the case, doing things.
Sandy Rios Yes.
Tim Wildmon To help the infrastructure or the people of Africa because Africa is poor and Africa's, you know, many, ways a, Third world continent. So they're going there for those reasons. But yeah. So the Chinese are spreading, you know, their tentacles are reaching around the globe right now. And I think with respect to Venezuela, President Trump said, he hasn't. I don't think he's talked. Maybe he's talked about China here, but, you know, related again back to, back to the Monroe Doctrine. You know, President Trump came in and said, the Panama Canal. You remember this, right? The Panama Canal, which is essential to commerce of the United States. My goodness. I mean, otherwise.
Sandy Rios And Jimmy Carter sold it to China. Let Panama sell it to China.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. What an idiotic move that was. and you could argue treasonous in a way. But anyway, the ships would have to go around the tip of South America. So, I mean, it's not. And not to mention, I think President Trump was more concerned too, about our military.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Be having access to the. To the Panama Canal. Right.
Wesley Wildmon That's on his list.
Sandy Rios And I think you can look for Panama to be. Yeah, I can't count. Cuba and Panama may be next.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so. So let me just say this. And ah, you know, I'M not a military expert or a geopolitical expert, although I get confused for. From. For being one at times.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon You know, when I'm out at dinner with people.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon And. But let me just say this. When President Trump came in and he started talking about taking the Panama Canal. Okay. I think we've all learned now with President Trump, he, his words are just. He just throws them out there. Okay. That's just his personality. And sometimes he says things that you would go, you really, as president shouldn't say that. Like that. Okay. Or at least that's not always the way we've done it or that's not going to be helpful. I mean. All right. So with. But then, oftentimes we learn six months later, later or a year later, you go, now I see why he said what he said. Yeah. So that's just the way it is, with him. And he. His political instincts on these matters are.
Wesley Wildmon In the team around them.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. On the team. The team around him are very, very important. so, So when. When we heard him say, well, we're going to take the Panama Canal back, you're going, what in the world. You just. So you're just going to go in there and take over the Panama Canal because you can. That just sounds wrong, you know, to most people. But then you go, wait a minute. he's talking about, there's a strategy.
Wesley Wildmon There's a reason.
Tim Wildmon He knows that China is coming in and they may take the Panama Canal themselves.
Sandy Rios And then they already. Of course, they already had. And here's the thing.
Tim Wildmon They already had.
Sandy Rios Tim, We. Yes. The Panama. I can't talk today. The Panamanians had turned over control of the Panama Canal to the Chinese. So that's, That was already. And as I said, that happened during Jimmy Carter's time. So that was just horrible what he did. And so no one did anything about it. and so that's. He's taking care of business. And,
Tim Ferriss: The Chinese have been selling military equipment to Venezuela
One thing kind of funny. Well, amusing to me, you know, the Chinese, you don't know probably. But I know because I just did a show.
Tim Wildmon Ah.
Sandy Rios On this a couple of days ago. The Chinese have been selling military equipment to Venezuela. And, guess how that worked last week. That military equipment that China sold to the citizens.
Tim Wildmon Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah. It didn't work. Well, and then, you know, the bodyguards from Maduro were Cuban.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Sandy Rios Oh, yes. Well, yes, The Cubans have been in Venezuela for years. let me.
Tim Wildmon Or they're advanced now.
Sandy Rios Let Me try to make. Make this clear and save my, you know, long passages here, but when the Soviet Union fell, the Cubans kind of took over, because the Russians had, come down in South America and Central America. You remember all of those uprisings because the communists believed in taking over by military control, you know, forcing their way into governments. But after Russia fell, they devised a new plan, and that was to take over, through the democratic system. Maduro was one of the first in central South America that did that. He was elected fairly way, back when he was elected, but he immediately started. Not Maduro. Yes, thank you. Chavez did that. He got elected, and then he began to disband the Supreme Court, the, legislative establishment. He began to take over businesses, persecute churches. Yes. And then you couldn't get him out because he did away with the constitution, but he was elected to the democratic system. And so that's what's been happening, Tim. And that came from Cuba, so. Because Castro was one of the ones that devised that plan. So the Cubans came into Venezuela, I guess after Chavez, I'm not exactly sure where, but they've been there for years, and they have been the ones controlling the place. They've been the ones enforcing all of those horrible, draconian things on the people of Venezuela. The persecution that's been. The Cubans.
Tim Wildmon Do you know whose stature has risen greatly in politics in the last few months?
Ed Vitagliano Oh, please, Tim, don't. Don't do this.
Tim Wildmon Well, don't talk about me.
Ed Vitagliano You need to stay where you are.
Tim Wildmon I really don't think you should run for anything. You're more valuable to us.
Ed Vitagliano Okay.
Tim Wildmon yeah, being county commissioner, you don't. You don't. You don't need that. people calling you, telling their ditch is backed up. Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Trust me, you don't want that. Or I gotta get these wild dogs out of my yard. Something like that.
Ed Vitagliano You've been listening to my phone call the alligator.
Sandy Rios Alligators? After the Florida.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Where Sandy lives. You get calls about how commissioner got alligator in my backyard. What are you gonna do about it? so, Marco Rubio, the former senator from Florida.
Ed Vitagliano That's true.
Tim Wildmon And the current secretary of State, because, you know, I know President Trump's. President Trump himself deserves the most credit for some of these, big items that have taken place that benefited peace and stability in the world. Like taking out the Iranian nuclear facilities. Yeah, I mean, I just. I think Marco Rubio stature has risen, whatever that looks like in the future. I'm not sure. I've heard that he and Vice President Vance are. They've both set out their buddies, their time, friends in the administration, and if they may end up running together next time around, of course, we're, we're a ways out from that. A couple years.
Wesley Wildmon Three more years of taking over. Blowing up boats and taking over land.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano so anyway, questions later.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
There are stunning new revelations about the 2020 election and the fraud thereof
Tim Wildmon All right, Sandy, well, what do you got coming up on your, on your next podcast?
Sandy Rios that's a good question. No, I do know. I did. I just did a bunch of them. I got to remember what I just did.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Sandy Rios The ones that just ran. I interviewed Dr. Paul Coyer, who's an international expert, works, for the Institute of World Politics. His wife is Venezuelan. And we talk about why Trump took out Maduro, which was. And then, oh, gosh, this one. There are absolutely stunning new revelations about the. Excuse me just a second. Sorry, my voice is giving me trouble. there are stunning new revelations about the 2020 election and the fraud thereof. and there is a whole team that's been convened that you wouldn't have heard of. And I just heard of it because I know someone involved. I just got through with, an hour and a half briefing, further information on this, and I can't, I guess I can say. What I can say is, you might recall that Tulsi Gabbard, at a cabinet, meeting, I believe the first one said, out of the blue, we are, we are all over what happened with the voting machines in 2020. That's basically what she said. And so. Excuse me. I can tell you that there are people that are pulling out all the stops. there are people who have turned evidence. This is going to go into the courts. there are people that were very involved in making, this happen, this fraud, and they've been under protection now for the last year or so, and they're going to be testifying, and there's a whole lot more to the story. It's, it's not time to break it, but let me just say it is. I did, we did talk about it in my last podcast, stunning revelations on the 2020 election. So I would just recommend that to people.
Ed Vitagliano Well, as long as someone goes to prison, I, I, I'm tired of investigations, and no one pays a price. You know, revelations out of Georgia, about voting irregularities and outright fraud. I just want someone to go to prison.
Sandy Rios Yeah, well, that's actually, that is part of this effort. Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, there's all kinds of stuff breaking loose. and there. And what's going to happen is they're going to have factual information. You know what the media always says this is not really true, but they always say the courts heard this and, you know, there was no real evidence. Well, that was never true. But now they're going deeper and there's going to be real indisputable testimony and evidence and real, documents to prove what many of us have thought for a long time.
Tim Wildmon All right, Sandy, take care. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Sandy Rios My pleasure.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, Sandy, before you go, Tim and I will send you a brochure right. About the, cul de. Cul de sac we're going to be setting up.
Sandy Rios That sounds like fun, actually.
Tim Wildmon Again, the idea is, sinister on our part, but it will benefit us financially greatly if we go ahead, get our property set up in Greenland. They we act shocked and surprised when the American government offers us to pay us a lot of money so that we become a territory.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. A vassal state.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And no longer. We don't have to worry about, as Fred said, fishing for cod like a living. Okay. We just play the part of fishermen.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon All right, thanks, Sandy. Appreciate it.
Sandy Rios All right, good to talk to you guys.
Tim Wildmon Bye. Bye.
Wesley: Go to afr. net that's our website
All right, if you want to listen to Sandy's, twice a week podcast release, what do they need to do?
Wesley Wildmon Wesley, go to afr.net that's afr.net click podcast and there you can. She has all, all of her program or all of her podcasts archived there.
Ed Vitagliano You just scroll down.
Wesley Wildmon Yep, scroll down.
Tim Wildmon I want to tell it. Yeah, I want to tell everybody to, go take time today to go to afr.net because I was looking at it this morning. Afr.net that's our website. And then you have the podcast, which are. You can listen on demand. You just, It's very easy to do. Don't be intimidated by the word podcast. It's very easy to do. And, we have podcasts here from all our shows. And Sandy, show is very popular. Sandy Rios podcast. It's called Sandy Rios 24 7. All you do is go to afr.net and you can see it for yourself. And then, I text Stephen McDowell, my friend at the Providence Foundation. He's the president, of the Providence foundation and the historian. And many people listening to us have been on our tours where Stephen provides, commentary. And his podcast is getting like 20, I think in December had like 22, 23,000 downloads which were who is this for? Whisper and for. Relatively.
Wesley Wildmon I was one of the 20.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Stephen McDowell's. Oh, okay. It's called. It's the America's Providential History Podcast.
Ed Vitagliano I see it right here.
Tim Wildmon And if you go there and click on there, you'll see he's got shows running back from, Let's see.
Wesley Wildmon He did a really good Christmas series leading up to Christmas Day.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Where's the history of the podcast, though? scroll down. if I go on afr.net okay, click on that.
Wesley Wildmon Click on it and scroll down. And that's how you pick the topic that you.
Tim Wildmon Okay, mine's not showing that, so.
Ed Vitagliano Well, just click on it. Okay.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, it's because you've already clicked on it. So if you were to go back now.
Tim Wildmon Okay, you'd say, pardon us, folks, talk amongst yourselves while we, fool around on the Internet here for a minute. What am I supposed to do here?
Ed Vitagliano All right, Click on that.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Ed Vitagliano All right, now scroll down. Keep going. Keep. Oh, no, Tim's right. It's. It's not showing it. It's showing up on mine.
Tim Wildmon I'm telling you, the Chinese have bugged my computer. People don't believe me.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, but, it's showing what you're looking at.
Tim Wildmon I see what he's looking at, but it's not on my mind. Maybe we got different browsers.
Wesley Wildmon No, I m meant showing what you're looking at so you can continue describing what you were trying to do.
Ed Vitagliano Okay, well, yeah, so there's a. There's a list. January 6th. America's decline and what to do about it. Part one, obviously, that's going to continue. December 30th. Christ ever increasing Kingdomnomics. Part I listen to part, part two, three, four, all.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, there's some. There's some great podcasts there on our website, afr.net I was just recommending two there. Sandy Rio 24 7, and then Stephen McDowell's America's Providential History. The only place you can get that is right here on afr.net afr.
Ed Vitagliano Frank Turek. Yeah. Jenna Ellis, You've got Trivia Friday.
Tim Wildmon Trivia Friday. We archive those shows, the podcast, those shows, today's issues, which is, the number one downloaded podcast show on afr.
Ed Vitagliano Maybe in the world. We don't know. We.
Tim Wildmon We don't know. But maybe it sounds like. Sounds like we're bragging, right? But they say that if. If you can do it, it's not bragging. Have you ever heard that before?
Ed Vitagliano Yes, I have.
Fred: Happy cod fishing, Fred
Tim Wildmon Okay. We will take a short time out for Fred. Sorry you couldn't speak any more than you did, but happy cod fishing.
Fred Jackson That's right.
Tim Wildmon We'll be back. The views and opinions expressed in this.
Sandy Rios Broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of.
Tim Wildmon The American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim, Ed and Wesley talk with Fred on top news headlines of the day including how the U.S. has seized two oil tankers. Also, Sandy Rios joins the program to discuss communism.
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