Iran update, airport chaos, Bachelorette canceled, RIP Chuck Norris & Sweet 16 | Ep. 62

Conner Jones: [00:02:14] Hi, I'm Conner Jones.

Micah Tomasella: [00:03:84] I'm Micah Tomasella.

Conner Jones: [00:05:354] And this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we are navigating the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and everything else going on in culture. We always do it from a Christian perspective. And Micah, baseball's back. Project Hail Mary is a space epic and it's soaring at the box office. The guy who plays Jack Reacher actually beat a dude up in real life. Yeah. I feel like American culture is just back, right?

Micah Tomasella: [00:31:594] What a great day to be alive. We're also going to be talking about everything happening with uh America's war with Iran. We're also going to be having a little bit of a discussion around all the airport chaos and long lines, long security lines at the airport, what's going on behind that, why is that so important? Why was the Bachelorette canceled right before they were about to air the first episode? And we lost an absolute legend in Chuck Norris. We're going to talk a little bit about him too. So let's jump into the brief.

Conner Jones: [01:02:614] The brief. Yeah, as everybody knows, the war in Iran continues to rage on. Uh maybe I should say the war against Iran. We don't have boots on the ground, but we are continuing to do strikes. Uh there's been a little bit of a pause and that's because President Trump did put an ultimatum out there this weekend on Iran and said, he gave them essentially on I think on Saturday, he said, you've got 48 hours to reopen the straight of Hormuz, which Micah, you dove into last week, the importance of that straight, that piece of water where all the oil passes through. And he said, if you don't reopen it, I'm going to obliterate the country's power plants and essentially take out their electric grid. Uh that's a really big threat and he he gave them a Monday deadline, Monday morning essentially. Right before that deadline though, as the markets began to open is when Trump made an announcement that he was going to suspend the ultimatum for five days. Uh on that, when the markets actually opened, oil prices dropped by 11%, the Dow surged 631 points Monday morning. So Wall Street was seeing this as like a the first steps towards a possible de-escalation of Trump saying, hey, we actually are having some conversations. There's some positive discussions being had. Um and that they're talking to quote a top person on the Iranian side. Now I will say Iran has denied that. They're saying, nobody's talking to us. We're not talking to anyone. That's that's not true at all. Uh which has left people saying like, well then what's the truth here? Is the US actually engaging with Iran on talks or not? The truth probably is somewhere in the middle. Like yeah, maybe Trump has some people talking to Iran. It sounds like uh some Middle Eastern allies are trying to really be the middle man here. And they started conversations over the weekend with somebody in Iran, don't know who, uh which that's a whole another discussion about who's actually leading the country right now. Um so maybe there's some talks going on, but also it sounds like there's not direct talks. And the reality is Trump, he's he's smart about the markets and he knows that the markets are what drive a lot of discussion, a lot of sentiment in the American populist. And so he was kind of making a I think a strategic decision here to call off the ultimatum essentially right before the markets opened for the week because he knew that they needed a basically a little juice put into the into the oil prices dropping but also stock market and everything. So the suspension not very coincidentally might would be my guess ends on Friday, right after the markets close. So he said, I'm going to give it five days and then the markets will close again for the weekend and then that could mean maybe these strikes on energy power plants in Iran happen. I don't know. But Micah, any initial thoughts on just kind of like what we learned over the weekend and in that 48-hour period?

Micah Tomasella: [03:38:784] I mean, I just think uh the commander-in-chief has a has the right to change his mind, although it's frustrating. I understand that. I get that. I I think it's even frustrating to me at times. Just like what's the what's the plan here? What's the actual end game? I don't think we've really gotten a great answer on that yet. And you know, we've talked about that before, what does success look like? What I will say is it's just kind of a stark contrast, right? Of just the war from two different perspectives. Like if you're living in Iran, if you're living in Israel, if you're living in one of the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, UAE, you know, Qatar, so on and so forth. Um, the decision is much different for you. The considerations are much different for you. It's like truly safety of yourself and your family. Here in the US, uh, you know, and we're blessed to be here, blessed to be in this position of strength and safety. The decision is more revolving around, I'm going to make this announcement to help our markets, to help investments, to help economic sentiment. That's the biggest strain here. The biggest strain over there in the Middle East is life or death to a certain extent. So, as you were explaining that, I think what stuck out to me was just the contrast in decision making. And I'm not I'm not making an overall statement with that either. I'm just saying, uh as a regular person here and over there, the decisions are different. What's stressing me out is like my, you know, maybe like my 401k or high gas prices at the pump, higher energy costs. What's stressing people out over there is um much more dangerous.

Conner Jones: [05:13:384] Yeah, and that's also what plays into each country is going to take in their own national interest. That's what the argument Israel always makes is we got to do this because it's for our own security. They will destroy us if we don't. And all these Gulf countries are looking out for their national interest, which includes their massive oil facilities that keep getting attacked by Iranian missiles and drones. Um but also we have troops over there and I think a lot of Americans care about that too. They don't want these troops in harm's way. There are a lot of Americans who are like, my son and daughter is overseas. I would rather them not be put in this dangerous position as they are being shipped off or they they were already based over there or what not. So, yeah, you're right though. Most of America is thinking, what does this mean for me economically in my wallet, in my household and just everything because that's how we're being impacted 6,000 miles away. Um that being said, Trump has ordered more troops to the region. There are thousands of Marines on the way. these marine expeditionary expeditionary units that are kind of meant to do ground landings essentially. So the idea of a potential land invasion either on the mainland or more likely Karg Island, which Micah you broke down last week, uh what Karg Island is where they produce a lot of their oil. It's the same size as roughly uh Iwo Jima, which came up this week because Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina went on the news and just really hammered into the idea of basically invading Karg Island and taking over uh that that region and doing ground forces and all that. He said on the news, he said, we've got two marine expeditionary units sailing to the island. We did Iwo Jima, we can do this. The Marines, my money is always on the Marines. Uh for some context here because a lot of people were calling out Lindsey Graham for this. Uh Iwo Jima is roughly the same size as Karg Island and it took 36 days and 70,000 soldiers to take over the island and it cost over 6,000 US lives. Now granted, that was 1945 warfare. War is way different now. It would probably require way less. We have way more technology, drones, aircraft, all of that. But uh representative uh Anna Paulina Luna, who's very popular on the right-wing side of things, she went on to X to say, I am deeply upset at the lack of respect for life Senator Graham is displaying when talking about our troops. He's acting as if they are expendable cattle. This is unacceptable and dark. There were over 26,000 American casualties at Iwo Jima. So even on the Republican side, there's just continued disagreement and disillusionment about what the right path here is. You got kind of the warhawks who are saying, we need boots on the ground, we need to see this to the end. Let's just take over Iran, make sure the regime collapses and destroy their infrastructure. Whereas others are like, we need to pull back. This is not working the way Trump said it would.

Micah Tomasella: [07:48:924] Cut our losses, you've already set Iran back. Move on. Yeah.

Conner Jones: [07:53:24] Well, let's focus on affordability heading into the midterms, not all of this. You know, uh yeah, totally. Exactly. I mean, there's a lot of political drama with this too, not just military drama. It's like what what are the Republicans willing to risk here? And this ties into what you're going to talk about here in a minute with the DHS shutdown and everything too. But one one person who is pushing Trump to do more is actually Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Prince Mohammad bin Salman. New York Times reported this week that he's pushing President Trump to continue the war against Iran, arguing that the US and Israeli military campaigns present a, this is the big part, a historic opportunity to remake the Middle East and that he has advocated for ground operations in his conversations with Trump. I know Micah, you sent that to me the other day and you specifically were a little peeved at uh the Saudi Arabian leader. You want to you want to share your thoughts?

Micah Tomasella: [08:42:314] I that's all fine and dandy. What are you doing, bud? What's what's Saudi Arabia doing other than just coming out and saying, stop attacking us, Iran. Uh if uh if if you want a country to continue its campaign that's halfway across the world when you're right there, when you're its neighbor, uh it's it's really easy to tell somebody to continue to campaign, you know, to to continue their military campaign, to continue spending the money, to continue risking American lives. Okay. I I might understand the Saudi Arabian leaders, uh the prince's uh thoughts on continuing it, but what are what are they going to do? Are they going to step up? I was reading a Wall Street Journal article yesterday about how the Gulf states, uh several of them specifically like UAE and Saudi Arabia are closer than ever to to starting to more actively target Iran. Um but we've yet we've yet to see that. I I just think it's one thing to say something. I think it's another thing to do it entirely. You know, it's just different.

Conner Jones: [09:43:554] Well, and this could be where Trump could say, well, you want me to continue this, then you need to jump in too and start start doing strikes on your own. Like

Micah Tomasella: [09:50:14] I think I think that's the least you should say. I mean, if anything, let them take it over. Anyway, yeah.

Conner Jones: [09:57:144] Yeah, I mean, let's be honest, Saudi Arabia is the most powerful nation in the region. Um and they they they stay timid on things, but they've got the most money, they've got the biggest military in the region, they've got the most population, like they are and and they try to kind of stay out of it um a little bit. So we'll see. I don't know. As of right now, here's where things stand. The US has apparently put together a 15-point plan. Where have we heard that before? Uh this is the same thing that they did, the the State Department did with uh Gaza and Ukraine. Did not work very well with the Ukraine-Russia negotiations. They presented like a 15-point plan and both sides kind of rejected that. It did lead to the peace deal that was made with, I guess Hamas at the time. Um and trying to rebuild Gaza and everything. Apparently, Iran has rejected this 15-point plan, but some of the details we don't know. A lot of it was kind of kept out of the public eye, but we do know some demands from both sides that they want. Iran is demanding that they get a guarantee against attacks in the future, that they get compensation for losses sustained during this war, that they get formal control over the straight of Hormuz and they have no negotiations on Iran's ballistic missile program. Whereas the US is demanding what they've said from the beginning, the dis the dismantlement of Tehran's nuclear work, a suspension of its ballistic missile program and to stop it uh its support for proxy militias like Hezbollah and the Houtis and Hamas and all of that.

Micah Tomasella: [11:18:994] Yeah, Micah, you you kind of chuckled at that. What were you thinking? I mean it's just I mean, if you if you were to accept Iran's demands straight up, uh it's it's almost as if nothing would have changed. Literally. You know, and then uh you know, you can sit there and you can say Iran really has no leverage to make these claims, but Iran is acutely aware of the pressure that this administration feels here on in the states uh to wrap this war up quickly. So, uh they're their leverage has a lot to do with the other factors, the economic factors, the political factors, the energy factors, uh has a, you know, it's giving Iran leverage when they've been pretty much dismantled because outside of those things, they would have no leverage to make any of these demands. But contrary to popular belief, they do have some leverage.

Conner Jones: [12:10:244] They do because they continue to I mean, people thought that they would not have this many missiles continuing to fire this deep into this conflict, but they are. I mean, and they're still hitting oil facilities and they still have Karg Island, which does matter and they still have mines they can put in the straight of Hormuz. So they do have some leverage here uh unless the US and Israel and maybe some other Middle Eastern states continue to strike and take out big things. One thing about the what Trump's ultimatum was to take out the energy infrastructure essentially. The thing about that is it's going to hurt the people in Iran even more. And if the idea is to get the Iranian people to rise up and protest, they're not going to they're not going to be able to do that as easily and they they're going to struggle to live their lives if they don't even have power or electricity. So there's a lot even with that too. If that's one of the goals, which that's not stated here in some of these points that have been leaked out to the media. Um so maybe that's a goal that's been forgotten is getting the people to actually rise up and topple the regime themselves in protest. But we'll see. One issue the White House is having as they pursue these talks is actually identifying someone to talk with like because they've taken out so much of the leadership in Iran, there's not really, I mean, they've taken out like all the top people, all the top generals, all the main leadership, the security officials. They have identified this one guy, his name is Mohammad Bager Gaf and I'm sorry if I messed that up, but he's basically being seen as a potential. Yeah. He is in charge of the Iranian Parliament. He's the Parliament speaker. So I imagine that's similar to like a Mike Johnson, speaker of the House situation. He's seen as a possible negotiating partner and even a future head of government uh in the White House with whom that the government of the US might be able to actually work with. And this is a mid Trump's kind of new push towards negotiations rather than some sort of military escalation. This is what political is reporting that Trump wants a Delcy Rodriguez style deal on oil rather than attacking Karg Island. That's she's now the president of Venezuela after we captured Maduro in January. Finding somebody that will just like work with the US and comply with our demands and then they get to stay in power and all of that. Maybe this guy will do that. He's a former IRGC commander and he's at times positioned positioned himself as a pragmatist and he was the mayor of Tehran for a long time. So maybe he's the right guy to lead the country alongside the US. We'll see. Micah, I I'm thinking about this whole conflict. I'm like, as Christians, we we hear all this. How can we just like respond to everything that's going on in the Middle East and across the world? I mean, conflicts all around, AI, everything. How can we respond to this? Well, I actually went back and looked at Dr. Ryan Dennison, our friend here on the pod. He wrote an article last week about AI uh and then tying it to the tech mogul Peter Thiel, the PayPal guy and just big-time tech billionaire right now. Uh and his obsession, Peter Thiel's obsession with the Antichrist. Kind of an interesting article. I would definitely recommend reading it. I'll link it in the show notes. But I'm, you know, it's not necessarily fully related to Iran, but I think the conclusion that Ryan drew in this article does matter about just world-changing events and anxieties and technologies and then the, you know, dabbling in a little bit of revelation in time theology in there as well for how we can even approach this war. A lot of people think that this could be a step towards the end times. That's why I'm kind of mentioning that, you know, this whole conflict. But Ryan wrote in this article and I just thought it was so good. He said, when we hear of wars, natural disasters, plagues and everything else, our dire situation can really only end in one of two ways. The first possibility is that these events will pass and the world will pull put itself back together in some new semblance of normal, in which case we should not be afraid. The second possibility is that these events really do mark the end times, in which case Jesus will return shortly. And again, we should not be afraid. Either way, Christ wanted his followers to live in such a way that when the world is falling apart, they were not. Man, I I've just I think that's so good and I agree with it because no matter what happens in the next few weeks in Iran or here in the US or anything with AI and all that, you know, God declares in Isaiah 45 5 and 6, I am the Lord and there is no other besides me, there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other. We should place our hope and our trust in the one and only God who declares that he's the one and only God. And we got to remember that he has a plan for our world and even our own individual lives and so like Ryan said, I would just encourage you guys as you think about everything this week, we should live in such a way that if the world around us is falling apart, we're not because our hope and trust is in God.

Micah Tomasella: [16:41:964] I love that, Connor, and I'm uh and what I'm going to talk about, I'm kind of going to wrap it up in a similar way of of uh how we as believers can be and react differently to stressful times so that we can be salt and light in this world. But going back to what you said kind of at the beginning of your spiritual application of just quoting Dr. Ryan Dennison, talking about Peter Thiel and the Antichrist and stuff is it's either going to go back to normal or it's just going to get worse. Uh I mean, ultimately, I would say the end times started after we read Matthew 28 when Jesus gives the great commission and then ascends into heaven. That right then and there is when the end times started. So over 2,000 years ago, we've been in the end times. Maybe that's a controversial opinion. It's mine because scripture also tells us no one knows the day or the hour or the time. Anybody who tells you they know for sure is not true, right? Only God knows. Even the angels in heaven don't know is what scripture tells us, right? And so we've just got to live every day, not as if it's our last in like a a bad way or a morbid way, but we've got to live every day with an understanding that we have a job to do. We get to partner with the creator of the universe to bring about restoration and renewal in this world. There have been more difficult times in history. There will be better times in the future, I believe, and then there's going to be worse times than what we're experiencing right now as well, right? So buckle up and trust Jesus, right?

Conner Jones: [18:07:804] Yeah, exactly. And as you remember, Polymarket says there's a 4% chance of Jesus returning by the end of the year. So I know. Yeah. You know. But you're right. We don't know the the day or the time or the hour.

Micah Tomasella: [18:20:864] All right, so let's let's jump into the next story here. We're going to talk about airport chaos, security strain and what's behind all of it. So air travel across the US is under real strain right now. This isn't one issue. It's multiple pressures hitting the system at the same time. And that's kind of what I want to hit. There's there's this this issue is kind of like an onion. You know, the long airport security lines, there's four, five, six reasons why that's important. There's multiple layers to this story. So number one, let's talk about just the TSA shortages and the long security right uh lines right now at airports. So, so at major airports across the country, including places like La Guardia, which I'm I'm going to talk about the crash that happened there, Atlanta, Dallas hubs, Houston, all of it. Wait times are stretching from 90 minutes to even three hours during peak travel windows. Airports are telling passengers to arrive at least three hours early even for domestic flights. A big driver of this right now is TSA staffing, which makes sense because of the funding uncertainty tied to the Department of Homeland Security right now. We've talked about this before, last several weeks, we've mentioned the DHS, the DH the DHS funding and how a lot of people still don't know, maybe they do now because of how it's affecting everything else, that we still are in a partial government shutdown, okay? And so most TSA agents are not getting paid right now. So if you were being asked to come to work every single day, uh you would probably start to feel some pressure over time to not show up to work and go work somewhere else so that you can provide for your family, right? But what happens is is because these are government paid employees, these are government employees, uh well, they're the only ones licensed and actually able to get people through these airport security lines, okay? But TSA agents are considered essential, so they are required to come to work whether if they're getting paid or not. But many are doing so without consistent pay time uh timelines and that's starting to impact the staff levels, the morale of the employees and just how security checkpoint lines are going so far. This moves beyond any semblance of just an inconvenience, right? When staffing is stretched, consistency and screening becomes harder to maintain and it just raises broader concerns about how the system is functioning, right? I'll get into this more at the end, but with this conflict, with this war raging on right now, it's really important that DHS is fully funded and doing its job. We are in a conflict uh that is impacting the world. And so the government uh leg or arm, whatever you want to call them, that is in charge of keeping our homeland safe, Department of Homeland Security, seems like this is the right time for them to be fully funded and fully functional. Wouldn't you think, Connor?

Conner Jones: [21:02:514] Uh yeah, I I mean, the this is the second worst department I could imagine not being funded right now. The only one worse would be the Pentagon. Like aside from that, I like what are we doing here? I I cannot believe this and I know that this is all because of the ice disagreements and the Democrats don't want to continue to fund ice and the the deportation efforts there. But guys, I mean, our coast guard's not funded. Our FEMA Okay, here's what nobody's talking about. FEMA is not funded. If there was a massive national or natural disaster this week, which could happen at any moment, right? Earthquake. FEMA is not currently funded. Yeah, TSA not being funded. The the videos of these lines at airports, I just feel so bad for everybody traveling on spring break and business travel and all that. I mean, these people are showing up. I feel bad for the TSA agents. I mean, I really do. They're tired. They're exhausted. They're not paid. It's the worst. It's disrespectful for everybody for the TSA agents and for the Americans who are just trying to live their lives and travel and the airlines are fed up because they're like people are canceling their flights, they're not coming, they're driving, their cruise lines are fed up because people are missing their flights to get to their cruise ships. It's it's affecting a ton of stuff and it's affecting a lot of Americans. I saw this video of a guy yesterday, uh you know, like a news reporter walked up to him. He'd been in line for hours in the security line and she walked up to him and he said, um she she was like, what are your what are your thoughts right now? He goes, Congress, fire them. Fire them all. Get rid of them. People are mad. Like just do your job, Congress and get this get this funded.

Micah Tomasella: [22:26:934] I agree. Um there seems to be some momentum there, but we'll see. Every time I hear there's momentum, then I hear that there's not. So we'll see. Hopefully, hopefully it gets funded soon. It will eventually get funded, but I mean this is just ridiculous. All right. Second point I want to point out of the multiple layers to this issue is that you've got ice support and then increased federal presence, okay? So at the same time, there's been a shift in how the strain is being managed, right? So ice and other federal authorities are now being brought in to support airport operations and help relieve the pressure on TSA. That is the um the goal, that's the mission. But that helps with manpower, but it's not that simple, right? The ice officers are trained for enforcement, not standard passenger screening, right? So for travelers, increased enforcement presence inside airport, it just adds tension for people just depending on how you feel about ice in general, right? And so it also puts pressure on the officers themselves, stepping into yet again, a high visibility, high stress environment outside their normal roles and we've seen how that's worked out before. And then the third point I want to point out is there was a deadly La Guardia airport collision and just a broader strain that we're seeing. So then you add in just real tragedy, okay? A commercial Air Canada Express flight collided with a fire truck on the runway at La Guardia during landing a couple of days ago. The truck had been cleared to cross the runway while responding to other emergencies. However, what we're seeing recently, as I was reading that from a BBC report, but Connor just sent me an article this morning about how that fire truck did not have a transponder that allowed the air traffic controllers to track them. So every single vehicle on an airport runway should have a transponder so that the air traffic controllers can direct traffic. For some reason, this fire truck at La Guardia did not have a transponder. So you there's these recordings being released of the air traffic controllers, two of them doing the job of four because it was an overnight shift, which just points to the overall staffing issues with air traffic controllers, which we've touched on uh at many, many stages. They're yelling at the fire truck, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, like in advance. There was enough time. For some reason the fire truck did not hear them and for some reason the fire truck did not have a transponder and tragedy struck and two both pilots of that airplane passed away and dozens of others were injured. So federal investigators are looking into what appears to be a breakdown across all of these systems, runway coordination, communication. At the same time, you're also seeing a strain on just the airline industry. So Delta Airlines, and I'm just going to go and say this right now, I love that they did this, okay? Connor sent this to me too. Um it's funny that I'm taking the kind of airport airplane segment because Connor just loves this stuff. He's just chomping at the bit. I see him right now. I'm on airport Twitter, bro. Like I see all the airport airline stuff. I put my story together almost from just all the articles Connor sent me. I mean, he was just spamming me for the last several days with all these articles on this. To be fair, you sent me a bunch of stuff on Iran as well, so that's good. We're helping each other out here, right? Yes, right. We switched, right? We switched just based off our natural kind of tendencies of what we're interested in. So Delta Airlines announced it is suspending specialty services for members of Congress until TSA is fully funded, pointing directly to the pressure on resources during the shutdown. So basically, if you're in Congress, you get the special ability to skip the lines, to get right on the airplane. So if you're flying Delta, Delta is saying, hey, Congress, you don't get any special treatment anymore. You got to get in line like everybody else does. I think every single airline should do that. And actually, I think they should put every single Congress member in the back of the line, let them get to the front of the line and then put them back in the line again. Anyway. Make them go through twice. Just six hour wait. Just, you know what I mean? This isn't anything too morbid, right? Just uh make sure they understand the inconvenience that the American people are facing right now. Well, it's true. A lot of times you just think about Congress and it feels like they're just in a different playing field of the way that they get to go about life and they live in DC and this kind of like insular circle. And then they'll go back to their state or what not and do some conversations. But when they travel, they get their own special treatment. Yeah, they don't fly private, but they do get to go through the airport like a breeze and because they're busy people and so that it's part of their their role. But this whole thing, man, the the strain on airports, the infrastructure of it all is really it's bad. Um the the this transponder on the fire truck should have been there. The NTSB is searching. One other thing I saw this week was that the the investigators, the NTSB investigators who are going to La Guardia Airport to investigate this crash the next day, were struggling to get there because of the lines at the Houston Airport where these investigators live and they couldn't get through the lines in time to catch the flight to get up to do this investigation at La Guardia, which is a big deal. Like it's all a massive mess. And I'm thinking about and La Guardia is still sending flights in and out, right? You know, they need to understand what's going on. And they've got a runway closed too. I mean, like the runway that this plane crashed on is still shut down. Um the whole thing's very tragic as well and it it's stuff that's avoidable and we shouldn't have air traffic controllers doing the the the jobs of two more people than they're supposed to be doing. Like it's bound to be an accident at night. We saw something similar on the Potomic last year, a collision there that killed a lot more people, but yeah, man, the the the system is strained. Like something needs to be fixed here and Congress is not helping, the government's not helping. They need to step up and do their jobs.

Micah Tomasella: [27:49:14] Okay, so last piece of this, the bigger story. So there's there's behind all of this, there's a the DHS funding and leadership change happening right now, which we've touched on in the previous weeks, but there's even a bigger story playing out like even above all of the details. This is more of a 30,000 foot view of it. But the Department of Homeland Security is in the middle of a funding battle that we've been talking about just tied to disagreements over immigration policy and enforcement. So that gridlock is having real effects. It impacts staffing, morale, daily operations and things like TSA and TSB, ICE at the same time, there's a leadership transition happening, right? So like we've talked about, Christy Noem's out, Mark Wayne Mullen is in. He's been tapped to be able to step into that role leading DHS. He had a relatively smooth passage to get in. I think he got in in like 19 days, which was like a record and two Democrats voted for him. One uh Republican voted against him. Now this is in the Senate. So Connor, guess who was the Democrat, excuse me, who was the Republican that voted against the nomination of Mark Wayne Mullen?

Conner Jones: [28:50:374] It's got to be Rand Paul, right?

Micah Tomasella: [28:51:574] It's got to be Rand Paul. That's right. He's got like personal beef with him, I think. I think like they've like fought in the streets or something. Yeah, he just he just votes no when everybody else votes yes and so on and so forth. All right. So let me zoom out, put all this together, try to tie a bow on it here because these are somewhat connected issues tied to something greater, tied to something bigger. So this isn't just about the inconvenience of long lines. Like I I am not saying that that is not that that's not awful, but I but it is an inconvenience right now, right? But it's a convergence of staffing strain tied to funding uncertainty, ice supporting overwhelmed systems, ice in it of itself having to do that is a strain, a deadly aviation incident that although La Guardia had its issues as they're investigating, it's coming out there were a lot of near misses in the last several years. Again, this was another article that I read that Connor sent me. Um any thing like that is going to be put under the microscope as there as there's this funding issue of, you know, is this lack of funding, is this shutdown contributing to something like this happening? Who knows? I don't know, right? Then then there's also the airlines adjusting operations due to pressure, leadership transition at DHS. The stakes are just higher than normal and the US, we can't forget is in an active war with Iran, against Iran. That raises the level of responsibility on agencies like DHS. Officials have warned about the potential for retaliation, including cyber activity, indirect threats tied to the US interest, even without a confirmed domestic threat, there have been warnings of it. The posture has has shifted to higher awareness. So when you step back, you have heavy travel demand, strained systems, political gridlock and a heightened global threat environment all happening at the exact same time. Okay, yeah, that's a lot, right? I mean, even Connor's story about Iran ties into everything that's happening at airports right now. Like it's there is a connection point to it, okay? So here's my spiritual application and challenge from this as I try to tie a bow on this like I said. Moments like this don't just test systems, they test people. And for those who know and love Jesus, they are testing followers of Christ. Airports right now are full of pressure. TSA agents are working long hours without getting paid. Airline employees are dealing with frustrated travelers. You know, just imagine being one of those desk people, you know, like at, you know, for one of the airlines, just people lining up to just ream you, you know? That would be tough. Officers are stepping into difficult roles. That pressure shows up in how people treat each other. Short tempers, frustration, blame. But for us as Christians, as I was really thinking about this, I I I just believe that there's an opportunity here. Galatians 5:22 and 23, you might be familiar with it is the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. So that applies here, guys. Here's the challenge. Pay attention to how you're showing up. Be patient when it would be easier to be frustrated. Be kind when it seems like everybody else isn't and choose peace when things are feeling chaotic and inconvenient. I'm speaking right to myself right now. I've had some stressful moments this week, not necessarily tied to travel, but just stressful moments. Sometimes you just got to take a deep breath, call on God, ask the Holy Spirit for strength and pray the fruit of the spirit over yourself and ask for God's strength to be able to live that out. So in an environment like this right now, the way you treat people, fellow Christian, says a lot about what's actually shaping you.

Conner Jones: [32:31:734] Yeah. Good stuff, man. Yeah, I uh it's a good call out for myself too. Just stopping and praying that the Lord give me the fruits of the spirit in that moment when I'm feeling frustrated. So, appreciate it, Micah. Good breakdown. All right, guys. Uh as you all know, we love to hear from you and we've heard from a few of you in the last few weeks. We love to hear from you. Yeah, I don't know why my voice went like that. Why did I sound like that? We love to hear from you guys. Uh anyways, we continue to email us. You can always email us at [email protected] or shoot us an Instagram message at Culture Brief podcast on Insta. Uh one thing we got this past week in the email inbox was from Jackie. She let us know she had never heard of prediction markets until last week's episode and she was also appalled by the dangers it presents. And I've just got to say, I couldn't agree more, Jackie. I'm glad we were able to educate you on prediction markets. I think that was the case for a lot of people that had not heard of it, but even this week I've just seen more and more about prediction markets making its way into everything, including the CNN report that came out after we did last week's episode detailing an anonymous better on Polymarket who has made nearly $1 million from dozens of remarkably accurate and well-timed bets about Iran. They have a 93% win rate on Iran bets over $10,000 since 2024. That is clearly an insider. Like this is so bad.

Micah Tomasella: [33:49:854] It's either God or an insider and God isn't placing bets on Polymarket, so it's it's a it's an insider for sure and that should be banned.

Conner Jones: [33:58:654] It absolutely should. Another note would be that Calshi, one of the other uh prediction markets we talked about last week, had over 800 million dollars traded last week on March Madness alone. That is double last year's total. So these markets are just growing and growing. That is so much money. That's just that's just Calshi. That doesn't include like all the the sports betting sites like FanDuel and DraftKings and everything. And that's in just a week. That's 800 million in just a week. Yeah, dude, this is I mean, this is destructive. This is going to take over our culture in a destructive way, unfortunately. It already has. Yeah, and it's it's I I hope it stops. That's what we're praying for is that it would it would dwindle and regulation would step in. Totally. All right, guys, something else. Um, you know, we don't we don't talk about reality TV a ton on this podcast. I'm not sure how much we've discussed it. I mean, Micah and I dabble in our reality TV shows. I I'll be honest, I've watched the Bachelor in the past. Um we watched the traders, right, Micah? We like we like the traders. There's there's always Survivor and the challenge and all that those type of shows as well. But I I just couldn't avoid talking about the Bachelorette because this is just kind of like taken over culture this week as it was abruptly canceled two days before it premiered on Sunday night. It was supposed to be this massive premiere. They got this massive lead named Taylor Frankie Paul to be the Bachelorette. They skipped a bachelor season and normally goes Bachelorette, Bachelor, Bachelorette, Bachelor. They skipped the bachelor season to go straight into a season with her as the lead because she is so popular and so famous in today's very internet focused world. She started on Tik Tok as doing dances and started this thing called Mom Talk, which was a group of basically Mormon moms in Utah that came together and started doing Tik Toks together. I want to say in like 2022-ish is when that started to really blow up. And then she got uh she basically got accused of domestic violence in 2023 that kind of like really hit her hard and it also coincided with this like swinging scandal with her and her husband at the time and some of the other moms in this mom talk group that became huge internet fodder. I mean, it just took over the internet so much so that NB or uh ABC and Hulu were like, this is golden. Let's make a reality TV show out of that. They called it Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. You've probably seen the ads for this if you haven't watched the show before. It is, I think on they just had their fourth season come out, which was intentional because the Taylor Frankie Paul is the star of the show. She is a star on Tik Tok and some of the other moms from that show have also been on like dancing with the stars to help revive it because the show, Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is so popular. It's like the second most streamed show in America right now. So she is a bonafide star. She just is. And so the Bachelor franchise was like, we need something to help us revive this franchise. We're a sinking ship, we're losing ratings, we're losing viewers. Let's cast her even though they knew she has a domestic violence past and even though they knew she probably wasn't in a great mental health space to be doing this, they opted to cast her as the lead of the Bachelorette with the idea being her popularity would soar the franchise to new heights and basically revive it, right? Um why am I bringing all of this up? One, because it is at the center of a lot of conversations this week as people are trying to figure out why did this happen? Who's idea was it to cast her? But then also, I just think there's a lot of lessons we can learn from it because ultimately the executives and the producers who did cast her made a short-sided decision. They knew the red flags were there. They decided to ignore them. I'm saying, I think it's out of a desire for money. I mean, there was a lot of advertising dollars to be had here with ratings going up. I think there was pride believing that they they knew what was right and they ignored all the red flags. And ultimately, it all backfired. They are now going to be out likely somewhere around predictions are saying $100 million from advertising revenue lost. Um ads that were going to be placed in the show, all the travel that was part of it, the the production costs, the the jobs now that are going to be lost in the post-production as these episodes are being edited and live events and marketing and all of that. Uh a lot there. But then also on Taylor Frankie Paul's part, the the idea of, man, God has an intention for marriage and family and stepping out of it and in different ways with swinging or with um ultimately the domestic violence stuff came from with a a basically a boyfriend who was also the father of one of her children. It's just it's just what happens when you break up the order that God has intended for one man, one woman getting married and raising a family together. When you step out of that, things can get destructive. And then there's more to it obviously with domestic violence and stuff. And this is all really sad. I mean, there's families impacted here, there's children impacted here. And it all really came to a head this past week when a video came out showing Taylor Frankie Paul throwing a bar stool at her then boyfriend and it accidentally also hit one of her children and that's what ultimately led to the cancellation of the whole show. Um I'm just saying, think about this and think about what sins we're committing now in our own lives that are also leading down a path of destruction that could have consequences that we don't see now, but you know, this is a lesson in pride, greed, lust, wrath even. And I would just encourage us to remember the words of 1 John 3:4, everyone who everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. So, um a lot there with that. We'll see what they do with the Bachelor. I I also just got to say, it's came at a terrible time for the new CEO of Disney. This was his second day on the job when this all came out. And so Bob Iger stepped out of the way and now Josh Demaro is the Disney CEO and this was his uh second day just kind of blown up in his face a little bit, you know?

Micah Tomasella: [39:16:324] Yeah. Yeah, thanks for that, Connor. Thanks for that update. I I heard a lot about that and I I was reading up on it some. I think I literally I went to my wife and I was like, what's going on here? You know? And she was surprised I didn't know, but it's just a little bit outside of my sphere and purview. Like, you know, we are culture brief, but I the biggest stories are are the biggest stories overall in culture are normally news-based. You know, if there's anything kind of big going on, it permeates more into culture than some of this stuff does. But this has been so talked about. I had no idea the secret lives of Mormon wives, which I haven't seen it, but that's a really great name. Like, you know, imagine Oh, yeah. Imagine the think tank. They're sitting in the room, the the the producers at Disney, they're like, guys, I've got it. The secret lives of Mormon wives. It's a great name. Well, because our culture loves scandal. Our culture loves scandal and internal drama. I'm not saying it's a great thing. I'm just saying it it it it perfectly encapsulate the encapsulate the chaos. And I think it says something about us as a culture that we are thriving and consuming such a chaotic environment show. And I'm not I'm not guilt anybody. Um I sometimes I like to watch reality TV too. I'm just saying, I just think it says something about us as a culture that we indulge in stuff like that. But anyway, I digress. I'm not judging either. I mean, it's it's intriguing, right? Like the idea intrigues all of us. We're like, oh, what is going on over there? I kind of want to learn some more, you know? So. So, I I also want to talk about Chuck Norris. Rest in peace to Chuck Norris. Uh for all intents and purposes seemed to be a believer in Jesus Christ from everything I read and um you know, wasn't a perfect guy, but that seemed to live somewhat of a scandal-free life and um was kind of quieter towards the end of his life and I think everybody just kind of thought he was going to live forever. So Chuck Norris died last Thursday, March 19th at the age of 86 while he was in Hawaii. He's a legendary martial artist, right? He's not just a like a awesome actor who was a, you know, had Walker Texas Ranger, which I grew up watching. I remember during the summers, I mean, I would just watch Walker Texas Ranger every day all the time. I love that show. I love that it was in Texas. Um and I absolutely loved Chuck Norris in that show. Um it was just awesome in that in that uh that Dodge Ram truck he would drive around everywhere, you know, just just delivering justice to the criminals. The roundhouse kicks, you know? Like he just that's what he was famous for that roundhouse kick. Yeah, but I mean, you know, he wasn't just a like a one-trick pony. Like he wasn't just a great actor, right? Like this guy literally pioneered a certain version of karate and won like multiple world championships. Just an incredibly talented guy. He also sold workout equipment with Christy Brinkley for several years, you know? He did it all. He was also a veteran. And his legend as an unbeatable tough man in film led to the infamous Chuck Norris jokes that we're all familiar with. So Connor and I compiled a few of our favorite Chuck Norris jokes. Connor, you want to go first?

Conner Jones: [42:14:524] Yeah, man. I I had a book as a kid with Chuck Norris jokes. It was just called Chuck Norris jokes and I loved them. It had like a hundred of them and I they still stick in my mind. So a couple of them that came to my mind were, I love this one. Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice. Like of course he did, right? Um Chuck Norris doesn't tip the waiter. The waiter tips him. And then my favorite one, my favorite one has always been this one. Once a once a cobra bit Chuck Norris's leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died. Just unbelievable, man. Oh, those are so great. What a legend. Okay. Okay, I've got a couple, but they're not as good as yours. Chuck Norris doesn't do a push-up. He pushes the world down. Yeah. Chuck Norris has to sleep with the lights on because the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris. So I yeah, another sleeping one was like Chuck Norris sleeps with a a pillow under his gun or something like that, you know, like just incredible stuff. A pillow under his gun. What a great guy and an American legend. Nobody was up uh you know, upset with anything he ever did or or what not. It's just like he left a legacy. There is no secret lives of Chuck Norris's life, you know, like it's it's just he was a great guy and I I'm sad to hear that he's he's passed on and I hope like you're right that he he was a believer and he's in heaven now.

Micah Tomasella: [43:29:844] Yeah, I mean, he said a lot of the right things, you know, um just that dude did it the right way in a lot of ways. Um obviously he had some political opinions that some people are trying to bring up right now, but overall, I I don't think that tarnishes anything at all about his his life, his character, his work. So rest in peace, Chuck. Okay, so uh going to give you a couple things to tune into here. We've got the Sweet 16 in men's college basketball coming up. So Thursday and Friday, you can watch the Sweet 16 round of games of the uh March Madness tournament. So as I kind of laid it out before, you know, we've gone from 64 teams to 16 teams and there's already been a ton of upsets and I kind of have some interesting like a fun fact for both of these things. So you can watch the games on CBS, TBS, TNT and True TV. and those are going to be on Thursday and Friday. And so you've got number 11. So the the um lowest ranking seed is actually the University of Texas, number 11 is taking on number two Purdue. Go Texas. Fun fact, since 2010, at least one four seed or lower has made the final four almost every year. has has made the final four every year. Upsets are still very much alive. And what I mean is is it goes from seeds one to 16. So for those that are kind of familiar, unfamiliar with how it works, one to 16. So basically, there are there has always been since 20 since 2010, a seed lower than number four that has made the Sweet 16. And so we'll see how it all turns out.

Conner Jones: [45:06:584] That's great, man. Yeah, and then yeah, like you said at the beginning, man, baseball's back too. MLB is here and it's opening day and everything. So what a time to be alive. Um and just so grateful for sports keeping us, you know, keeping us busy with able and able to like focus in on something that's not all everything going on in the world. And then the Masters are coming up too. We'll talk about that next week for sure. Yep. All right, guys, thank you all for joining us on this week's episode of the Culture Brief, a Denson Forum podcast. All articles and videos that we mentioned in the show will be linked in the show notes so you can go find those in the show description. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like, rate or subscribe the show and share it with a friend and we'll see you next Thursday.

Micah Tomasella: [45:44:14] See you.