In this week’s brief: We’re breaking down the headlines shaping the year’s explosive start, beginning with Operation Absolute Resolve and the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. What does the move signal militarily? How does it reshape the global chessboard? Was it legal? Does this operation support Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda? And was it worth the risk? We discuss the questions much of America is asking.
From there, we talk about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s mess, the latest in U.S. and global politics, and check in on the CFP and NFL playoff picture. Plus: listener mailbag questions, bold 2026 predictions across entertainment and influence, and a few wild cards no one saw coming. As always, we do it all from a Christian worldview!
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Topics
- (00:00): Introduction
- (01:46): Operation absolute resolve: execution and impact
- (02:27): Us military excellence and global perception
- (06:35): Legal and political implications
- (21:16): Pros and cons of the Venezuela operation
- (29:36): Spiritual application and historical context
- (30:45): Power vs. trust: a biblical perspective
- (33:23): Global events and the spread of the gospel
- (34:31): Mailbag: listener feedback and discussions
- (38:16): 2026 predictions: movies, music, and influential people
- (44:52): Current events: Nigeria, Minnesota, and more
- (51:04): NFL playoffs and faith in sports
Resources
- Send us your thoughts, questions, and topic ideas: [email protected]
- Culture Brief Instagram
- Watch on Youtube
- Sign-up for a Denison Forum newsletter: DenisonForum.org/subscribe
Articles on this week’s top headlines:
- Pentagon Pizza Report X Post
- U.S. had 150 aircraft in the sky during Maduro raid
- Five questions about the US strike on Venezuela
- Woman burned by pro-Maduro forces begs judge to lock up dictator
About Conner Jones
Conner Jones is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.
About Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Director of Advancement at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, the Faith & Clarity podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Conner Jones: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.
Micah Tomasella: I’m Micah to,
Conner Jones: and this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more. And we do it all from a Christian perspective. And Micah, my goodness, 2026 has already started and it is starting off with a bang.
We got so much to talk about. You wanna just give us a rundown on what we’re hitting on today?
Micah Tomasella: Starting off with a bang. It’s awesome to be back with you guys. With you. Conner, excited to jump into 2026. This is our 51st episode. Thank you for taking this journey with it, with us, and sharing the podcast with your friends.
And you know, we’re just really grateful for 2025 and we’re really excited for what God’s gonna do in 2026. Conner, you asked, what are we gonna talk about? How about Venezuela? Venezuela, Venezuela. How about that? Hmm? 2026 predictions. We’re gonna give you some, some fun predictions there. We’re gonna talk about Tim Walls and the scandal.
We’re gonna talk about [00:01:00] Zoran mom, Donny football, and so much more. So let’s jump into the brief,
Conner Jones: the brief.
Yeah, Mike, I, I feel like we should have known something that was about to happen to Venezuela, because as we talked about last year, there’s that Twitter account, the Pentagon Pizza Report that just focuses on all the pizza restaurants around the Pentagon and DC and if they’re getting a surge in business, when business surge in the middle of the night on Saturday, we should have known something was happening.
And it did. And it did. And it was laid out perfectly. Jack Ryan, season two. John Krasinski, who you may know as Jim Helper in the office, literally laid out all the strategic reasons why Venezuela is important to the us, to Russia, to China, to everyone in the world. And then overnight on Saturday, we saw it happen.
United States went into Caracas, Venezuela captured Nicholas Mado, the dictator leadership and his wife, and brought them back to the United States. It was called Operation Absolute Resolve. And lemme just say. It was really impressive. [00:02:00] Yep. Was it needed? Should we do it? That’s not for me to say, oh, that we’re gonna discuss that.
But what we cannot deny is what the United States pulled off here in this operation was an absolute masterclass in military, operational strategy in terms of all the ways that every single aircraft, every single person performed their job, performed their duty, got in and out, grabbed them without anybody really being able to put up a fight.
How about that, Micah?
Micah Tomasella: Absolutely. I’m a full believer in American excellence. We talk about it often and we can, we can debate the merits of the action, but just like this or bombing the nuclear facilities in Iran, getting in, getting it out, doing it quickly. No casualties getting the job done. I don’t think people wanna mess with us, man.
I mean, I think, I, I think this is really impressive.
Conner Jones: Definitely it makes the world aware that the United States is still the superpower here.
Micah Tomasella: Still the best we do. It’s not just talk man, for, it’s just been a lot of talk for a long time. Oh wait, you know, even us, [00:03:00] right? Oh wait, yeah, we’re, we’re really good at this.
Conner Jones: Yeah. It’s, it’s the second time since Trump’s been president, and again, that he’s just posted this like. This, this thing on true social where he is we just performed this insane operation. They’re in, they’re out. It’s done. And we’re like, holy cow. Yeah. When did this happen? How do gimme the details?
And then videos start coming out of Venezuela. A lot of us have seen it. Helicopters flying in low fighter jets flying over. There’s some gunfire, some missiles being shot. Intense video. I’m sure there will be TV shows or movies about this operation. Exactly. I can’t wait to hear one of the guys who was on this operation on a podcast, probably like the Sean Ryan podcast, just talking about what went down and how they did it, how they pulled it off.
We’re gonna hit on that. Because as we’re saying, yeah. The US Special Forces, specifically the Delta Force alongside CIA operatives, DEA and FBI, so we’re talking about law enforcement working with the military, went into CCUs. They grabbed Mado and his wife straight from their palace. I mean, this was like a 30 minutes in and out type of operation.
It took several hours. It started at 10:46 PM that’s when Trump gave the, gave the green light [00:04:00]on Friday night. And by 3:29 AM Nicholas Mado was on the s. Iwo Jima just impressive. They got him and his wife as they were running to a safe room in their palace, but they apprehended him before he could reach it.
There were a total of 150 aircraft used during this execution which is just insane the coordination that that takes to use so many aircraft going into the country at the same time, from all around America as well as the Caribbean, 20 different locations these aircraft took off from. We don’t know how many operators there were in terms of special forces and whatnot.
How many soldiers were used? But there was at least several dozen went in, there were at least 75 people killed in the attack. That includes 24 Venezuelan security officers, 32 Cubans, who were assigned by Cuba to protect Maduro. And I mean, it sounds like our special forces just went in there and kind of wiped out this entire security force that Maduro had.
And that’s supposed to be some of the Cuban’s top security. Apparatuses, you know, and then they, they grabbed him, flew him back to the USS Iwo Jima, and they did [00:05:00] face gunfire. There were a few small injuries. I believe two soldiers are still out of service, but the rest of them that were sustained, minor injuries are already back in service.
The New York Times also reported that this all started back in August when the CIA put operatives on the ground and they got secretly into Venezuela and they started gathering intelligence. They turned a mole over, essentially in Venezuela, that turned against Maduro and gave them all the insights, all the information they needed allowed them to track his every movement knew exactly what he would do.
And from that they built a mock example of the palace that he lives in. And in Kentucky and the Delta force was practicing for months. This operation of getting in out exactly every single room. That is crazy.
Micah Tomasella: Dude. I need a special miniseries or a movie stat. I mean, that’s amazing.
Conner Jones: Okay. If you want something similar, I, I thought about this.
If you want something similar to watch about how this would’ve gone down, I would suggest either the movie Sicario, which. Includes Delta Force Operatives Blackhawk Down, which is a failed operation to a sense, but you still get an idea of how they would’ve done this. Yeah. And [00:06:00] then zero Dark 30 Man, where they built a replica of Bin Laden’s.
Compound and practice. And practice and practice. All insane. These guys are insane, incredible
Micah Tomasella: movies, man. Movies.
Conner Jones: All incredible movies. Great movies. Yeah. Just go watch those and you’ll get an idea of how these guys operate, how confident they are, how skilled they are. Nobody, nobody’s ever scared to do these things.
They just, they just know what they’re doing. It’s insane.
Micah Tomasella: God bless ’em, brother. God bless our troops, man. Seriously.
Conner Jones: No kidding. Yeah. And now Maduro, his wife. They are in Manhattan or they’ve been indicted in Manhattan. They’re staying in a Brooklyn detention center. They’re here, they’re in the us, they’re in jail, and they are facing life sentences.
The Trump administration did frame this operation as a federal law enforcement action. Yeah, that did not require congressional approval. So basically they’re saying it was law enforcement with the help of the military to get into the country, but really that’s why the FBI and DEA were in on this operation to make it seem like this is not really a military action.
But it also is, this is kind of some of the debate there, just so y’all know. Yeah. They were able to do that because in 2020, under Trump’s first term. [00:07:00] Maduro was charged in New York for narco terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine and other crimes, and that’s what they were carrying out the the warrant for his arrest on this, and it’s not just Trump, Joe Biden was a part of this too.
He actually upped the bounty that Trump had placed on his head in 2020 from 15 million to $25 million. So Biden and his administration really wanted Maduro captured as well. So it’s kind of hard when you see Democrats railing against this operation and you look back and you’re like you guys wanted him captured.
That’s what the Republicans are saying, right? Yeah. And then, yeah, attorney General Pam Bond announced that he was being charged with a whole bunch of things that carried a life sentence, and we’ll see what happens there. Maduro did tell the judge on Monday that he was quote, kidnapped and still president of his country before he pled not guilty.
So that’s kinda the update there on Maduro’s legal side. I will say there seems to be a bit of a disconnect on what the plan is now. Steven Miller is one of Trump’s top advisors. Marco Rubio’s, secretary of State, and really kind of oversaw this whole thing. And then Donald Trump himself, they’re [00:08:00] all three saying different things.
Who’s running the country? We don’t really know. Is it the us? Is it the interim? President who was Maduro’s vice president, her name’s Delcy Rodriguez. Therein
Micah Tomasella: lies the problem, right?
Therein lies the problem. That’s the central question. Also, just a small note on Steven Miller. That’s an intense dude.
Conner Jones: Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: Steven Miller is a very intense guy.
Conner Jones: Yeah. And he might come up later ’cause his wife is the one who posted a picture of Greenland with the American flag over it. So on Twitter, what’d she
Micah Tomasella: say? Soon?
Conner Jones: Soon, yeah. Literally something like that. Yeah, you know, we’ll get back to that in a minute. But yeah, he is an intense guy and they all have their own agendas.
They all have their own egos, the three of them, Miller, Rubio, and Trump. And they all probably have their own idea of what happens next and they don’t seem to fully be on the same page. Rubio’s trying to like, say we’re not fully running the country. We we’re gonna let this vice president take over, become the new president.
She is now sworn in as the new President Del Rodriguez is. Yeah. And they’re trying to work with her, is what they’re saying. And Trump did say that she and the, the new interim government [00:09:00] agreed to send 30 and. Between 30 to 50 million barrels of oil straight to the US now, and that the resulting rev revenue will be controlled by him as president of the United States.
And he says to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States. So maybe they’re already starting to work together. I think that’s the idea, is they want Venezuela to just be opened up for US companies to come in there and grab the oil start, start investing into the oil economy there.
Was this a regime change? We don’t really know. Technically it was maybe half a regime change. They took out the regime leader, but they didn’t install somebody that the US had intended. A lot of people thought they were gonna stall. The woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year, she was the opposition opponent there.
Maria, Maria Corina, Machado. But Trump basically on Saturday in his first press conference, pretty much just dismissed her and was like, nah, she’s a very nice woman, but she lacks the support to lead. Venezuela, which might be true. CIA did an analysis. They said that as well, that if she came into power it would just cause more chaos.
The military does not support her. It might cause chaos in the [00:10:00] streets. So they determined the ccia A did that it would be best to just keep Rodriguez in power for the time being. And Rubio man, he’s been vague on the details for Venezuela. This was obviously something he really wanted to get done.
He’s always had a target out for Cuba as well. That’s where his parents and grandparents are from is Cuba. So he’s always wanted to do something there. So maybe huge part of story his own towards that. Yeah. And yeah, Rubio, and then he Rubio also speaks Spanish, so that’s a big piece of this here.
He’s been speaking in Spanish to a lot of these leaders in Latin America as Secretary of State, trying to explain to them why they would do this. And he says, you know, we want Venezuela to move in a certain direction. ’cause not only do we think it’s good for the people of Venezuela, it’s in the US National as well.
That still seems to be up for debate, right? That’s where we’re headed with all of this, and that’s what’s gonna take, you know, precedent over the next few weeks in conversations. Just that the administration’s also making veiled threats towards other countries. As we just mentioned, Greenland seems to be next in line for something to happen, right?
Micah? I mean, we’re, we’re seeing Trump continue to say Cuba’s
Micah Tomasella: probably [00:11:00] next in line.
Conner Jones: It might be
Micah Tomasella: at least militarily.
Conner Jones: Militarily,
Micah Tomasella: yeah. There’d be, there’d be more of a precedent to go in and do what you did with Maduro. Milit, like a military infiltration of Greenland seems unnecessary. And I don’t know what legal precedent you would have with that one but anyway.
That’s a big question. Obviously that’s a different strategy for Greenland. Greenland,
Conner Jones: yeah. Rubio did say about Cuba, to your point, he said, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned. So kind of putting them on notice, giving them a threat and a warning.
They’re
Micah Tomasella: also saying Rubio isn’t.
The type of guy to just throw around threats like Stephen Miller and Trump every day threaten somebody. I mean, that’s just, that’s a part of what they’re doing. You know, that’s a part of their negotiation strategy. Trump’s starting to follow through on some of those threats, which surprises us all right.
But Rubio’s saying that doesn’t say that type of stuff off, and he’s quite a bit more calculated, more of a career politician than Stephen Miller and Trump. You know, I say he’s, he’s not a career politician. He sure has been doing it a while, hasn’t he?
Conner Jones: He’s a late career politician. Yeah. [00:12:00] He, career politic.
Made a new career out of it. Yeah. What do you know?
Micah Tomasella: Instead of retiring, he did this. Yeah,
Conner Jones: yeah. Quite a retirement side job, you know?
Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Conner Jones: Anyways, you’re right. Rubio’s very strategic about that, which is why I think a lot of people are taking the Greenland thing seriously. ’cause Trump keeps bringing it up.
He even said, let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days. Like he’s saying, let’s figure out this Venezuela thing, and then I’m gonna focus on Greenland. They’re trying to say that they just wanna buy Greenland from Denmark. Greenland is. Danish territory belongs to Denmark. Denmark is a NATO ally. This would be bad if the US tried to just take over Greenland in some form.
So they’re trying to say, we wanna buy it from them. Denmark doesn’t seem to be willing to do that, and they also are saying we gotta take Trump’s threats to take it over militarily. Seriously, because like you just said, Micah. He makes threats and then he does tend to follow up on some of them at
Micah Tomasella: least.
Yeah, I mean if there was a percentage it would be a, a lot less like that. He actually does something from his threats, like using words, but yeah, recently, yeah, he, I definitely can understand why Denmark and why NATO would be up in [00:13:00] arms. Hoping and believing that there, if, if Greenland is acquired, that it’s done, you know, in an above board way.
Conner Jones: True. The problem with NATO is. If the US is not a nato, NATO does not stand nearly as powerful as it does towards Russia and any other enemies right now. So that’s kind of their issue there. They need the US and nato,
Micah Tomasella: I mean, yeah, I mean that’s, that’s a longer discussion and I bet you we will have some discussions about this.
’cause I’m starting to actually believe the US is gonna find a way to acquire Greenland, but my thought process would be okay, if you take over Greenland militarily, who’s going to stop America? Like who’s gonna step in and say, no NATO’s strength. You know, the foundation is America that’s
Conner Jones: what I’m
Micah Tomasella: saying.
What, what exactly would they do? So Trump could take the, you know what I’m tired of waiting, I’m just gonna do this. There are many, many problems with that. So my, my, again, like I said, my hope would be that they could offer the people of Greenland some sort of agreement. That’s what I’ve been reading.
Some sort of like mm-hmm. Agreement and some guarantees and some, some financing, things like that, that [00:14:00] could actually make this work if it’s going to happen.
Conner Jones: Yeah, the White House did say on Tuesday, president Trump and his team are discussing a range of options to acquire Greenland, preferably buying it from Denmark, but stresses that utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander and chief’s disposal.
We should mention the reason is because Trump says it’s very strategic for national security. Correct. There’s a lot of rare earth minerals, which we’ve talked about on this podcast. What that means for building AI computers, what that means for building weapons. You need those rare earth minerals.
Greenland is filled with them and they’re pretty much
Micah Tomasella: unasked there. Yes. And Greenland’s in the Arctic, and there’s just a lot of stuff out. Right now about how there’s some future wars that are gonna play out in the Arctic because of how important that area is and how it overlaps with the other side of the world and things like that too.
Conner Jones: True. They’ve also made threats towards Mexico and Columbia. All this to say, I found this statement from Politico to be very telling and kind of just wrapping up the whole thing with this operation. It says, A president who once chastised his predecessors for endless foreign wars in fruitless nation building announced that America is now.
In charge of Venezuela and is [00:15:00] going to run everything but casually threatening five more nations around the world with US intervention. It’s kind of true. I mean, he ran on no more foreign intervention, no more forever wars and he hasn’t exactly started that, but he could be that. I think that’s what people
Micah Tomasella: are scared.
It’s definitely a contradiction. This is, this is a slap you in the face right in front of you. Call a spade. Calling a spade a spade. This is a contradiction to a t. This this is coming off a bit hypocritical, very hypocritical from what he ran on. But again, like you and I were talking about even before the show, Conner, this America First movement, it just depends on what your definition is.
’cause I see people out there right now, it’s okay, being America first is protecting now and in the future American interests other. People would define America first, which in the mainline MAGA movement would define it this way of a more isolationist view of America. First of no more funding wars, no more boots on the ground, none of that.
We’re gonna isolate, we’re gonna stay outta things that have nothing to do with us. I mean, and, and I, I think this is a central question. Why does America [00:16:00] have to continue to be the world’s police? And I’m just asking that it’s almost even more of a rhetorical question for us to all ask ourselves and read up on why does America have to continue to spend time and resources when we have own it.
Our own issues here stateside. Plenty of them. Why do we have to continue to be the world’s police? It’s a good question.
Conner Jones: It’s a big question. I, that is what a lot of people are asking and that’s kind of what Trump ran on. He was like, I don’t want us to be the world police anymore. Completely.
Micah Tomasella: One of the
Conner Jones: biggest things he ran on.
No, you could, you could say he’s, he would, he would probably say, we’re not being the world’s police, we’re just doing what’s, you know what? I wanna, basically, we’re like the world’s bully in a way. We are the most powerful. We’re gonna do what we wanna do. Yeah. I think is the way that he would. To say.
Okay. Oh, and I, I should just mention, I feel had this operation gone poorly gone south, had it been a black hawk down situation which happened in the nineties when Bill Clinton was president. Same type of operation. Go into a city, grab a target, get out in 30 minutes. That operation went completely south and that marred Bill Clinton’s presidency for a while.
Like people were like, why were we in Somalia? What are we doing there? All. [00:17:00] Had this happened in Caracas, I think everybody views this whole thing totally differently. Totally. If we lost any soldiers or an aircraft or anything like that, if any lives have been lost on the American side, everybody sees this operation completely differently.
Totally. But it was a success just like Iran.
Micah Tomasella: Correct.
Conner Jones: Nuclear bombing was so I think that that, that paint that helps paint your picture of how you responded to something like this.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Conner Jones: Okay. We got a great question from Wilson on our Instagram dms. He sent us this this question. He said, in light of the capture of Maduro, how does a country have the ability to capture another nation’s leader?
And how do you feel about us leading that country for the time being?
Micah Tomasella: Great
Conner Jones: question. It’s a great question, Wilson. There’s been a lot of people talking about the legality of this. How, what gives us the right to do this? Is this not what Russia just did to Ukraine in 2022, just invading willy-nilly because they wanted to could, could China take this as like a, as a way to say if you guys do it in Venezuela, we can do it in Taiwan.
We’re gonna just take Taiwan over at, at some point. Could they point this back as precedent? It’s a little bit different. There’s several reasons [00:18:00] why I, I’m gonna lean on Jed Rubenfeld here. He is a constitutional law professor. So this is like his area of expertise.
Micah Tomasella: At Yale? Yeah,
Conner Jones: at Yale. Yeah.
Micah Tomasella: Smart guy.
Smart guy.
Conner Jones: Yeah. He’s about as smart as us.
Micah Tomasella: Oh yeah.
Conner Jones: Yeah. You know, Uhhuh? No he did say that the US did the very same thing, and this did happen in 1989. George HW Bush sent in US troops and a small, it was kinda like a month long operation in Panama where we captured their leader, Noriega at the time.
And that was a bigger operation than this whole Venezuela thing, at least at the time it was. And the courts actually upheld that as a legal thing after years of litigation and careful consideration. And that’s because kind of like this situation, the US and 50 other countries don’t actually recognize, they didn’t recognize Noriega and they don’t recognize Maduro now as the re correct, as the leader of Venezuela, as the actual rightful president because he lost Democratic elections.
He just stayed in power and never left.
Micah Tomasella: Correct,
Conner Jones: because he’s a victor. Ator because you’re right.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Conner Jones: Yeah. He’s a dictator. And one of the questions is, can you just take another [00:19:00]country’s president? The US technically has a law that says all foreign leaders, anybody who’s in charge as head of state is actually immune from US prosecution.
But because the US and all these countries do not recognize Maduro as the true head of state, then he has a warrant out for his arrest loophole, and they can go grab him. Loophole. A loophole. Okay. There it is. Got
Micah Tomasella: it.
Conner Jones: So that outstanding arrest warrant that I mentioned from 2020, made it legal for the US to go in and grab him as a law enforcement operation, and that’s what they did.
However. Rubenfeld says that Trump’s plan to quote run Venezuela for the foreseeable future, that’s obviously much more murky. Yes, there’s a lot of questions around that. It’s almost universally accepted that the president does not have the power to make war without congressional consent. And a targeted seizure of a fugitive is not war.
But presidents, you know, across several administrations have done this. Obama did this, Clinton did this. George W. Bush did this. This is a common thing. But if they try to do something further in Venezuela. Rubenfeld does believe that congressional approval through the War Powers Act would need to apply and the administration would have to obtain that approval [00:20:00] that is expected to happen.
On Thursday, the day you may be listening to this, the Senate is gonna vote on a war powers joint resolution that would actually bar the US from military action in Venezuela without their authorization. So we’ll see what the Senate votes on there. I think the House may have to pass that as well, and Trump may be able to even veto it.
So it may not matter for Venezuela, but it could prevent Trump from doing something in other countries futures.
Micah Tomasella: Yep.
Conner Jones: Okay. That’s the legality side of things. But Micah, as we’ve talked about, here’s the big questions, and this is what I, I think you’re wanting to dive into. Why do this, why do this operation at all in Venezuela?
What, what benefit does this offer to American people? How does this affect Americans who are just trying to focus on affordability? They want childcare, they want healthcare, all that stuff. How does this help us with that? Are we gonna fall into another decades long? Debacle in another country in a far off land that sends boots on the ground and lots of expenses, lots of tax dollars, all of our military focus.
What does Venezuela have to do with the average American? [00:21:00] You know, what was this really even about? Drug trafficking. That was kinda the precedent of this. That’s what they got mado on with its charges. We’ve been striking boats for the last four months in the Caribbean. Was this even about drug trafficking or is this truly just all about oil?
Lots of questions. Lots of questions. What do you think?
Micah Tomasella: Okay, so I’m gonna give us five pros and five cons to this operation. You know, Conner and I as the host of Culture Brief, we, we love a good pros cons list. I think it’s effective for. Figuring out how we feel about a story, about a headline, but it’s also good to help us make big decisions, like whatever it might be.
Just put it all like pen to paper. So we’ve been reading up a lot on this and I know that it’s just dominated the news. And, and I’ll say from the start, we feel the tension that you’re probably feeling that. In some ways this does seem like a good thing. In other ways I don’t really understand it. The concept of running another country makes me feel uneasy from the start.
Like it’s, it’s one thing to capture the leader. It’s another thing entirely to, to [00:22:00] occupy a country that, that doesn’t feel like what America does anymore. America has done something like that in a very long time and I think that we have to understand that on a lot of these big decisions, there can be multiple reasons for it.
Yes, is it. Money related. Is it oil related? Is it drug related? Yes, to all of them. I think it’s yes to all of them, and I think that that’s okay. And I think if we look at a lot of the complex and big decisions we make in our lives or that we’ve seen made at corporations, whatever it might be in our government and in the past, there’s a lot of reasons to do things good and bad.
Okay. So I’m gonna give you five pros for why the operation could work, why this could yield something. So I’m gonna start with the positive and then move to the negative. So number one. It removed a central destabilizing figure in the region. Capturing Maduro removes the individual most responsible for Venezuela’s political repression, economic collapse, and alleged narco trafficking network.
And it also for many Venezuelans, his absence alone changes that. Trajectory true. No matter how much those on the [00:23:00] left get frustrated about this. And I, I understand the frustration in some ways and another way. You cannot deny the absolute celebrations in the streets that have happened in America and across the globe of all of these Venezuelans that have fled that dictatorship.
They are celebrating Every single Venezuelan interview that I’ve read left and right news sources. They are absolutely ecstatic about the future of their country. Now that Maduro. Out so that that cannot be denied. Okay. Second pro. This is a clear demonstration of US capability and, and deterrence. The scale and precision of this operation like Conner broke down signals that the US is willing and able to act decisively in the Western hemisphere, especially when criminal regimes seem to maybe threaten American communities through drugs and instability.
This is, this is great. To demonstrate and not just talk about American deterrence and capability. I personally believe it’s important to, [00:24:00] every once in a while, not just talk the talk, but actually walk the walk. You’ve just gotta choose the right time and we can debate on if this was the right time or not.
Conner Jones: Yeah. I meanly make clear that the west, that this western hemisphere, he’s saying, this is my domain. Don’t mess with us. This is, this belongs to the United States. And we’ll I mean, we’ll protect it as can if
Micah Tomasella: like it or not. Yeah. I mean like whether if you like it or not, who’s, I mean, who else?
Okay. Thirdly, this is another pro legal grounding for the capture itself. So unlike open-ended regime changes, this action was tied to an existing US indictment and warrant. Supporters argue that matters because it frames the operation as enforcement of the rule of law, not necessarily conquest, which you just kind of broke down.
Fourth, this is strategic leverage over oil. Minerals and regional security. This is a big reason why this is happening. Okay. Supporters believe stabilizing Venezuela could unlock major oil and mineral production. Conner noted earlier, the largest oil reserve in the world is in is in Venezuela. It reduces [00:25:00] long-term migration pressure, and it weakens Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence in the Americas.
If Venezuela flips from an adversary aligned state into a functioning partner. It could reshape the regional geopolitics now and in the future. And then the fifth one, it’s a narrow but real opportunity for reset. This moment creates a window for humanitarian access, political transition, and economic stabilization that did not exist under madero.
It’s fragile and far from guaranteed, but supporters argue it’s still better than permanent stagnation. But you know, I would say that fifth one feels. The hardest one to accomplish that one. That pro feels like a little bit difficult to get there. ’cause you know, if you’re not gonna run it well, Maduro’s, second, third, fourth, right?
Hands are over the country now and they feel the same way Maduro does. Yeah. They’re I’m not necessarily sure if you’re not gonna run the country. And again, I don’t think that we should run the [00:26:00] country. If, if you’re not going to do that and there isn’t gonna be a full regime change. Then what you can hope for is that, you know, their allegiance flips to America basically with all the minerals and oils that they have, but I don’t think it’s necessarily, it doesn’t look like it’s gonna be an easy path to actually establish some sort of democratic free government and society.
Conner Jones: Yeah, I agree with that. I will say all of these pros that you’re saying does just list out that strategic. Significance of Venezuela. Yes. What it means for economies and everything. I mean, even right now the US just boarded a ship that left Venezuela that we’ve been chasing for two weeks before it got to Russia.
’cause we know how important that oil is for Russia and they’re still taking over other oil tinker ships. Yeah. To prevent Russia and Iran from getting the oil, that’s who Venezuela’s oil goes to is our enemy. So I understand that too.
Micah Tomasella: Venezuela has been the oil refinery and gas station for America’s enemies for years.
Yeah, I mean there, there is, there is a strong strategic [00:27:00] reason for this. It’s just a lot of what ifs. Okay. Lemme give you the cons quickly for why. This is gonna face challenges, why this might not work out. So number one, it’s blurred lines between capture and occupation. Like we’ve been kind of touching on.
It’s this fine line, a targeted seizure of an indicted individual is one thing. Okay. But claims that the US will run Venezuela pushes this into murkier, constitutional and international territory, and it raises immediate war power concerns like you just talked about. Secondly, it’s unclear. End state and leadership plan so that, so when is this gonna end?
What does this look like two months from now? If the same political figures remain in power just without Maduro it risk becoming a it, you know, it risk just becoming what people might call like a decapitation theater. Okay, we’re gonna take out this one person and then that’s gonna fix everything rather than actual real change.
Thirdly. Another con, this is a high risk of mission creep, and I say that because history shows that the hardest part is not taking out a [00:28:00] leader, but actually managing what follows after it. Security vacuums, power struggles, resentment can quickly pull the US into a longer and costlier potential war presence internationally.
That’s that’s a problem that that has to be avoided. Or we’re just making the same mistakes as, as we have in the past so many times as a country. Fourth con, civilian and humanitarian consequences. There’s large scale military actions in dense urban areas. Almost always carry civilian costs. We’re already seeing, as the vice president was sworn in, they’re consolidating power.
They’re arresting journalists, they’re throwing people in jail, you know, jail in the streets. They don’t want demonstrations. They don’t want this to turn into, Hey, we would like to vote and actually elect our leaders. Venezuela’s nah, we’re not gonna let that happen. So we’re already seeing that happen.
And then fifth con credibility gap. Around motivations is the best way to put it. So while drug trafficking is the legal justification, the heavy emphasis on oil and strategic control [00:29:00] raises skepticism about what is the real intent of this, both internationally and then among Venezuelans themself. Again, you just can’t pinpoint, there’s only one reason to do this.
That’s just, that’s just not the case. So anyway, those are the five pros and cons. I, I hope that helps. It.
Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s, it’s a good layout. I mean, there’s just, there’s still lingering questions. There will be for a while. And yeah, I don’t even know if the administration has a full plan here. Yeah. I think they knew the pros and they maybe didn’t think through all the cons.
So
Micah Tomasella: we’ll see. That’s, that’s why we’re getting three different messages from the White House, right? Because they haven’t necessarily decided what that looks like. They’re definitely just one little step at a time. So let me give you the bigger picture of this and let’s do the spiritual application.
So was this the right move? Conner Jones maybe.
Conner Jones: I don’t know.
Micah Tomasella: Maybe it was bold. It was fast and undeniably effective in its narrow objective. You know? Absolutely. But history reminds us that removing a dictator is the easiest part. Building something afterwards is when. Nations can stumble on their [00:30:00] decisions here.
And this, this moment forces a deeper question. Are we witnessing a limited law enforcement action with define boundaries? Or the opening chapter of another American experiment in controlling outcomes abroad? Which again was the. That second part is exactly what Trump ran against. It can’t turn into that.
Nobody wants that. The answer will be found not in speeches, but in what happens next, how long the US forces stay, and who ultimately is gonna hold power and what their openness is going to be to working with America, working with American oil companies, things along those lines. Alright. Dr. Jim Denison, the founder of our ministry, has written on this extensively in his daily articles this week.
Been very helpful for us as we’ve processed through this story. So Dr. Denison makes a helpful distinction in moments like this between power and trust. So let’s talk about the difference between power and trust for a minute Nations. Instinctively lean towards power control leverage. [00:31:00]Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to something deeper than power control leverage.
Psalm 20 reminds us of this, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. That does not mean governments should ignore justice or security. It does ultimate. It does mean ultimate hope, though that. We don’t have to place our hope and trust in military strength or geopolitical dominance.
This story presses on our personal lives as well as I was thinking about this, we all want control. We want control over outcomes, over people, over narratives. We want to control, okay, if I’m gonna take this first step, I wanna make sure that that fourth step is gonna, you know. Gonna, it’s, it’s gonna be ironed out.
It’s gonna be taken care of, right? We don’t want to naturally take that first step unless we know it’s gonna work out in the end. So like nations, we often justify it by telling ourselves it’s for the greater good, right?
Conner Jones: Hmm. [00:32:00]
Micah Tomasella: But Jesus, he chose a different way. He laid down power instead of seize, instead of seizing it in a moment, right?
He trusted the father’s will, even when obedience looked like to everyone. Loss. So here’s the challenge. Where in your life are you relying on control rather than trust? Where are you convinced that if you take charge, things will finally work out? And what would it look like for you to loosen your grip and believe that God is already at work, even when the future feels so uncertain?
Because lasting peace in nations and in hearts. Is not built on domination. It begins with surrender to a king whose kingdom does not rise and fall. With the headlines, we belong to the Eternal Kingdom. No matter what country you’re listening from, no matter what situation you find yourself in right now, whether it’s it’s an addiction or a struggle in your family, or just hopelessness that you’re dealing with, with something exterior, you can lay claim [00:33:00] and lay hold.
To the foundation and the rock. You can build your life on the rock and say, I am going to trust in God, not in something manmade, not in power, not in control. I’m gonna trust in God the author of everything, the maker, the creator. We can lay claim to that no matter how difficult things may seem.
Conner Jones: Yeah, that’s also true and it’s so important for our own personal lives.
I think even in this situation with Venezuela, it’s a good call to action to remember there are so many people there who do not know the Lord. Maybe this opens the door for the gospel to get in there. You know, like we can be praying for the gospel to reach, love it. All these nations, including even right now in Iran, the people in Iran are protesting.
They’re two weeks into protest against a terrible regime there.
And Trump
Micah Tomasella: has threatened Iran. Trump has, in
Conner Jones: Iran. We didn’t admit one,
they
Micah Tomasella: started shooting civilians. Yeah, yeah,
Conner Jones: yeah. All that to say, man, if these countries can be opened up both the internet, you know, even just that getting opened up there, if they can be opened up to people to be able to come in more freely.[00:34:00]
Missionaries Christians and not be so targeted against Christian organizations.
Micah Tomasella: That’s a
Conner Jones: really good opportunity, honor for the gospel. We can be praying for that and for the people there. That’s
Micah Tomasella: great, man.
Conner Jones: Yeah, all, all just big stuff. We’re obviously gonna continue to get updates on Venezuela and potentially any other you know, military actions that we take across the world.
We will obviously come back every week with new updates as they come, this is just a big question mark. So now there’s still a lot of questions.
Micah Tomasella: Now you all understand why I said Venezuela three times at the beginning? ’cause now we’re just now done with our deep dive on Venezuela. Thanks for joining.
Now let’s jump into the mailbag.
Conner Jones: The mailbag.
Yeah guys, y’all are awesome. We heard from a lot of you over the last few weeks, we, we were off for the last couple weeks. We did a recap episode at the end of December, and some of them of you guys sent us some great feedback. Maybe even a little critique here, there, so let’s, let’s hit on him.
Micah Tomasella: Let’s hear it.
Let’s hear it.
Conner Jones: We got, I’m only mentioning this ’cause we got two people saying the same thing. One was anonymous person on [00:35:00] Spotify left a comment saying, Hey, love learning from you guys. But I do have to weigh in on the favorite Christmas movie from two weeks ago. Micah gave us a list of top 10 Christmas movies.
She said, I cannot believe a Christmas Carol did not make the list. Ed also emailed us and said, somehow a Christmas Carol should be. Included in everyone’s top 10. So Micah, do you care to explain why you left a Christmas Carol off the list?
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, we were getting roasted. You know what was interesting? You know, like I said, I was looking at all of these different sources.
’cause when I would go and try to find a top 10 Christmas movie list of all time, all of these different resources would have different lists. So I just kind of threw it all into one and said, okay, which ones are mentioned the most? And I made the personal decision to include Polar Express over a Christmas Carol.
Oh.
Conner Jones: You
Micah Tomasella: did not ’cause I saw them on there pretty equally. No regrets. You’re able to feel the way that you feel, and I feel the way that I feel.
Conner Jones: I will say there’s three or four Christmas Carol movies, so maybe that’s part of why it’s, it’s
Micah Tomasella: provided. I know. I know, right? Exactly. Exactly. There’s. These are two different ones.
[00:36:00] So these comments, they were mentioning two different versions of a Christmas Carol. True.
Conner Jones: Because they were talking about different
Micah Tomasella: actors. One, yeah.
Conner Jones: One wanted the one with Patrick Stewart and I think Ed wanted his, he was saying the one with George C. Scott, the 1984 version. So just so many different, and there’s a Jim Carey version, all of that.
Anyways and then Josh also messaged us and said, we aren’t gonna discuss Stranger Things. This is the US of A. How are we gonna miss that? That’s a great question, Josh, to be, to be fair, we, our last recorded episode, there were. Was, I think December 19th, that’s when we recorded that recap episode and the second batch of Stranger Things episodes had not even come out yet.
Now we’ve seen the whole thing. I say we, I have. The other problem here is Micah doesn’t watch this show and so I don’t think he has any feedback.
Micah Tomasella: I have seen, I have seen everything up until this last season. They took too long to come out with it and I’m like, I don’t even know if I wanna spend my time on it.
I mean, this, this is the problem. I have been out, out front in saying for example, I love the Fast and Furious franchise. Okay. They left me on a cliffhanger like three years ago in the movie theater where Dom was about to, [00:37:00] you know, lose it all. And I’m like, oh, and it still hasn’t come out yet. You know what I mean?
You, you can’t take too long. I lose interest. What do you want from me? We’re talking about years, right? So we could have to acknowledge it. We could have mentioned it in the tune in section.
Conner Jones: Probably, yeah, we could have it. I mean, it was like the biggest cultural thing going on for the last two weeks.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Yeah. We probably could have and should have.
Conner Jones: I, I did watch. I watched the whole season. I found it to be okay. I did not love the finale. I did not love the whole last season. I love season four. That was the best season by far. This was a big kind of let down, but they wrapped up some stories pretty well.
Anyways, it’s worth watching, I think. Cody let us know that we missed in our recap of the biggest things that happened in 2025, the one big beautiful bill act, which. Was a really big deal. I don’t know how we didn’t right land that one. That was a massive deal back in the summer. And he says, I hope it will be begin improving lives in 2026.
And it’s more targeted at those people on Main Street, not Wall Street, and hopefully reduces taxes for hardworking Americans. This is true. Amen. A massive deal.
Micah Tomasella: I hope that [00:38:00] too.
Conner Jones: So thank you guys for the mailbag things. We, we got some other messages too. Maybe we’ll mention those in the coming weeks.
Always send us emails at Culture [email protected]. Find us on Instagram. Leave a comment on Spotify or YouTube. We’ll see it.
Okay guys,
Micah Tomasella: we’ve got our 2026 predictions. So we did this when we started the podcast. We started the podcast like first week of January, 2025, right? So we’ve been doing this for a little over a year now, and we did 2026 predictions, and in our last episode, the recap episode, we revisited those. We’re doing this again.
So we’ve got four categories. Biggest movie at the US Box Office in 2026, who will have the biggest song of the year in 2026, who was not on our top five most influential people list in 2025. That will be in 2026. That was in the recap episode that we mentioned. And then we’re just gonna do a general wild card prediction.
Conner and I did not. Look at each other’s answers. So we’re, we’re doing this from the jump. This is the first time I’m [00:39:00] seeing what he said. So let’s do it. So first category, biggest movie at the US Box office. What did you say? Conner Jones.
Conner Jones: I think it’s gonna be Avengers Doomsday, the, you know, said the same thing.
Bring it back. The Avengers
Micah Tomasella: thing. You dirty dog. I said the same
Conner Jones: thing. You said the same thing. I mean, they made billions of dollars the first round. Now I, there’s been, this is the same thing you said it’s been a lot of years since they did this. So does the, does the fandom die down? Right now Avengers Dooms Day is set to release on the exact same day as Dune three.
So
Micah Tomasella: yeah, late they
Conner Jones: have December hundred December, which is
Micah Tomasella: interesting. You won’t get the full box. Yeah, I mean if the criteria is it was released in 2026, absolutely. This will be the biggest one. But they’re gonna make a lot of money past 2026. ’cause it’s not set to release until December 18th. So this is gonna be at the very end of the year.
And I’m gonna tell you why. I think Avengers Doomsday is going to be bigger. They’re not. They’ve, they’ve been so random with it the last few years. It’s lost all of its steam They’re bringing back.
Conner Jones: Captain [00:40:00] America, Thor,
Micah Tomasella: Chris Evans, captain America. They’re bringing back Chris Hemsworth, Thor. I mean, they’re bringing back some of the people.
Robert Downey Jr. People. Yeah. They’re bringing back the og. That made it legendary from the start. That’s why I think it’s gonna be big. They’re actually doing what worked.
Conner Jones: I think so too. Okay. Who’d you put for the biggest artist of the year?
Micah Tomasella: Morgan Wallen, I think will have the biggest song of the year.
Conner Jones: Biggest song
Micah Tomasella: he likes to do. He does some classic country songs and he likes to do kind of. Pop, hip hop, rap country too, and collaborate with other artists. I think he’s gonna collaborate with somebody big in the pop space and they’re gonna put out an absolute banger probably during the beginning of the summer.
It’s gonna take over. And he’s gonna have the biggest song of the year.
Conner Jones: Are we thinking like Morgan Wallen and Sabrina Carpenter team up
Micah Tomasella: together? I’m not gonna guess the second part. ’cause if, I guess the second part, I’m held accountable to that too. I’m saying Morgan Wallen is going to be, yeah.
List it on the title of the song. That’s gonna be the biggest of the year.
Conner Jones: I considered him, but I did end up going with Bad Bunny, mostly because that’s a bad Bunny’s already huge. And he’s doing the Super Bowl huge.
Micah Tomasella: Internationally too.
Conner Jones: Huge internationally. [00:41:00] But he’s doing the Super Bowl this year. I think that’s gonna introduce him to a massive point.
Audience in America Fair. He drops Fair Point Summer Bangers. He’s got some good beats on his songs. Fair point. I think he’s gonna song,
Micah Tomasella: but if he has a bad performance, it’s gonna hurt him.
Conner Jones: This is true.
Micah Tomasella: If he has a bad performance, it’s gonna hurt him. And we’ve seen some bad Super Bowl performances. So let’s see.
Conner Jones: Yeah, let’s see what he does. Okay. Who’s your top five most influential person that was not on this past year’s list that we added in December that you think will be in this upcoming December’s list when we do it in 2020?
Micah Tomasella: So I mentioned him as an audible mention, but he wasn’t in my top five, I think Jensen Huang of
Nvidia. Video’s creating, and it’s, you know, there’s been some competition, but so far they’re an American company creating by far the most advanced semiconductors for all things ai. So as we see this increase and as we see the geopolitical pressure and just the international pressure from all of this as we see that, I think he’s gonna be even more in the forefront.
And I think that he absolutely is gonna be on that top five.
Conner Jones: They’re already the biggest market cap company in the world now. They overtook Apple, [00:42:00] so he’s in charge of that. That’s insane. The person I put was actually Marco Rubio. A lot of that’s because of what’s happened in the last few weeks. He was already going up there, but man, he’s just got so much influence over Trump and our international relations and obviously military operations that we’re doing.
So I think Rubio could be there if it, if it continues this way. And if we really do take over more countries or Greenland or something, Rubio’s gonna be in there, man.
Micah Tomasella: He’s basically gonna be, you know, you saw those jokes like
Conner Jones: President of Venezuela, president of
Micah Tomasella: Greenland. Yeah. He’s governor of Minnesota.
He’s gonna be president of Cuba, Greenland, you know? Yeah. He’s, yeah. If things turn out kind of maybe the way that you and I de described that we don’t really want it to turn out. Yeah. Ruby will be running a lot of countries.
Conner Jones: Yep, for sure. Okay. This is the fun one. What’s your wild card prediction for 2026?
Micah Tomasella: Alright. This is gonna be a little bit harder to quantify, but I think we’re gonna see it play out in different ways. So we’ll have to kind of take it from aggregate data, but I think 2026 is when people admit out loud that outrage, fear-based. Clickbait type of news is breaking them and they start choosing [00:43:00] slower, healthier media on purpose.
I’m thinking about what’s happening at CBS right now, for example. Yeah, so they completely changed their structure. The the new nightly host, I can’t remember his name, but Tony came out, Tony De
Conner Jones: Lock Pill.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. He did this whole monologue on Hey, I love America. I love this country. I want what’s best for this country.
We are committing to fair balanced reporting. If they stick to that, I will start consuming CBS. If this large media corporation is actually going to commit to reporting the news, not through the lens of bias, but actually showing both sides and giving me the truth from one source, I will absolutely start to consume it.
And I just think that that’s, that’s a lot of what people are looking for, and that’s a lot of what we’re doing here at Denison Forum is we take larger steps to become larger and have a bigger footprint in the media space as an organization. We see people are hungering for this, so I think that we’re gonna see it in 2026.
Conner Jones: I agree with that. I think people are done with that. I, I think this has been a trend, but you might [00:44:00] be right. It’s just gonna, finally, Campbell’s back’s gonna break this year.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah.
Conner Jones: My, my wild card prediction is we’re gonna see a reversal of the birth rate decline. If you’ve noted anything in recent years, the birth rate decline has been a big deal.
Elon Musk has really brought a lot of attention to, yeah, this is across the world, but even in America, yes, there are far less births than there were even just two decades ago.
Micah Tomasella: It’s 1.6 births per American woman. Is,
Conner Jones: yeah, it used to be like
Micah Tomasella: three. If that sticks, it’s not sustainable. Yeah. It’s like nearly half what it was like 40 years ago or something.
Conner Jones: But I think there’s a big cultural tide wave happening. Some of that’s faith-based, some of that’s people realizing family is much better of a priority Yes. Than work and partying and all the cultural things that the world tells us. So a lot of things are changing and shifting. I, I believe so.
I think we’ll see that reversal. We’ll see that in the data
Micah Tomasella: man. I hope we’re both right. That’d be great. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to look back at 26 and see both of these things change? That’d be great.
Conner Jones: Okay, let’s jump in to check-in ’cause we’ve got several things happening around the country and around the world that we wanna update you guys on real fast. So Micah, I know you wanna talk about Nigeria.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. [00:45:00] Let’s run through this quickly. I’m, I’m gonna give us an update on the airstrikes on ISIS and Nigeria.
US forces carried out airstrikes against isis, linked militants in northern Nigeria, targeting suspected camps tied to recent attacks on Christians. The strikes were con were conducted in coordination actually with the Nigerian government, so as a joint operation. So we’ll see what comes from that. But we did it.
That has faded quickly since the Venezuela stuff. But yes, we literally did bomb some ISIS camps in Nigeria.
Conner Jones: That’s another threat that Trump followed up on. He said back in November, I’m going to do this. And then he did it a month and a half later. Yeah, so kind of crazy. Meanwhile, here in the US Minnesota Governor, Tim Walls, you may know that name ’cause he was Kamala Harris’s Vice Presidential pick and became a, a nationally known figure at the time as governor of Minnesota.
He has said he is not going to run for reelection, which. In the process of doing already, he was already campaigning. This is because of a lot of scrutiny from a fraud, just big fraud scandal in the state. There’s a lot being uncovered and discovered about how much state funds [00:46:00] were being
Micah Tomasella: Yeah,
Conner Jones: defrauded essentially
Micah Tomasella: without Venezuela.
If that wouldn’t have happened, this would’ve probably been our biggest story. This one right here. Oh, definitely. This, this fraud. Tim Walls, the coverup. What’s true, what’s not true? It’s, it’s been a whole thing.
Conner Jones: Independent journalists going to daycares that are state funded and finding empty daycares with no students enrolled.
It’s pretty bad. And a lot of this is also being targeted. The Somalian group, the Somalian immigrants in Minnesota, they’re, they’re getting a lot of the heat for this. And some of it might be justified if they’re the ones actually, you know, doing the fraud. But not everybody that’s a Somali immigrants a part of this, so there’s a lot of, a lot of tensions there. Either way, it led to his downfall. I mean, this man was running for. Vice president last year. Now he can’t even run for governor again in Minnesota. He, he is, he’s done probably in politics.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. And we’ll, we’ll cover more on this as it comes out. Okay. So something else, mom, Donny is now mayor of New York.
Immediately he raised alarms with an opening address rooted in leaning into his socialist ways. Yeah. And you [00:47:00] know, Conner and I have been upfront US as a ministry. Yeah. Socialism’s not a great idea. And also I think. This, this concept of it’s worked anywhere else or it’s working anywhere else currently is just a fabricated lie.
So we would have to see this happen. Okay. Maybe, you know, let’s see if it works out here. But he rejected an individualism, he emphasized collectivism and framed government as the primary solution. For everything, but including housing, childcare, economic inequality, language critics argue signals a sharp move away from the free market principles.
That and personal responsibility that we’re used to here in America for the opponents of socialism. The concern is. More about the trajectory of it, mom, Donny’s tone and early signals suggest a governing philosophy that, yeah, I mean, he’s gonna have to play both sides, but he is going to lean into what he was elected to do and I understand why he was elected because there’s a lot of people out there struggling.
We’ll, just, I mean, this is gonna, this is gonna set New York [00:48:00] up as, as a true national test case for whether openly socialist governance can work at scale or not.
Conner Jones: Yeah. Good luck New York. I have a prediction on how this one will go, but yep, we’ll see.
Micah Tomasella: Same.
Conner Jones: Maybe I’ll, maybe we’re wrong. Something else that happened is Doug la MoFA the Con Congressman out of California.
Sadly, he died this week at age 65, suddenly, and out of nowhere. This is sad for his family. It is sad for his friends and we’re praying for them and, you know, as they grieve and all that. But it also is pretty, it’s got a pretty big implication on Congress ’cause it drops the Republican house majority.
Down to 218 versus 213 Democrats, right? So that they already had a narrow margin, especially with certain Republicans not voting on the Republican. Side a lot of the times. So Mike Johnson’s speaker of the house, he’s got a lot to work with or not a lot to work with really to, to get stuff
Micah Tomasella: back. It’s such a slim majority man.
You can’t have like more than two defectors or something. And then lastly, there is a big scandal with Grock and X right now. So Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, grok is being [00:49:00] used on X and it’s facing intense. Backlash after reports that it’s being misused even currently to create AI generated images involving minors, including non-consensual and inappropriate content prompting sharp condemnations from authorities in the eu, the uk, India, elsewhere.
The US Justice Department made a statement as well who have called the material illegal and are demanding stronger safeguards. So grok itself posted this apology on X for it, but people are still testing it and it’s still happening.
Conner Jones: Dang.
Micah Tomasella: And you know, this, this, absolutely this has to be curved somehow, some way.
It’s not a good thing at all.
Conner Jones: And this is not just a grok problem. I mean, this is, this is something that’s gonna be true with AI just going forward. This is
Micah Tomasella: the problem with AI in general.
Conner Jones: Yeah,
Micah Tomasella: yeah, yeah.
Conner Jones: And by the way, Elon Musk was meeting with Donald Trump this week, so they’re. Friendship is back on, I suppose.
I mean, they had a private dinner together. So the
Micah Tomasella: bromance is back on.
Conner Jones: The bromance is back on.
Micah Tomasella: Let’s see what comes from it this year.
Conner Jones: Yeah, we’ll see. Okay, let, let’s give some tune in. Updates on things you guys should know is coming up this upcoming weekend and upcoming week.[00:50:00]
Micah Tomasella: Okay. So CFP playoffs, we got the semi-finals coming up. It’s been overall like the college football playoffs have been really entertaining. A lot of teams winning. I did not expect, three of the four teams in the semifinals. I didn’t expect to be there. The only one that’s there that I expected to be there is Indiana.
And it’s crazy that I’m saying that from the beginning at all, but Ole Miss versus Miami and the Fiesta Bowl on January 8th at six 30 Central time on ESPN. And then you got Indiana versus Oregon and the Peach Bowl on January 9th at six 30. Those are gonna be both great games on ESPN. That one’s in Atlanta.
And then you got the championship game coming up on January 19th at six 30 in Miami. Okay, college football. Transfer portal is on and my goodness, there are over 4,000 division one players currently in the transfer portal. Wow. Making this one of the busiest cycles ever.
Conner Jones: Okay. It’s insane. It’s a mess that is happening during the playoffs.
I will never understand
Micah Tomasella: this schedule. It’s a problem. It’s a problem. Things, there has gotta be some governance to this man. It is the wild [00:51:00] west out there. It’s a problem and something needs to be fixed.
Conner Jones: Yeah, definitely. Meanwhile, hey, we’ve got NFL playoffs this weekend too. We’ve got. Some great games.
Dude, I’m excited for this. On, on Saturday, there’s several games here. We got the Los Angeles Rams versus the Carolina Panthers. Should be interesting. Here’s the one I’m really excited for, Micah, you probably are too. At 8:00 PM Eastern, we got the Green Bay Packers going to Chicago, potentially in the snow and playing the bears.
Can you imagine this divisional like rivalry, old historic teams in the snow playing in the playoffs? Ugh, it’d be amazing. One,
Micah Tomasella: it’s, it’s gonna be a great game. Both teams are used to playing in that type of climate. I think the bears win handedly.
Conner Jones: Yeah, I, I think so too, which is
Micah Tomasella: crazy. I’m saying that, I’m saying in Indiana.
Yeah. Is gonna win. The bears are gonna win. Crazy.
Conner Jones: It’s like a different, different world, world, world diverse universe we live in. Yeah. Sunday we’ve got the Buffalo bills on the going to the Jacksonville to play the Jaguars at, that’s at the 1:00 PM Eastern Time, 4:30 PM We got San Francisco, 49 ERs [00:52:00] at the Philadelphia Eagles.
We cannot stand. Either of those teams as Cowboys fans, but I’ll still be watching. And then 8:00 PM Los Angeles Chargers at the New England Patriots. A Monday night is a big game. We got the Houston Texans playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s a crazy time in the NFL playoffs are going on. Coaches are getting fired.
There have been seven head coaches fired. That includes John Harbaugh after 18 years at the Baltimore Ravens legendary coach.
Micah Tomasella: 18 years. It’s unheard of. 18 years in, in a head coaching position. Coaches get two years max if it’s not going well, and then they get fired. So 18 years. Congrats on a great run there in Baltimore, but he will, he has the pick of the litter where he wants to go.
Conner Jones: That’s correct. There’s seven openings. He’s going to definitely get the top one that he wants as some get 18 years, some get one year. Pete Carroll got fired by the Raiders team, so got one
Micah Tomasella: year. That’s true. That’s true. Yeah. Pete
Conner Jones: Carroll got
Micah Tomasella: one year. Year. Yep.
Conner Jones: I just wanted to mention something real fast.
Some of these players have been really cool going to the playoffs about their faith, including Tyler Loop. Of the Baltimore Ravens who missed the kick to send them to the playoffs. Yeah. In the last second he did.
Micah Tomasella: Yep.
Conner Jones: Really hard. [00:53:00] He’s a rookie. That had to be the hardest moment, probably one of the lowest points of his career, but he still stuck to faith.
He pointed back to Romans 8 28 after the game and he said, God works for the good of those who love him and have called, have been called according to his purpose. I love that he turned back to his faith and that’s where his confidence lies, not in his kicking ability. And then the Texans man, they’re doing some cool things.
Dko Ryans is the head coach there. CJ Stroud is the quarterback with the Texans as they headed in their Monday night game. And they’re both just saying the team is focused on God. That is where they’re getting all of their energy. That’s where they’re getting all their joy. They are a fun team to watch.
Even on the sideline, they just look happy. Amen. Joyous. I
Micah Tomasella: love that
Conner Jones: man. There’s something different about them. I mean, it sounds like crisis, moving through that locker room.
Micah Tomasella: I love
Conner Jones: that. Which is just so cool.
Micah Tomasella: What a great witness.
Conner Jones: Dika Ryan is a cool coach, man. So love that. And John Harbaugh has been leading his team in prayers as well.
But yeah, man, lots to look forward to this weekend and this upcoming week, and we’ll be back next Thursday with a new episode. So guys, thank you for joining us on this episode of Culture Brief, a dentist informed podcast, any articles that we mentioned. We’ll be posted any links we’ll be posted. If you enjoyed today’s [00:54:00] episode, please subscribe and rate or review this podcast and share it with a friend.
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