Ed Vitagliano: God bless you all. Today's Issues continues on AFR. I'm Ed Vitagliano, sitting in for Tim Wildmon this week, at least for today. I'm joined in the studio by Wesley Wildmon and Tony. Fred Jackson has slipped out to be ably replaced by Steve Jordan. Good morning, Steve.

Steve: Ably replaced.

Tony: Ably replacing Abe as well.

Steve: Yes.

Ed Vitagliano: Well, any of us can replace Abe. But listen, I just love that. That is preacher, lawyer, and analyst all rolled into one. If I had self-image issues, and I don't really think I do, but if I did, I brought this story yesterday, but it had none of the effect that Abe just had on us.

Steve: I disagree. I was equally upset yesterday with the story.

Ed Vitagliano: But I do want to mention something before I know Steve has some stuff on American Family News, AFN.net. They're running a story, and guys, I just want to say that I disagree with one of our own stories. This is from Chris Woodward. The headline is, "During holidays, families are advised to spend more time together than on digital devices."

I just want to let my family know that ain't going to happen, because I take the last two weeks of the year off. I save up vacation days, and I am watching hockey and football as much as I can. If I can shoehorn some family time in, I'll see what I can do.

Tony: TV is a digital device.

Ed Vitagliano: Well, I use my little iPad.

Steve: We haven't run our TV in probably five years.

Ed Vitagliano: My wife has an iPad. I have an iPad. Anyway, it's an excellent article, and it's a very important message to spend time with family. The holidays provide the kind of time when that's what the focus is. We absolutely highly recommend reconnecting with family members.

Tony: You say it's on AFN, but it's not on the front page, on the carousel.

Ed Vitagliano: Okay, fair enough, but it's there on American Family News. You don't have to type in American Family News. AFN.net, and by carousel, there's an image of stories.

Tony: Yes, rotating stories.

Ed Vitagliano: Sorry, my programmer language came out. I called it a carousel.

Tony: You were using your insider language.

Ed Vitagliano: I was going to wait and ask you what you were talking about, but thank you for this point. All right.

Ed Vitagliano: Steve, I came in from the break. You were already talking about something, several stories maybe, that are just going to make our blood boil even more.

Steve: I don't know. You guys spent the last half hour talking about how the Democrats pushed affordability.

Ed Vitagliano: Affordability.

Steve: Yeah. So now they've won the election. We are obviously going to see a whole lot of stuff that's going to deal with affordability. We're going to see bills that are going to help bring prices down. They're going to do right. I mean, that's what they promised, right?

Ed Vitagliano: That's what they promised.

Steve: Politicians are going to lie.

Ed Vitagliano: Never.

Steve: John Kerry, our erstwhile secretary of state at one point, is in Ankara, Turkey. He is attending the United Nations COP31 climate change conference. He gave a speech yesterday, and I want you to listen to what he told the bigwigs gathered at the climate conference that this election was about.

John Kerry: This, I promise you, is a transition that the world wants. No greater manifestation of that can be seen than the fact that one week ago today, in the United States, people made climate change and its exigencies a voting issue.

So I'm proud to be here one week after we came to our senses, some of us. At every level of the ballot, and I'm not exaggerating, from Congress to the governor's mansions to other statewide offices, Americans did vote for clean, affordable energy. And they also voted for clean governance.

Steve: You remember all those people talking about how much we need to do the Green New Deal this last election cycle?

First of all, I'm blown away that this is the 31st year of this climate gathering. That's got a pretty big carbon footprint. Thirty-one years in a row. What they must be asking you at the conference is, "There's something in what John Kerry just said."

Ed Vitagliano: It makes me remember why the left has hated Donald Trump since 2015, really. They believe history is on their side and that this is what America is destined to be. He blew through every leftist dream issue, and climate change is one of them.

They hated Donald Trump because, in their minds, he stumbled his way into the White House when it was clearly Hillary Clinton's turn. The list of left-wing issues was finally going to get another eight years following Barack Obama to permanently change America. That was Barack Obama's promise: to fundamentally change the country.

When Donald Trump won, and then won again in 2024, that's why they hate that man so much. He was the sticky wicket that got in the way of their dreams of political destiny.

Steve: Yeah, sure did.

Ed Vitagliano: That's a great story that Steve has brought us because it highlights the fact that somebody, the American Accountability Network, hired tens of thousands of people to change the messaging.

Steve: The American Accountability Network.

Ed Vitagliano: That's the name you need to remember. That tells you something, because prior to that change, the Democrats were taking over with cultural issues that were losing issues among independents and beginning to become losing issues with the general public. There are certainly some issues that the Democrats hold closely, like abortion, but set that one aside.

There were several voting issues that the Democratic Party was taking over with that were losing issues to the general public, which is why President Trump won the popular vote and the electoral vote. As long as they were pushing the cultural issues, it was favoring Republicans and conservatives at the voting booth, even among a growing percentage of Hispanics and especially Black men.

However, they changed their messaging and went back to the Obama days, where they lie to get into office and then reveal their real goals and purposes. I was wondering how long it was going to take. It didn't take long. We're just over a week after a lot of these Democrats got into office on affordability, and now we're talking about climate change.

Steve: Let me give you one more John Kerry thing, because this is what Kerry is saying over in Turkey. The United States and the rest of the world are stumbling when it comes to green fossil fuel. You know who's leading the way and who we must follow? China.

Ed Vitagliano: China?

Steve: The United States and the rest of the world must follow China's lead on green energy, according to John Kerry.

Ed Vitagliano: I believe you.

Steve: That was with emphasis.

Ed Vitagliano: That was my drop. It just so happened to be over here.

Steve: China is leading the world in moving away from fossil fuels. That's what John Kerry said.

Ed Vitagliano: I don't think so.

Tony: Do you have the story you mentioned during the break? If you don't, it's fine.

Ed Vitagliano: The story about Amy Klobuchar?

Tony: Yeah, we can do that. I would like to.

Ed Vitagliano: Amy Klobuchar is the governor-elect in Minnesota. I want to know what she says that the American voters voted for. You obviously remember hearing a lot about this, but Amy Klobuchar says passing gun safety legislation is one of her top priorities.

She supports the SF 4067 omnibus gun-control package in Minnesota. It would prohibit federally licensed firearm dealers from selling certain semiautomatic military-style assault weapons, including AR-15s, and large-capacity magazines capable of holding more than 17 rounds, among other things.

As you heard over and over during this election, gun control was where the Democrats were going. It was big. I saw ads all over the place that the Democrats were running.

Tony: These machine guns that people can just walk into a Walmart or Dick's Sporting Goods or whatever and buy. They have vending machines.

Ed Vitagliano: Vending machines?

Tony: Just swipe your card.

Steve: My understanding is that machine guns and actual military assault weapons aren't legal, are they?

Tony: No, no. Was this story to trigger me?

Ed Vitagliano: It's a good one.

Tony: Y'all are actually on the opposite side, you guys.

Steve: I'm feeling good about 2028.

Ed Vitagliano: I think that's a spin on it.

Tony: I think these are three stories back to back. I've just been white-pilled on 2028.

Ed Vitagliano: Yes, that's a good one.

Steve: What is so apparent to me is that the Democrats are going to bring up, dig up, issues that don't work, that were killed in 2024, and try to push them again.

Tony: I've got one more.

Ed Vitagliano: Surely there are strategists in the background somewhere saying, "This is not a good idea. Let's not jump to gun control. Let's definitely not jump to climate change."

Tony: Wake one.

Steve: Transgender issues.

Tony: If the last thing you want to do to bring energy costs down and make things more affordable is push a green agenda.

Steve: Yeah, green agenda. That's a good point.

Ed Vitagliano: That's a good talking point. It sounds like it was sent to them in an email from the Politburo.

Tony: We're great with no green agenda.

Steve: Too much on the show?

Tony: I mean, they're saying China is the best at green energy. No one does it better than China, while somebody has to wear a mask to walk outside in Beijing because there's a smog advisory.

Steve: Anyway, one of the other issues in the news is Nvidia. Nvidia is a huge chip company and the leader in AI chips, the actual engine that drives AI computers. Their CEO, Jensen Huang, has been caught in an affair with a Chinese spy who looks like she was reporting back and maybe giving state secrets to China. So there's a big investigation into how much damage was done.

AOC was talking about this, and it's not just Nvidia. We've got problems because there's too much power in too few hands. Listen to what AOC has to say.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: It shouldn't be up to five guys in the first place, because market power and everything is concentrated so much. So we need to check these guys' power. There's a lot of companies that probably have too much power that need to be broken up and allow everyday people to have a shot.

Interviewer: You're looking to investigate what happened here to determine whether secrets or something was compromised?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Obviously, I think this is a tremendous national security and intelligence breach that has to be investigated. This is not, I don't even think it's a political opinion. We're going to break up all the big tech companies.

Ed Vitagliano: Was that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

Tony: It was.

Ed Vitagliano: I've started being able to pick her voice out of a crowd simply because my ears start to bleed. Her voice is so high.

Tony: Listen, you make a good point. This may be the Democrats' playbook being revealed. We already saw with Van Jones that they are giddy with the expectation that they have a mandate to do all the things they've always wanted to do, but Donald Trump was always in the way.

I think they're going to impeach Trump, maybe on multiple issues. That's not a winning issue with the electorate. That's not fixing the economy. I think we're going to see transgender issues making a comeback.

We've already seen governors-elect, including one in Texas, and maybe one in Washington state, say they were going to fight against people who don't want men in women's sports. So transgender issues are back, along with gun control and the Green New Deal. None of this is going to improve the economy.

Ed Vitagliano: You start going after big corporations and say, "We're going to break you up," especially if we're competing with China. Now we're going to handicap our AI market. Some of these companies might leave the country.

Tony: The language in there insinuated that Nvidia is keeping the little man, the everyday person, from starting a chip-manufacturing company.

Steve: Finally, my dream may come true of starting a chip-manufacturing company in the United States.

Tony: No. The reality is that in certain industries, the way things develop in the capitalist system we live in is that there will be big players. It's very costly.

Steve: You're not starting a potato-chip company.

Tony: And it's still competitive. This idea that we need to break them up to make room for little guys doesn't apply to this. In some industries, maybe there's a better case to be made, but as it pertains to the chip-manufacturing world, no, it's ridiculous.

Steve: While everybody's watching what the Democrats may or may not be doing, nobody's watching this. This was a Friday sermon delivered in Costa Mesa. This is from the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa, California. This is Imam Dr. Sayed Mustafa al-Kazwini talking about the election.

Guys, someone better be paying attention to our flank.

Imam Sayed Mustafa al-Kazwini: This authority and this power is not a term. The disbelievers, the arrogant, should not ever think that when we give them time and a chance, and they are in office, they are in power, they are corrupting and they are still safe, nothing happens to them. They should not misunderstand us.

We want them to increase in their sin and in their violations, to increase. Why? So when we take them, we take them with no mercy. We pour our wrath and anger on them without restraint. There will be a humiliation punishment for them, not just any punishment.

Sometimes it is a punishment that completely destroys the entire civilization. They have no single survivor. No single survivor.

Steve: The Muslims in Costa Mesa are going to let the Democrats consolidate their power. We're coming after the whole shooting match.

Ed Vitagliano: Now that imam is just demonstrating Islamophobia. I mean, representative of other imams, and a racist. He believes that Muslims are not peace-loving.

Tony: I don't know how we got that.

Ed Vitagliano: As an old dude, it was a little hard to pick up some of that. I'm sure that was being done surreptitiously. Somebody was recording it, but gratefully.

Steve: Well, we're grateful for them recording it.

Ed Vitagliano: In case you missed it, he said, "They think they have consolidated power. Let them think that. The fact that we are letting them go without responding means we only want them to increase in their sin." This is what he said, "because we want to punish them and humiliate them and not leave a single soul of this whole civilization standing."

He was talking about the Democratic Party. He was talking about the Democrats, but obviously the West is their target.

Steve: We've mentioned this. We're not the only ones who have seen this red-green alliance. Then you throw the rainbow flag in too. The red is the Marxists who are pretty much controlling the Democratic Party moving forward.

It would be very difficult for the Democratic Party to separate out that Marxist, socialist element. We've been noting that Islam despises atheists. Why would they be allying with them?

Tony: This is telling us why. They are using the Marxists to help Muslims take power. That's their goal. They're still a very small percentage in the country, but their goal is to do exactly what that man said. That's what's happening in Europe.

Folks, look down the road about 10 years, maybe, and that's what may be happening here.

Steve: Let me give you some comfort, though. For those of you who thought that AI was going to take over the world, that AI was going to destroy humanity, AI is still in development.

I have a guy who was talking with us. He has one of these AI companions that he can talk to that actually appears as a woman on a screen. He just has a conversation. He doesn't type it. He talks.

User: How many Es are in the word 17?

AI: The number 17 is spelled S-E-V-E-E-N. So if you're asking about the word 17, there are three Es in it. But if you literally meant the number 17, that's just a number, so it doesn't have any letters at all.

User: Right. Can you spell 17 again?

AI: S-E-V-E-E-N.

User: Let me do it. S-E-V-E-N-T-E-N.

AI: Wait, hold on a second. You added a T in there. That would make it 17, which is two words. The number 17 is just one word. S-E-V-E-N.

User: Oh, T. You're getting close. Let me try S-E-V-E-N-T-E-N.

AI: No, no, no.

User: Oh, okay. Sorry.

AI: Don't apologize. That's how we learn.

User: Okay, then how do you spell 14?

AI: F-O-U-R-T-E-N. See that? It's one word.

User: But 17 is two words?

AI: No, no, no. That is not.

User: All right, where did you get that?

AI: How many?

User: That's a great one. Sorry, why did you do that?

AI: It also practiced for being married.

User: I mean, that's true.

AI: No, no, no. No, no.

User: And then when you apologize?

AI: Oh, there's no need to apologize, but I'm glad you did because you were wrong.

Ed Vitagliano: I'm glad my wife doesn't listen to me.

Tony: That was an AI.

Ed Vitagliano: At least it's not ready to pick a word.

Steve: AI has a bright future as a Democratic politician in a congressional district.

Tony: District 17, yeah.

Ed Vitagliano: Now, that was a real thing, right?

Tony: That was a real exchange.

Steve: All the kinks have not been worked out yet.

Tony: No, no, no, no, no. That's called hallucination on the part of AI when it is actually wrong. That's a very real thing, and to my knowledge, that hasn't been completely worked out in any AI model on the public market. There's still a risk of a hallucination where it just feeds you wrong information.

I've got one example that happened to me. Thankfully, I know good friends in law enforcement and game wardens. I asked my web browser, which starts with AI and then you link into other links, "What are the rules for firearms or hunting?"

It sent me information that was specific to Mississippi. I thought, "Well, that's interesting. There have been quite a few changes from last year to this year." It changed a lot, and it was a whole different conversation unnecessarily.

I screenshotted it and sent it to my game warden buddy. I said, "Is this true for Mississippi?" His first answer was, "Did you get that off of AI?" I said yes, and he said, "That's not true." Then he sent me the correct information.

It's a good thing that I double-checked, because AI gave me the wrong information.

Steve: He's like, "No, you can't put land mines around."

Tony: No, no, no. That's clearly not allowed.

Steve: Oh, don't apologize. It's okay. You're learning. That's close.

Ed Vitagliano: All right, folks, we had a little fun there at the end. Buckle up. The next two years are going to be glorious. More great programming directly ahead on American Family Radio, Lord willing. We'll see you tomorrow.