Blue Mountain Christian University offers graduate degree programs designed for working adults

>> Eduardo: Looking to take the next step in your education? Blue Mountain Christian University offers graduate degree programs designed for working adults who want to grow professionally and personally. With graduate studies in business, education and kinesiology, BMCU combines academic excellence with a Christian worldview. With flexible and hybrid formats and supportive faculty, you can pursue a graduate degree while balancing work, family, and calling. Learn more at bmc. Eduardo.

Tim Wildman: Trend in American churches celebrating mothers on Mother's Day

>>  : Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's the name of this show, today's issues.

>> Tim Wildmon: Monday, May 11, 2026 and I'm, Tim Wildmon. We're studio here in Tupelo, Miss. And Ed Battagliano.

>> Tim Wildmon: Good morning, brother.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Good morning, Tim.

>> Tim Wildmon: Red Jackson.

>> Fred Jackson: And good morning to you.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Good weekend for you guys.

>> Fred Jackson: Oh, yeah, yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Very good weekend. Excellent mother's, Day weekend. And I don't know, weather was beautiful. Just a good weekend.

>> Tim Wildmon: Mother's Day at, a lot of churches across America. Yesterday, the mothers got celebrated, and rightfully so. And got roses. I know at our church, they had roses for everybody.

>> Fred Jackson: We had baby dedications at our church.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, on Mother's Day. That makes sense.

>> Fred Jackson: It was real cool. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So, Ed, ah, you and I go to church together.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: And we haven't talked about this, I don't think specifically, but since the mothers did get the roses right yesterday, and we got Father's Day coming up.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Is there something that maybe the church could do to, equalize things?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, fathers.

>> Tim Wildmon: I don't want to.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Rose. At our church, fathers can expect to get a good beating. So that's.

>> Tim Wildmon: You mean a verbal beating?

>> Ed Vitagliano: A verbal beating. A tongue lashing. are you the one who first. You're the one that I remember first noting this. I don't know if you got it from somebody else.

>> Tim Wildmon: No, I didn't.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That mothers.

>> Tim Wildmon: I just noticed it growing up.

>> Tim Wildmon: I just started noticing it was a trend. What you're about to describe is a

>> Tim Wildmon: trend in American churches. And I noticed it in the churches you and I attended. Go ahead.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, well, the moms get celebrated. Thank you for all you do.

>> Tim Wildmon: Here's your rose.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And here's your rose. And then when Father's Day rolls around, someone the past pastor or somebody preaches a sermon about how dads. You're blowing it.

>> Fred Jackson: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ten points to being a better father. Okay, that's what we're gonna go.

>> Ed Vitagliano: you need Those hints because you're. Because you're not doing a good job. And really, all the.

>> Tim Wildmon: You want to come down to the altar and repent, you can do that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Now all the ills of our culture fall squarely on the shoulders of dad.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right. And then you ain't getting no rose, fellas. And. And ain't no crying in church.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right. So nobody reminiscing about dear old. You know, so.

>> Tim Wildmon: And, maybe that'll change. But I just noticed that, and I figured the reason for that is

>> Tim Wildmon: almost all the pastors are male.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So they're not going to get up there and trump their own horn, so to speak.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So it's easier to give the moms and lob them, and I'm out for that. Oh, sure, the roses and everything with you, but then when it's time to. For the men, it's time. We need to. We need to beat these guys up a little bit. You know what I'm saying?

>> Tim Wildmon: But they do a better job.

>> Tim Wildmon: I can't say, hey, how wonderful we are as fathers.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: It just sounds wrong from the pulpit.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm onto something there that could, that could be true. yeah. You know, dads are, I don't know how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go on this.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think it deserves the conversation.

Two thoughts on how the church has reacted during Father's Day

We need to be honest with each other.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. Listen, dads are a kind of a mixed bag, you know? I'm just thinking every guy I know always trying to live up, no matter how old they are, to the expectations of their father. You always want your dad to be proud of you. they're the. In most homes, probably the authority figure. Although moms can be scary as all get out. You make them mad. and so sometimes I wonder if moms, are the nourisher. And they are, you know, always, you can do better, and I believe in you, and dads are always, you can do better, but you. You haven't been. And you better get it together. So maybe. Maybe that has something to do with the kind of. The dynamic in a family. And maybe we'll.

>> Tim Wildmon: We'll see. Well, we'll see what happens. We'll review this in a month or

>> Tim Wildmon: so and see how it goes. We'll get reports from around the country.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Two on, how the church has reacted during Father's Day. If it's reciprocated what happened during, I

>> Ed Vitagliano: will say, when I was pastoring, pastor, while working here full time, I pastored a church part time. For 19 years. And, we did start giving out. This is going to sound kind of loony. We would give out tools to the dads. So. Screwdrivers, pair of pliers. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: There again, that's so they can do something. Yeah. I mean, who. I guess. Yeah, yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Get to work.

>> Tim Wildmon: A rose doesn't say get to work.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It says, I appreciate you, I love you.

>> Fred Jackson: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Here's your screwdriver. Thanks for being a dad. They get over there and get to work because you ain't doing good enough.

>> Fred Jackson: All right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Something to that.

Three passengers died aboard a cruise ship that left Argentina this week

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. You're listening to today's issues. Tim, Ed and Fred. Fred, what's our first news story today?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, it's one of those stories that makes you think twice about taking a cruise. it seems now like every year there are two or three stories about cruise ships where people are getting sick. And, of course, perhaps, most of our listeners have heard of this one ship. I think it left Argentina. And, there were several people got, very ill. Three passengers died aboard this ship. And there were, I think, a dozen and a half Americans aboard the ship. The ship eventually made it to Tenerife, and the Americans. Beg pardon?

>> Tim Wildmon: Where?

>> Fred Jackson: Tenerife.

>> Tim Wildmon: Where's that?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Tenerife. It's, Well, you know, Tim, Tenerife off the

>> Fred Jackson: coast of Spain, I believe it is.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, I'm sorry I asked if nobody knows.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: But I just.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't know. I don't know where it is.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think. I think Spain, but that is, first. I was unfamiliar with this.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm gonna look it up while. While Fred is.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know how to spell it?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I just copied and pasted. So it is, It is, off the coast of. Looks like, an island. Where is this?

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, we're good.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, this is. It's off the coast of, Morocco.

>> Fred Jackson: Morocco. Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Morocco.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: Which is a few hundred miles south of Spain.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, it's in the ballpark on the globe.

>> Tim Wildmon: You're reading.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, go ahead. Anyway, ship dock there and the Americans on board. Like I say, about a dozen and a half of them were flown last night to Nebraska. Because Nebraska there has a facility, where people who may have contracted a disease, a virus of some type, they were put into quarantine for a while now. At least one of the Americans has been diagnosed positively with this, hantavirus. And one other is showing symptoms. And I was just reading a report on CNN where a couple of these passengers, other passengers, have been flown to Emory University in Atlanta, to have A look at there. So, the stress that has been made so far by the medical experts is do not equate this with COVID And they have really stressed this because you hear about these things, especially in the cases where some people have died, that there is great concern that this spreads like wildfire and can be really life threatening. So they have tried to these individuals, these medical experts to say, no, it is not Covid. Over and over again, infectious disease physician, Dr. Amish Adalja, was interviewed, I believe, on Fox this morning, and he talked about the Nebraska facility is excellent in dealing with infectious disease diseases. Cut 13.

>> Eduardo: Yes, it's the best in the world. This is a place where they've taken care of COVID patients that were repatriated after the Diamond Princess. This is a place where, there's a biocontainment unit nearby that took care of Ebola patients. And these are some of the top infectious disease experts in the world at Nebraska. So I do think this is something that can be contained and I think Nebraska is a good place to start to do this work and we'll see how this plays out. But remember, we're expecting to see cases amongst the passengers. So it's not surprising that a French passenger, American passenger, and maybe some more will test positive.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, it's. It's kind of scary if you've seen the images or videos coming out of this, because these folks are being met, by, you know, they're returning to their countries, but they're being met on the tarmac with people in hazmat suits.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, they.

>> Fred Jackson: That's gotta be a little bit frightening and intimidating. but, anyway, it's being dealt with.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I thought this was terrifying when I, and I, I'm not talking about like, for the, for the world, but if you're stuck on a cruise and you

>> Tim Wildmon: can't get small to me.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. And you can't get, you can't get off.

The hantavirus can affect the lungs and can produce hemorrhagic fever

And there's a virus, the hantavirus. First of all, the name sounds terrifying. I went to the CDC website and just to find out a little bit more, just to let our listeners know if they've heard about this. So the hantavirus, it's a family of viruses. They can affect the lungs and, can produce hemorrhagic fever, which I think is fever with like, bleeding, can affect your kidneys. They're mainly. These viruses are mainly spread by rodents and then can, go from person to person. And I just thought, you're on in an enclosed space. First of all, it's, You're on the water, you're going somewhere, then you can't go into port because of the hantavirus. You don't know who's got it. You know, I've not been on a cruise, but I've, you know, aware of people who have. And you do know something about it. The rooms are all small. Everything's kind of crowded together, which is fine if nobody's sick. So this was a. Kind of a terrifying thing. And,

>> Tim Wildmon: But it's not. It doesn't spread like Covid.

>> Fred Jackson: No.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's what the CDC gentleman, who's, what's his name, he was the. He became, He was at Stanford.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: and.

>> Tim Wildmon: And then, he. He basically exposed Dr. Fauci and that whole.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. The Centers for Disease Control's acting director, J. Bhattacharya.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So he. He,

>> Tim Wildmon: He was at odds with the, quote,

>> Tim Wildmon: mainstream, medical community during COVID But, so he's. He's now over the cdc.

>> Tim Wildmon: But anyway, he says this is. We just want, basically, we want the

>> Tim Wildmon: world to know this is not Covid.

>> Tim Wildmon: Doesn't spread like Covid.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's not as dangerous as Covid in terms of its ability to, you

>> Tim Wildmon: know, spread like wildfire across the country. So. And they've got them isolated in Nebraska first. I think that's the first I remember hearing about that. So there's a place in Nebraska, and, this is where the expression, out in the middle of nowhere comes from.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because they take these folks out into. You notice they didn't take them to Manhattan.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right. Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: Huh?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Took them to Nebraska, where it says.

>> Tim Wildmon: And very isolated from,

>> Tim Wildmon: Except for corn farmers.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: I guess they would be very isolated

>> Tim Wildmon: from the world, which is what they want.

>> Tim Wildmon: They don't want. They want very, very few people coming in contact with those folks.

>> Tim Wildmon: Anyway. Next story, Fred.

President Trump says Iran must give up enriched uranium or they will develop nuclear weapon

>> Fred Jackson: Well, our next story is Iran. You know, late last week, President Trump was talking very optimistically, felt that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Which day was that?

>> Fred Jackson: I think that was Thursday.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, what about Friday?

>> Fred Jackson: Friday? Friday we were.

>> Tim Wildmon: Saturday, he was back on positive.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. yeah, we were waiting for a response, and then came Sunday, and the Iranians responded. And the president basically said, totally unacceptable. And this is what the president had to say, in particular about the issue of enriched uranium. Cut number four.

>> Donald Trump: We'll get that at some point. Whatever we want, we have it surveilled. You know, I did a thing called Space Force, and they are watching that every. If somebody walked in, they can tell you his name, his address, the number of his badge. no, we have that very well surveilled. If anybody got near the place, we will know about it and we'll blow him up.

>> Tim Wildmon: What is he talking about?

>> Fred Jackson: Well, the big issue, for the President is this enriched uranium, which is close, to the point where we are told of being ready to be applied to a nuclear weapon.

>> Tim Wildmon: Iran admitted to that during the negotiations.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes. So the President is saying we have to get this enriched uranium. We can't allow the Iranians to have this because they will develop a nuclear weapon. Israel feels the same way. but right now, the attitude that I'm seeing from Iran is we're a sovereign nation. we're going to keep control of the Strait of Hormuz, we're going to continue to develop uranium. And, that is why the President on the weekend said, totally unacceptable, but we're getting real whiplash back and forth. Gas prices went down late last week. They're going back up again today.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so, but play the comments. Was it these comments from the president

>> Fred Jackson: yesterday in the last 24 hours?

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. And what is he talking about?

>> Fred Jackson: He's talking about we, have uranium under control. He says no one come, near the Iranian rich uranium without our knowing.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, I want to hear him talk about that.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, go ahead.

>> Donald Trump: We'll get that at some point. Whatever we want, we have it surveilled. You know, I did a thing called Space Force, and they are watching that every. If somebody walked in, they can tell you his name, his address, the number of his badge. no, we have that very well surveilled. If anybody got near the place, we will know about it and we'll blow him up.

>> Tim Wildmon: Why are we doing that today? I don't. Well, I don't get it. We sit around a month knowing where the enriched uranium is.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I assume that the President is wanting to, make a deal with whoever's running Iran. And we've said that there are probably different factions, but the irgc, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core, is, undoubtedly in charge. but I'm guessing it's because we want Iran to give that up voluntarily. and there may be some logistical problems to,

>> Tim Wildmon: Do you believe President Trump right there?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I think, I believe President Trump. I think the Iranians are playing the administration. So I think they give, the appearance of wanting to make a deal, which, President Trump and the administration, those who are negotiating this, are, you know. That sounds good. Let me take it Back to my boss. You go to your boss. and I just think that they're playing us. I think the IRGC has no intention of making a deal with the United States. I think the Iranians understand that this is a stalemate right now. We cannot, we can blow some more stuff up, but their, ability to wait it out. I'm talking about the Iranians, has been kind of proven. And I think they want the US to invade with boots on the ground so they can kill a bunch of our soldiers and marines and then declare victory. And the standstill is how much further do we, as President Trump once said, we're going to end a civilization tonight. Do they blow up, you know, the infrastructure that's needed for this country to exist and then become pariahs, on the world stage? I just think we're being strung along and unless we want to try to blow the places up where the, the enriched uranium is supposedly still stored underground.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, he said, we know where it is.

>> Ed Vitagliano: He.

>> Tim Wildmon: And he said, we know the badge number. The people go in there and we're ready to blow them up. So I don't know what we're waiting on.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, I don't. I don't know why I don't have an answer to that. As far as I've read, we think we know where the enriched uranium isn't.

>> Tim Wildmon: What he said.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I know.

>> Tim Wildmon: Fred, what do you think about all this?

>> Fred Jackson: I think the Iranians, the regime, they're evil, but they're smart. They understand that the president has to do something to wrap this up pretty soon because there's an election. And I agree with Ed. They're going to play this out. And they understand that the president at some point is going to have to define we've won this. But he's not going to get what he originally said. Remember, he told those dear people, the protesters help is on the way. I don't think they're going to get us help to overturn that regime.

>> Ed Vitagliano: There's not going to be regime change. No, not in the near term.

>> Fred Jackson: It's not going to happen. And, you know, it was interesting, Putin, Russian leader Putin said on the weekend, hey, hey, we'll go in and we'll take that uranium. Do you really want to trust Vladimir Putin to do. Because he's friends with.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, but they already got nukes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, I'd rather Putin have it crazies down there.

U.S. ambassador Matthew Whitaker says next steps in Iran are negotiations

Yeah, but they're not giving it up in Iran.

>> Fred Jackson: But I don't.

>> Tim Wildmon: They bring it out in boxes like Marked like a plastic, you know, like

>> Tim Wildmon: we store in our garage for a Christmas one.

>> Tim Wildmon: It says, it says enrich uranium. Yeah. With the tape on the side of the. How does this work exactly?

>> Ed Vitagliano: No, I think it has to be more secure containers than that. They just buy up all the containers at Walmart.

>> Tim Wildmon: You mean the plastic containers? Rich uranium.

>> Fred Jackson: But listen to this. This is U.S. ambassadors. Cut six, Brent. U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker says the next steps in Iran is more negotiations, since this is what he said, since all military objectives have been met. Cut six.

>> Matt Whitaker: Well, next steps are certainly to continue to negotiate. You know, President Trump is a dealmaker, he's a peacemaker. He certainly, has all options at his disposal, including using our awesome man military, if that's necessary. But really, all military objectives have been completed by the United States. You know, we are in a much different situation from nine weeks ago where Iran was menacing not only its neighbors, but, but with what we found out their capabilities of their missile program, really the world, including those it could reach here in Europe. And so, you know, President Trump has dramatically changed that situation for the better.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's, to me, that's spin.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. Nothing that he said is technically wrong, but it's not a, it's not a win. Okay. Because what's going to happen. I think what's going to happen, yes, we have severely degraded their military. We've talked about this. but the regime is still in power. And if we want to bring oil prices down and take, some of the edge off the political fallout, then we're going to have to allow Iran to control the Straits of Hormuz again so that they can ship their oil out. And then that will be bringing billions of dollars into Iran because they're selling the oil. And they will just simply continue doing, they will rebuild their military. I don't know how long that'll take. Five, ten years, maybe longer. But they will continue to do the, in the nuclear program. And so then what? Then we have to go back and do this again in five years. I think the president wants a, an actual conclusion, and he's not going to get it. No, I don't think Iran's playing ball with President Trump. These people in charge are, they're in, they're, they're, they're all in.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, what's wrong with this right here? What's wrong with President Trump saying, you

>> Tim Wildmon: know what, we're not going to be

>> Tim Wildmon: able to stop them from building a nuclear weapon and so we might as well deal with that fact, and we can watch them. And if they get closer or if they threaten anybody, then we'll have to take military action.

>> Tim Wildmon: And may.

>> Tim Wildmon: May mean a big major war. but.

>> Tim Wildmon: But as far as us being able to. But now I say what I just said. He just said, hey, we got it. No problem. You know, we know where they are.

>> Tim Wildmon: We're just giving them a chance for a peaceful solution.

>> Tim Wildmon: But we also heard that last year from President Trump. We got him. Greatest thing ever. We wiped them out of their nukes. Remember that?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So. I don't.

>> Tim Wildmon: I don't. I don't.

>> Tim Wildmon: I know.

>> Tim Wildmon: I can't. You can't.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's the only option.

>> Tim Wildmon: You can't believe President Trump.

>> Tim Wildmon: Absolutely.

>> Tim Wildmon: He is a. He is a negotiator, but he's also a spinmeister himself. That's why he says, great. One day we're in itch away, and the next day he goes, no, I'm not dealing. I'm not.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We're not going to have this an unreasonable position. He said, I listen to Marco Rubio. Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: If I want to know what's actually happened, I listen to Marco Rubio, not

>> Tim Wildmon: President Trump, because he's all over the map on this.

>> Tim Wildmon: Am I right?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. I think what you said is the. Is the best that the president can do. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with saying, listen, our military is awesome. We devastated their military, but we can't fully accomplish. We're not going to invade at this point. We're not going to put boots on the ground. and so we are going to continue to watch. And if they build it up again, we'll bomb it again.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: But for now, we've done all we can. If the rest.

>> Tim Wildmon: What's wrong with saying that?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't think.

I think he's going to have to say that. And Netanyahu is not talking that way. Yeah. Okay. I know we got to go

I think he's going to have to say that.

>> Fred Jackson: I know we got to go to a break, but, when we come back, there's another party in this war, and that's Israel.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: And Netanyahu is not talking that way.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll continue this conversation. We get back from the break.

The American Family Radio Network has a new app for smartphones and tablets

You're listening to today's issues on the

>> Tim Wildmon: American Family Radio Network.

>> Tim Wildmon: Tim, Ed and Fred, stay with us.

>> Ed Vitagliano: M. 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 afr the

>>  : AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app,

>> Jeff Chamblee: I look up to the mountains. Does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and Earth. Psalm 1211 2.

>>  : This is today's issues. Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of today's issues.

President Trump said yesterday that he rejects the latest proposal from Iran

>> Tim Wildmon: Alright, welcome back everybody to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network.

>> Tim Wildmon: Tim, Ed and Fred here, we're talking about the war with Iran and it's

>> Tim Wildmon: at a stalemate now.

>> Tim Wildmon: And, President Trump said yesterday that he rejects the latest proposal from Iran. Not that it's been a lot different than the proposal Iran's been having out there for what, two months now.

>> Tim Wildmon: basically they're saying we're not giving up our right to, develop nuclear weapons and, or I don't know if they admit that they say something to the effect that we're a sovereign nation. You're not going to tell us what

>> Tim Wildmon: we can and can't do.

>> Tim Wildmon: Basically, that's what they're saying in terms of developing weapons. so where this goes, that's why we're trying to talk about it because, if President Trump says he's rejected

>> Tim Wildmon: the latest Iran proposal, where does that leave us? Here? It seems to me like President Trump is going to have to, make a call in the next day or two. Whether he continues to go after Iran with our military or he shuts the thing down and comes home, I guess it could continue with the blockade indefinitely. I don't know where that's going to. But what's the point of that? If you, if you like Trump says,

>> Tim Wildmon: we know where all this stuff is

>> Tim Wildmon: and we can get it anytime we want.

>> Tim Wildmon: Then what's, what's, what's the point going

>> Tim Wildmon: with the continued military action and a blockade if you can go in and wipe it out like that.

>> Tim Wildmon: So, does that make any sense to.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, we can't. We can't go get it, if that's what he meant. That.

>> Tim Wildmon: Did you not hear him?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I think I interpreted as we can. We can blow it all up.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yes. Yeah, that means. That's pretty good description of go and get it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I thought go and get it means we extract the enriched uranium, but you need forces on the ground to do that, and I don't think that's possible. So burying it all under, you know, a mile of rock, I don't know. I don't know. All this stuff is, is fortified. this is all built into mountains. And I don't know, short of using a nuclear weapon on it, that you could completely destroy it. So I'm not sure that's possible.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel should wean itself from U.S. military aid

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, what did Benjamin Netanyahu say?

>> Fred Jackson: Well, he was interviewed on C. Last night, and, what I read and what he had to say is that in the minds of Israel, this war is not over yet. And let me. Let's just play what he had to say and then we come back and discuss it.

>> Jeff Chamblee: Cut number two, because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran. there's still, enrichment sites that have to. To be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want, to produce.

>> Fred Jackson: So, and he's talking about Hezbollah. You know, they get their weapons from Iran, et cetera, et cetera. What I took from that is that if the United States packs its bags and go home, and they go home, Israel, says no. our definition of finishing this off is to ensure they don't have enriched uranium. And there's no way that they can produce ballistic missiles which they hand over to Hezbollah, which they. And Hezbollah then attacks us again, or that they.

>> Ed Vitagliano: There's no way that Iran can continue funding these groups too, like Hamas and Hezbollah and others, which. Which is a huge part of the. It seems to me a huge part of the reason why we went to war. Now. Now, the US Military, I will hand it to the Trump administration. The US Military did severely damage, yes, almost obliterated their military capability. Okay? But once that oil starts flowing, once we leave the Gulf, Iran becomes in charge of it again. They start shipping out oil from their own ports to other. That. That money starts to flow back, and because the regime has not been changed, they will go back to doing what they've been doing. Now, maybe it's maybe we've set them back five years, 10 years, but that's not finishing the job if that was what we were after. And it sounds to me that from what Benjamin, Netanyahu said, Israel's not going to stop, even if we go home.

>> Fred Jackson: And then in the same interview with cbs, Prime Minister Netanyahu said something that shocked me. I did not see the interview, but I heard portions of it this morning. We know the United States financially supports Israel. I think the figure is close to $4 billion on an annual basis. But listen to what Prime Minister Netanyahu had to say about Israel weaning itself from that support cut, number three, want

>> Jeff Chamblee: to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have, because we receive, we receive, $3.8 billion a year. And I, think that it's time that we wean ourselves from the remaining military support.

>> Fred Jackson: And my question.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's huge.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: My question is. Okay, what's going on here? Well, I'll speculate. My speculation is that Prime Minister Netanyahu, regardless of what the United States does in Iran, will continue the battle and he's not going to take orders from

>> Ed Vitagliano: President Trump, which makes me think he's being told by the Trump administration, no, don't do anything right now. We're trying to get a ceasefire.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Meanwhile, Israel, we're under a ceasefire. Well, I mean, I mean, yes, Cease. Are trying to get a deal. Peace deal. And so, the Trump is telling Netanyahu, don't, attack. Okay. And Israel is. Sounds like what Netanyahu is saying is that if they wean themselves from U.S. support, they don't have to listen to the U.S. they can do what's in their best, their own, best interest.

>> Fred Jackson: That was my interpretation and I think that's absolutely huge.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It is huge. Because what happens? Does the U.S. does President Trump criticize Israel and Netanyahu? If. Let's say that what Netanyahu said in the CBS interview is maybe they get themselves off US Military support and they do what they want to do, then does. Does Trump ever become, ah, an opponent of Netanyahu? I mean, we cover them in the UN with votes in the Security Council.

>> Tim Wildmon: I know you stung my weaning. So that, that takes some time. That's not true overnight. So I think he's talking about Benjamin, who's ideally, we'd like to get off the U.S. aid.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, United States of America gives foreign aid all over the world and have for a long time. And Israel I think been our number one benefactor of that because of our strategic relationship with them. And their number one, they're one of our top allies, if not our top ally in the world. so we've always supported Israel. And this goes back, you know, Democrats, Republicans, didn't matter, over our countries since Israel became a Nation in 1948. So, yeah.

President Trump says Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon; negotiations stall again

>> Fred Jackson: All right, it's very interesting. We're discussing this and a couple of the networks are taking a live feed from the White House right now. President is talking about this. he speaks his Iran negotiations stall again. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. So once again he's repeating that, what's become a mantra now. so he goes back and he says, you know, the Navy's dead, the Air Force is dead. We know all of that, but where is this going? And I think, you know, President Trump is looking for an off ramp here.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, he's not getting one by saying what he's saying, because, and I'm

>> Tim Wildmon: not saying he's wrong, I'm saying he

>> Tim Wildmon: has laid down the gauntlet. Now if, if what he said today is that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon and Iran is saying, oh, yeah,

>> Tim Wildmon: we can, then, it's, it's, that's, that's a standstill.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's a standstill and that's a, All right, let's see, let's see who's. We're about to tangle and let's see who wins. That's what this represents to me, an all out war.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Not, not bombing from the air, but sending troops in. Whatever it takes to go get the

>> Tim Wildmon: enriched uranium that we say we know where it is.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. And some of the military experts, like Jack Keane, you see him on Fox all the time, he's saying it's time to resume the bombing. That's the only way you're going to finish this.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Listen, we could, we could devastate Iran as a country.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. Because all that oil, we, we could demonstrate, we could, devastate their oil production, their oils storage.

>> Tim Wildmon: does that affect China and other.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, it would absolutely probably cause the oil prices to. I don't know what it would be. It would be very damaging to the world economies, including our own. Oil prices would skyrocket because they're, they are going up, but they're at least tamped. That increase, is tamped down somewhat by the exp. Expectation that some peace deal could be reached and hostilities would stop and that oil would begin to flow. But what is it? Kharg Island. What's the car? Yeah, they have all that oil sits there and then is unloaded onto tankers. We could, we could blow that up. Okay. What I'm saying is we can still do tremendous damage to Iran, but the consequences of that for the world and for our own country politically, economically, could be equally devastating. And so I'm not sure that's an option. I mean, I'm not going to disagree with, with General Cain. you've got to push the Iranian regime somewhat by doing something. But those are going to be the last people to suffer. The irgc, the people in charge, they're going to be the last ones to suffer. The rest of the people of Iran will suffer first. They can even wait it out, even if we devastate their infrastructure. It's a tough situation.

President Trump heads to China on Wednesday to meet with Xi Jinping

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, all right. And President Trump's going to China. When is he going to China?

>> Fred Jackson: He heads out Wednesday. The visit's fairly short. Heads home on Friday. But you meant, you know, ran is going to be on the table. It's got to be, when they meet. Brian, Mast is a Republican, from Florida. He says the president has several issues on the agenda when he meets with Xi Jinping. cut number one, what they're doing

>> Speaker M: in our systems of education, what they're doing with balloons, going over the United States of America, the way that they've supported Iran. Other adversaries worked in our backyard with Venezuela and Cuba, in our backyard directly against the United States of America. The list goes on and on.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. but also, Tim, you sent out a number of stories late last night with regards to the other issue that's got to be on the table, too, and that is AI. what was very interesting in one of the stories that you sent out was, you know, America has been developing AI wanted to be on the forefront of it, but we didn't pass along any of this information development information to the Chinese. And the Chinese have gone out and they're now advancing their. They may be equal with us or, pulling ahead in AI. And that can be very dangerous because of the power of AI.

>> Ed Vitagliano: To me, it's, it's, it's very similar to the development of nuclear weapons. First one to get one has a huge advantage, over those who don't. And, you know, we've been. It's, it's. I'm not a tech guy, so it's hard for me to keep up with you.

>> Tim Wildmon: I can help you.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: You just let me ask me your. Any question.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, it is it is a hard thing to understand, except in very general terms. I'm getting the picture that some of the. The. A. The knowledge and development of the possibilities of AI Are just mushrooming. I. Probably a bad, thing comparing it to nuclear weapons, but there are a lot of good things that AI can do. But the. The evil things that AI can be used for is, we're talking about maybe draining every bank account in the United States, breaking into every corporation, stealing information. The. The possibilities for cyber attacks, shutting down power plants. I mean, this is something that AI can do. And if China gets that capability first, then you can blackmail the United States just as easily as you can with nuclear weapons. If we didn't have any. Yeah, it's. It's frightening. And yet the article that Tim sent around from, I, think was the NewSong Republic or no National Review, is we've got to turn our tech industries and these tech giants, we got to turn them loose so they can go out and. And be as developmentally advanced as China is. And that's scary as well, because what if. What if the. What if the snake gets out of a box? you know, even internally, AI Goes rogue. AI Goes rogue. I'm not sure what the answer is. And that's why J.D. vance, Vice President Vance, met with, tech industry bigwigs here. and I guess that's your. Your. The story. Because we need. We need smarter minds than anyone on this panel, with the exception of Tim, who is a techie.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, all this wonderful conversation that we've had the last half hour, just, Happy Monday. It's really. I got a song that I think fits our mood. I've asked Brent to pull up.

>> Tim Wildmon: I, think.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think we can all agree with this.

>> Tim Wildmon: Hit it, Brent. I see trees,

>> Donald Trump: Too

>> Ed Vitagliano: I see them blue for me and you and I

>> Tim Wildmon: think to myself, all right, shut it down. War is not funny. I'm not. I'm not trying to make light of war.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You will submit to the AI Overlord.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'm just saying. Wow.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I'll, be back.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, we will.

Over 90% of Iran's crude oil exports go to China

>> Tim Wildmon: We absolutely encourage people to pray about the situation because.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Pray for our leaders.

>> Tim Wildmon: Anything we can would do about it and as individuals.

>> Tim Wildmon: But, I mean, we're.

>> Tim Wildmon: We're in a very tenuous situation here. I personally, with relationship to China. I. I don't know what the Chinese leader. What's his name?

>> Fred Jackson: Xi Jinping.

>> Tim Wildmon: What is it?

>> Ed Vitagliano: She. Jinping. Yeah, I get that. Right? Yeah, I. I had that at a restaurant not too long ago, but.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: Was it good?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it was good. Exactly.

>> Fred Jackson: Especially with rice.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, Just pour it over rice.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Little fried. Fried rice.

>> Tim Wildmon: Anyway, I. I don't know. you know, the United States and

>> Tim Wildmon: China are joined at the hip. I'm not too worried about the US And China going to war because they. Their whole economy is dependent, on the United States buying stuff from them. maybe not their whole economy, but at least half their economy.

>> Tim Wildmon: The US they make stuff and we buy it. That's been the way this has been

>> Tim Wildmon: going for the last four decades or so. So, you know, if they want to

>> Tim Wildmon: get to a conflict with us and

>> Tim Wildmon: they shut off our markets and vice

>> Tim Wildmon: versa, we shut off the cheap stuff

>> Tim Wildmon: we get from China.

>> Tim Wildmon: You see what I'm saying?

>> Tim Wildmon: I saw stuff that's our relative.

>> Tim Wildmon: So. But I don't know what they're going to do. If China is really dependent on oil

>> Tim Wildmon: from Iran and we're stopping it from going from flowing.

>> Tim Wildmon: Is that, is that going on or is there ships being able to.

>> Fred Jackson: No, they're not allowing any ships, to take on oil from Iran and to leave.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know what I bet might be brokered here?

>> Tim Wildmon: I may.

>> Tim Wildmon: She and, Trump might agree to

>> Tim Wildmon: let Chinese oil chips through from Iran.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I mean, I think there are ships going from the Gulf to China, just not from Iran. And you're saying, I, don't know how much.

>> Tim Wildmon: What percentage of. Maybe, we don't, we don't know

>> Tim Wildmon: the answer to China. What percentage of their oil do they get directly from Iran? That would be my question. Because that, That's a big deal.

>> Fred Jackson: I think I've heard a figure of 20%.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I think that's. I think that's how much oil the world comes out of. The world.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because, that would make them m. If, if your economy is being squeezed

>> Tim Wildmon: by the US And Iran, you're wanting this to get over with quick, quicker, sooner than later, you know, because you

>> Tim Wildmon: can't, even though you may not take

>> Tim Wildmon: a neutral position, you can't go on unless. Unless your economy is going to be impacted greatly. For the negative. I'm talking about China by the ongoing blockade of US ships.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So over 90% of Iran's crude oil exports go to China.

>> Fred Jackson: 90%.

>> Ed Vitagliano: 90% of Iran's exports go to China. I don't know. I'm, I'm trying to find out what percentage of China's total oil imports come from China.

>> Fred Jackson: That's a pretty good chunk, though.

>> Matt Whitaker: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: you're listening to Today's issues. What's your next story, Fred?

>> Fred Jackson: one more. Trump just said u. S. Iran cease fire on life support. That's what he's saying.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Fred Jackson: As of Monday morning.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Fred Jackson: go a little lighter.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez says American Revolution was against billionaires

Let's do some Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. She's out there speaking. She's the future of the Democratic party.

>> Tim Wildmon: You think so?

>> Fred Jackson: well, she thinks so.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Fred Jackson: She and Bernie Sanders and some of the others. Anyway, she was at an event during the weekend where she said the US Revolution was waged against the billionaires of that day. So listen to what she had to say. And then we have comments from Fox's Raechel Campos Duffy. Cut number eight.

>> Joseph Parker: The American revolution was against the billionaires of their time, and we were declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and power and the state. I said that she was a true believer. I didn't say she was very smart. And that's not actually AOC's fault. What you saw there is the product of our university system. It's the product of our high school system, which has taken what was supposed to be a search for the truth, for truth and beauty in education that was based on critical thinking. And instead we handed this gem of our education system over to Marxists, to the kids that were at Woodstock. They have now taken over our institutions and they have created social justice warriors. Instead of people who are steeped in history and great books and Western civilization, in fact, they're taught to hate Western civilization.

>> Fred Jackson: She's right there. Raechel Kappos Duffy. the source is our education system and aoc. We chuckle at what she has to say, but people are buying her arguments.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, it's hard for me to keep a straight face when I hear something like that, but this is exactly the right take on what. Why AOC said this. Because being trained by Marxist professors in colleges and universities.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: they see things like the American Revolution in Marxist terms. Even though Karl Marx wrote his book, published his book Communist, manifesto, when I think it was 1848. Okay, but how. How else do you explain how, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez would put the, the American revolution in comm. In a communist, worldview, of a revolution against capitalism. Capitalism drove the colonies. Okay, you may have some economic, you know, some people saying, well, mercantile system and all those kinds of things. Yes, but the desire for profit produced a nation that was increasingly wealthy and wanted to control their own lives, including taxation. But not limited to taxation. That is, it was not A revolution against capitalism. It's absurd. But to Duffy's point, you almost can't blame aoc. She was taught everything has to do with Marx.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: The American Revolution was not fought over

>> Tim Wildmon: a billionaire's, influence on America. That's ridiculous.

>> Tim Wildmon: as many have pointed out, if

>> Tim Wildmon: you go to Yorktown,

>> Tim Wildmon: in Virginia, and we do this twice a year, you visit the home of Thomas Nelson.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, Thomas Nelson, I think, is the third.

>> Tim Wildmon: But Thomas Nelson, was one of

>> Tim Wildmon: the wealthiest men in America at the

>> Tim Wildmon: time, and he gave up his whole fortune to fund the military, of the colonial, of the early Americans, the revolutionary forces, the war, for independence, the Americans. Okay, so he funded that with the.

>> Tim Wildmon: Gladly did it so you could visit his house and hear his story. But he was not alone.

>> Tim Wildmon: The American forces, were underwritten in

>> Tim Wildmon: large part by people who were very wealthy, so would be considered the billionaires

>> Tim Wildmon: of our day if they were living today.

>> Tim Wildmon: So that's ridiculous what she's talking about.

>> Tim Wildmon: She's acting like the American Revolution was fought over, like the French Revolution.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Something like that.

>> Tim Wildmon: So she doesn't know what she's talking about. You're listening to today's issues on the

>> Tim Wildmon: American Family Radio Network.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, maybe we can get this clip, because President Trump did speak at

>> Tim Wildmon: the White House just moments ago, and play it maybe after the top of the hour.

>> Tim Wildmon: We don't have time now. But relative, to the question,

>> Tim Wildmon: we were talking about earlier about Iran, he said that the agreement that they

>> Tim Wildmon: wanted us to sign, this.

>> Tim Wildmon: Me. That's me. He said it was, quote, it was just unacceptable. You know, a lot of people said, well, does he have a plan? Talking about Trump, talking about himself, he said, yeah, of course they do have a plan. I have the best plan ever. And Iran has been defeated militarily, totally.

>> Tim Wildmon: They have little left.

>> Tim Wildmon: They probably built up during this period of time. We'll knock them out in about a day. But I have a plan, you know, that's a very simple plan. I don't know why you don't like it. You say it's like, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They're dangerous. They're very volatile. So again, he repeated the they can't have a nuclear weapon. But he has a very simple plan, and it's the best plan ever. So that's coming up, I guess, the, the next 24 to 48 hours.

>> Tim Wildmon: I don't know when he may wait

>> Tim Wildmon: till after his, meeting with, the Chinese leader.

>> Ed Vitagliano: By the way, I did look up China gets 12. Roughly 12% of its total crude oil imports from Iran. Okay, so Iran sells 90% of its. It sends it to China. China gets roughly 12% of its oil needs from Iran. So they're coming kind of joined at the hip.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's significant.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, we'll be back with more. thank you, Fred.

>> Fred Jackson: All righty.

>> Tim Wildmon: And Ed. well, we'll be back in a

>> Tim Wildmon: few moments with Steve Paisley. Jordo.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Tim and Ed talk with Fred on top news headlines of the day including a discussion on the Hantavirus.