38 Burst results for "Wayne"
The Breakdown
A highlight from Huobi Changes Name to HTX and Almost Immediately Gets Hacked
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Tuesday, September 22nd, and today we are talking hacks, hacks, hacks. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, today we start this show talking about Ben Armstrong, better known as BitBoy, who was arrested last night after he won, posted to his YouTube that he was going to confront a former business partner about the Lamborghini that he said was his, two, went to said person's door and rang the doorbell, three, did this with a gun and illegal narcotics in the back of his car, along with another business and affair partner to boot, and then four live streamed himself getting arrested. Just kidding. I'm not going to talk about that ever at all. In fact, I will only say this. The crypto space gets exactly the level of influencers it deserves. So perhaps as we think about where we want to be heading into the next bull market, we might want to choose who we listen to with just a hint more discernment. Now, what we're actually going to be talking about today is the plague of this bear market. Well, outside of Gensler, of course, and that is hacks. A wave of hacks impacted crypto firms starting over the weekend. On Friday, Nansen disclosed a security breach at a third party software vendor. The attacker was able to gain access to admin rights of a Nansen account in charge of facilitating client access to the platform. Nansen claims it, quote, managed to stop the unauthorized access shortly after learning about it and launched an immediate investigation. According to Nansen, wallet funds were unaffected. All affected users had email addresses exposed, while smaller user cohorts had password hashes accessed and wallet addresses revealed. Nansen urged all users to double check emails claiming to be coming from the company and be vigilant for phishing attempts. So that was Friday. Then on Saturday, OpenSea disclosed that one of its third party vendors, quote, experienced a security incident that may have exposed information. They warned that user API keys were compromised. The company noted that the incident was not expected to impact any programs which use an OpenSea API key, but that external parties using exposed keys could experience rate and usage limits. OpenSea plans on shutting down existing keys by next Monday and asked users to rotate their keys. A third exploit was disclosed early on Monday morning. Mixin Network, which is a nominally decentralized wallet service, said it lost $200 million in customer assets during an attack early on Saturday morning. Crypto developer Lawrence Day at Function Zero writes, Also, respectfully, how are you losing $200 million from a cloud breach? So this company Mixin was founded in 2017 and had nearly $400 million in protocol funds across 48 chains. The service allows users to send digital assets assigned to phone numbers and its biggest market appears to be Hong Kong. Now the firm said that it can guarantee the safety of around half of user assets, but that guarantee seems to be in the form of a corporate backstop rather than the product of successful threat mitigation. During a livestream on Monday addressing the attack, Mixin founder Feng Xiaodong said, No matter what your assets are, whether it's Bitcoin or Ethereum, we will ensure that half of it is unaffected. We're trying to find a way to recover the compromised money, but that is very difficult. For the other half of the assets, Mixin is considering offering what they are calling bond tokens for users to claim. The firm would later buy back the tokens, making them similar to other token -based recovery schemes seen in the past during events like the Bitfinex hack. A security firm called Slowmist is involved in the investigation and stated that the incident occurred when a cloud service provider database was attacked. Now if this feels like just the latest in a string of big hacks, that's because it is. In 2022, we had the record of $3 .1 billion in funds lost from hacks. And estimates this year include TRMLab saying that $400 million was stolen in Q1, Immunify saying that $700 million was lost in the first half of the year, and then just in Q3 we've had a 126 multi -chain hack in July, a $61 .7 million market -based protocol exploit of Curve Finance in July, $41 .3 million hacked from Stake .com in September, and another July hack of $37 million at CoinsPaid. So from estimates, it looks like this might be the largest hack of the year, roughly the same size as Euler in March. Still, even though it wasn't the biggest, the most high -profile hack of the weekend was disclosed on Monday as well, and that was from HTX. HTX, formerly known as Huobi, suffered the loss of 5 ,000 ETH worth around $8 million on Sunday evening. Justin Sun claimed in a Twitter thread that, quote, HTX has fully covered the losses incurred from the attack and has successfully resolved all related issues. Sun added that, quote, all user assets are SAFU and the platform is operating completely normally. Now, in addition to disclosing the loss, Sun downplayed the impact of the attack, stating that, quote, $8 million represents a relatively small sum in comparison to the $3 billion worth of assets held by our users. It also amounts to just two weeks of revenue for the HTX platform. Sun disclosed the wallet address of the hacker and added, We are willing to offer 5 % of the stolen amount, $400 ,000 USD, as a white hat reward to encourage the hacker to return the stolen funds. If the hacker returns the funds, we will also hire them as a security white hat advisor for HTX. However, they said, if the funds are not returned within seven days, we will transfer the information to law enforcement authorities for further action and to prosecute the hacker. In an on -chain message to the hacker, HTX claimed to have discovered their, quote, true identity. Now, according to Arkham Analytics, the attack affected an HTX hot wallet, which was created in March. Since then, the wallet has received $500 million in deposits from Binance, and on -chain analysts confirmed that funds have now been migrated to a new wallet. Now, there were a lot of comments relating to the name change of this exchange. Crypto Kaleo writes, Huobi changes its name to HTX and gets hacked for $8 million in the first month? Coincidence or tempting fate? Lawrence Day again said, I'm sorry, but renaming Huobi to HTX and then immediately losing millions of dollars is so effing funny that I might have a stroke. Even Binance's CZ said, A week after you rename your exchange after FTX... Jokes aside, our security team will help in tracking hacker funds in all cases where we can. Now, in addition to just the jokes about the HTX name, there are lots of questions floating around about Huobi solvency. To get a sense of some of those theories, go check out Adam Cochran's account. It's a little bit out of the scope of this particular episode, but it's obviously something that we're watching closely. Now it's unclear at this stage whether these attacks had any sort of links, but the small amount of detail available does show some common features. The first three hacks all blamed a third party service provider. While the provider was not named, Nansen did urge them to disclose the security breach. These attacks come just weeks after crypto custody firm Fortress Trust suffered a $15 million attack, which was also related to a security failure at a third party cloud provider called Retool. In that attack, an employee at the software provider was the victim of a phishing attack. The attacker used an AI -synthesized voice clone of an IT support worker to replicate the employee's credentials to access Retool's systems. In their write -up of that attack, Retool said that 27 customer accounts were compromised. All 27 were crypto companies. So the method of attack here, which uses a combination of social engineering and a bypassing of security measures, also bears a striking resemblance to the write -ups of the recent cyber attack on MGM and Caesars casinos. The casino's systems were hacked two weeks ago with customer and corporate data compromised. Postmortems of the attack claimed that hackers used a voice replication of IT workers to gain access. Identity management firm Okta confirmed that the casinos had been using their systems to credential employees. In an August blog post, Okta said that their customers were seeing, quote, consistent pattern of social engineering attacks against their IT service desk personnel, in which the caller's strategy was to convince service desk personnel to reset all multi -factor authentication factors enrolled by highly privileged users. The casino attacks were attributed to a threat actor known as Scattered Spider using malicious software developed by Alfie or Black Cat. Now if these attacks are all part of the same cybercrime spree, it could speak to a group of hackers going after high -value targets like crypto firms. The vulnerability seems hard to address as it involves security training for employees at third -party software providers. And one of the implications is, if these kind of attacks become a systemic threat to the industry, it could mean more crypto firms need to bring sensitive software in -house. That higher barrier to secure operations could make it more difficult for smaller startups to compete in the industry. Now of course for any of you who are listening to the AI breakdown, you'll also recognize that this is not going to be a problem that's unique to the crypto industry. The casino attacks speak to that as well, but the reality is that voice cloning technology is incredibly advanced and just getting more so all the time. Individuals and companies are going to need to develop entirely different modes of operation that recognize the fact that you simply can't trust a voice on the other line of a call anymore. Now when it comes to the impact of these hacks on the industry outside of just the ramifications for the people who lost money themselves, it's hard exactly to know what the real impact is. On the one hand, it certainly lends to a perception of immaturity overall, but at the same time, when it comes to the geopolitics and regulation of crypto, the hacks that are most important to keep an eye on are those that have some sort of geostrategic ramifications, particularly those emanating from the Lazarus Group in North Korea. Still, being this deep into a bear market and trying to match all -time records for hacks is not necessarily the place we want to be overall. The one other story that I wanted to cover on today's show is a bit of a dust -up around the Celsius restructuring. In short, the Celsius bankruptcy could be coming to a close after creditors have voted in favor of the current recovery plan. 98 % of creditors gave the thumbs up to a plan which would see the sale of assets to crypto consortium Fahrenheit Holdings. The acquiring group includes Errington Capital and miner US Bitcoin Corp. Fahrenheit plans to retain and operate mining equipment owned by Celsius under a new corporate structure. The new company also plans to stake Ethereum and monetize other Celsius assets. Some large creditors will receive equity in this new company. And in addition, another $2 billion in liquid crypto will be distributed to creditors. Overall, the plan is projected to provide a 76 -85 % recovery. Now one remaining snag in the plan is an objection from the SEC. The regulator filed its objection last Friday to express concerns with Coinbase's involvement in the process. Celsius receivers plan to use Coinbase as an intermediary to distribute crypto to creditors. The SEC claimed the agreement could require Coinbase to The SEC filing claimed that However, this court should not be asked to approve a deal where their material terms are missing or inconsistent. The regulator also appears concerned about an additional agreement with Coinbase, which Celsius have attempted to file under seal and have not yet disclosed. Coinbase's Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal hit back at the SEC's objection in a Twitter post stating, Now, Wayne Vaughn had a very simple explanation, saying, And of course, this isn't the first time we've seen the SEC stand in the way of a bankruptcy distribution agreed to by creditors. In March, the SEC objected to Voyager using Binance US to distribute crypto to its creditors, which was of course months before the regulator had filed its lawsuit against Binance but still based their objections on claims that the exchange was an unregistered securities brokerage. A very unimpressed judge in the Voyager case called it This time around, of course, the SEC at least does have an ongoing lawsuit that they can point to regarding Coinbase's brokerage services, but the objection does still seem odd given that the regulator didn't seek an injunction to prevent Coinbase from operating as normal in the interim. The Celsius case will return to court next Thursday to hear the SEC's argument and see if the judge is inclined to allow the plan to go ahead. Now one interesting line of discussion are the implications for the spot ETF applications that are outstanding. Adam Cochrane writes, Now, speaking of ETFs, Bitwise filed an amendment to its spot Bitcoin ETF application on Monday, adding 40 pages of research on Bitcoin market structure. The research aimed to preempt arguments from the SEC, which could be used to reject the current batch of ETF applications. Bitwise claimed to show that Bitcoin futures are the primary market for price discovery with spot prices following futures. According to Bitwise, this would mean that the well -regulated CME futures market should be the primary consideration when looking for evidence of market manipulation. They argued that this trading venue should count as a regulated market of significant size for market surveillance purposes. As part of their argument, Bitwise also cited a previous study from 2019, which suggested that Bitcoin's spot market mainly consisted of fake volume, making the relative size of the regulated futures market much larger in comparison. Regarding the price impact of futures, Bitwise found in 2021 that futures markets accounted for between 52 .97 % and 68 .03 % of Bitcoin's price discovery. Now this isn't the first time Bitwise have dropped large amounts of Bitcoin research on the SEC to dispute their claims. They have produced at least two 100 -page -plus reports in support of previous Bitcoin ETF applications. Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hogan explained his firm's strategy in a Twitter thread stating, That's the happy case. The question is, what happens if the SEC appeals the court decision? In short, we return to the status quo. We're back to needing to prove that the CME Bitcoin futures market leads price discovery over the spot market such that it can serve as a regulated market of significant size for the purpose of surveillance. Unfortunately, existing filings do not include substantively new arguments or research addressing this question head on. Until now, today's amendment aims to address point by point each of the major objections the SEC has raised in prior disapprovals for spot Bitcoin ETFs. In particular, we try to clear up the significant confusion around the growing body of academic literature on price discovery in the Bitcoin market and demonstrate that every well -designed academic study supports the finding that the CME is significant. So friends, there you have it, a little bit of hacks, a little bit of the SEC objecting to something that seems reasonable from the outside. In other words, a quintessential 2023 crypto day. Appreciate you guys listening, as always. And until next time. Peace.
WTOP 24 Hour News
Fresh "Wayne" from WTOP 24 Hour News
"Murder twenty seven years ago the focus was on this las his courtroom as a handcuffed the wayne keepy d davis limped in for a judge and the world for the first time since the self -proclaimed gang member and drug kingpin and was charged with tupac's murderer this is cbs news you need to hire indeed is with you every step of the way helping you attract interview and hire candidates all from one place visit indeed dot com slash credit nine oh three on w t o p on this wednesday evening october fourth twenty twenty three tyson's at seventy degrees it even got to be be tree sodas for the top local stories were following this hour morgan state university's canceling all classes and other school activities for the remainder of the week in the wake of that shooting on campus last night university also says it's postponing
DerrickTalk
A highlight from "KOUNTRY WAYNE's Netflix Comedy Special Was Not Funny...That's The Truth
"Welcome to another edition of Convo Over Cigars. I'm your host, Derrick Andre Flemming. Um, let's talk about Country Wayne, Wayne Coley. I've always talked about my respect for this man because he comes from humble roots and he's very transparent about that. He talks about, you know, being a dad, you know, raising 10 kids, things like that. You know, just what he's going through in his life. The fact that he was absent of a real father during much of his life. He talks about things like that. And I think that's what makes Country Wayne, Wayne Coley so amazing. But I'm here to basically give an honest review of Country Wayne's Netflix comedy special, A Woman's Prayer. Wayne Coley, the comedian who got his start on Facebook, he recently released a Netflix stand -up comedy special entitled A Woman's Prayer. The stand -up set is about life as a dad of 10. How to know if a woman likes you and why he keeps it real with Jesus. He also talked about his HIV -positive uncle cooking in the kitchen. Wayne has had unparalleled success and has amassed over 8 .3 million followers on Facebook. The 35 -year -old comedian is very transparent about his life struggles and that's what makes him great in my opinion. I also love his catchphrases, Jesus is popping and help is on the way. But the one hour long, something like that, Netflix comedy special was absolutely horrible. That's my honest opinion. I'd give it a one and that's being generous. Real comedians, people like Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, Mike Epps, they are naturally funny. We're talking demeanor, their delivery, their stories, the way they narrate their comedy, they're just naturally funny. Country Wayne and I watched the entire comedy special, he looked like a guy who struggled to be funny, the entire set. The jokes did not land, the reaction of the audience was mediocre and it just was not funny. Funny is one of those things that's like, I guess chemistry in a relationship, it's either there or it's not. This Netflix comedy special was not funny and though some people say, I liked it, it was good, he did okay, it was his first time, hey, give him a break. Yeah, but the thing you have to realize is comedy is one of those things where there are different types, his skits to me are very relatable and they're very entertaining. He shows a little bit of everything, his relationships, relationships of other people, people like Mike Bless, they help the skits out, he's had Derek Jackson on there. I think his skits are amazing, I think they're wonderful, I think they're well planned out, they're well scripted but I don't think stand up comedy is Wayne's thing. I don't think that's what country Wayne should do. I just don't think he's a stand up comedian. I think when you look at guys like Lavelle Crawford, people like Chuckie, you remember Chuckie Ducky, people like Bernie Mac, I mean Dave Chappelle, Mike Epps, there's so many people, Cat Williams, that are just naturally funny. Stand up is not for everyone. Eddie Murphy, he was a great actor, you saw him in Beverly Hills Cop but you saw Delirious, you saw Raw, he was a comedic genius on that stage. His timing, his jokes, the level of comfort, country Wayne just didn't have that. So my honest opinion, I give the Netflix comedy special a one and like I said, that's being generous, I just thought it was absolutely horrible. That's just honest. You guys have been locked into another edition of Convo Over Cigars, I want you to check out his Netflix comedy special. We're talking about Wayne Coley, The Woman's Prayer. A lot of people say it sounds like a movie or something a little bit more dramatic but no, it's a comedy special. Want you guys to check it out and I wanna hear what you guys think. Guys have been locked into another edition of Convo Over Cigars, I'm your host on a Friday, Derek Andre Flemming, take care guys.
WTOP 24 Hour News
Fresh "Wayne" from WTOP 24 Hour News
"Cbs news on the hour is headed by indeed dot com i'm jennifer kyper the largest health care strike in american history is underway tens of thousands of kaiser permanente workers have walked off the job cbs's joe ling kent reports at dawn more than 75 000 workers at kaiser permanente walked out we're care taking of lives you know health care workers should be valued joining her on the picket lines pharmacists respiratory therapists optometrists and other technicians the union is asking for better working conditions and a 25 minimum wage kaiser has offered 21 to 23 an hour that's just above what fast food workers will soon make in california after house lawmakers voted out their speaker kevin mccarthy president biden says we need to change the poisonous atmosphere in you know we have strong disagreements but we need to stop seeing each other as enemies we need to to talk one another listen to one another work with one another congressman steve scolese and jim jordan are running for the position cbs's scott mcfarlane heard from republican new york congressman mike lawler the interim speaker north carolina's patrick mckenry had no answers on the days ahead the only certainty among most republicans their disdain for colleague matt gates who led the charge to remove mccarthy i think it was deplorable i think it was disgraceful and he put his own petty personal grievances ahead of the country continued to attack his colleagues senator diane feinstein's memorial service tomorrow will be still held outside san francisco city hall but it's no longer open to the public due to security issues the senator who died last week at age ninety light in state today casey bs is mike to all flag draped casket arrived at san francisco city hall by motorcade and was received by mayor london breed flanked by an honor guard city family inside a string quartet provided the track san francisco leaders all paying their respects one -by -one mourners stepped up to the casket like hannah she did so many great things for the city in the country i'd just had to pay my respects mike to wall for cbs news san francisco the man accused of being the mastermind in rapper tupac shakur's nineteen six ninety murder appears in a las vegas courtroom on murder charges after tupac shakur's murder twenty seven years ago the focus was on this las his courtroom as a handcuffed the wayne keepy d davis limped in for a judge and the world for the first time since the self -proclaimed gang member and drug kingpin and was charged
The Aloönæ Show
A highlight from S13 E12: Wayne: Entrepreneur, Founder, Marketing Expert
"Hello, welcome to The Elone Show. I'm your host, John Mayelone. In this episode, don't have regulars because reasons, I guess. As for our guest, he is from Alexandra, Louisiana. He's an entrepreneur and founder of Ugly Muck Marketing. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Wayne Mullins. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Me too. So, how's life? Life is fabulous. I think, you know, I'm learning to embrace every day in every moment. To embrace the moments, whether they are what some would consider beautiful or what others may consider ugly. To learn to be present and in the moment. And I think that's the best way to possibly live life. Fantastic. And have you been up to much recently? I have. We are on the work front. We are busy growing. It's our busiest season of the year. So, we've been busy there. My wife and I and our kids were in the process of building a house, which is a little bit deceptive. We're not doing the building, obviously, but lots of decisions around building the house and the finishes and all that kind of stuff. Ah, all right then. Very good. And what was the inspiration and the idea of Ugly Muck Marketing? Yeah. So, the idea and inspiration behind Ugly Muck Marketing was simply this, that I wanted to create a marketing agency that is focused on results as the number one thing that matters. So often in the digital marketing space, in the ad agency space, the thing that so many get distracted by is trying to win awards. And Ugly Muck Marketing, the name actually stems from this quote that is, I would rather an ad that's ugly and effective over one that's beautiful, but isn't. So, that is the mission and that is the calling for what we do at Ugly Muck Marketing. Ah, I like it. And what was life for you growing up? I grew up in, I guess you could say more of rural Louisiana, not across the river, not far from where I'm at right now in an area called Pineville, Louisiana, population roughly 15 ,000 or so. So for me, it was growing up, spent a lot of times out in nature, in the woods, building forts in the woods and just had a lot of fun with friends and yeah, it was great. Okay. Very nice. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? I would live where I'm at right now. I'm a firm believer in this idea that we as human beings, we aren't trees, meaning we can get up and move at any point in time. And I think it's not good for us mentally, emotionally to always long to be somewhere different than where we are. And, you know, if I really wanted to live somewhere else in the world, then I'm of the belief that I should make that happen, that I should get up, that I can move. Yes, there may be obstacles, there may be challenges, there may be all kinds of other things that, quote unquote, get in the way. But again, anything is possible. And we live in a world now where it's easier than ever to up and move to a new location. Couldn't agree more. What's your favorite ice cream topping? I'm going to go with probably strawberries. Interesting. Have you heard of a drink called banana friche? It sounds familiar. I don't know if I've had it, but it does sound familiar. Oh, is that so? It is. I don't know where or why I would have heard of it. OK, interesting, because every guest I've had, I've asked this question a lot to most guests and they said, no, I never heard of it. You are the first person to at least heard of it to some extent. So that's a surprise to me, in my opinion. Yeah, we need the bells and the whistles and like the streamers going off or some fireworks or something, at least, right? Yes, that calls for a celebration. Absolutely. So fill me in. What is it? So it is like a banana flavored drink, which is part smoothie, part milkshake. It's called a tingly sensations that you could possibly think of. Sounds delicious. It sure does. Would you rather never use social media again or never watch another movie or TV show again? Well, I'm going to choose TV because I actually really don't watch TV at all at this point or don't watch movies. And I often joke with people when they meet me or get to know me. I say if you begin the sentence or you begin the question with, have you seen the answer is already going to be no. So don't even ask the question. OK, that makes sense. I would say I would say never watch TV or movies again because I'm mostly on social media looking at stuff anyway. And also, you can watch full length feature films on social media, which is kind of multiple parts. So that's the ultimate cheap code. Yes, indeed. I love it. What's the weather like today where you currently are right now? It is overcast today in a high of only 84 degrees, which is actually a break in the heat from where we've been. So we're we're enjoying the overcast and cooler temps today. Me too. It was pretty hot the last few days, but now we're reaching autumn temperatures now, which is pretty cool. Literally. Well. What is the most comfortable piece of clothing you own? I would say it's a T -shirt that my wife got me for my birthday and it's by a company called One Golden Thread. And I don't know what they made the shirt out of. It's some cotton blend, I believe, but it is incredibly comfortable. Ah, very nice. Do you think a hot dog is a sandwich? I would say absolutely. It comes between two slices of bread or two pieces of bread. But I guess if you want to get really technical, the bread is still enjoined on one end. So you can make an argument in that case that is not technically a sandwich, but there are sandwiches that go in a similar style or similar type of bread. So I'm going to say it is OK. That's a good point, I guess. What hobby would you get into if time and money weren't an issue? Time and money weren't an issue. I would get into surfing. Nice. What could you do a 40 minute presentation on without any preparation? Marketing. That makes sense. Would you rather not be able to open closed doors or not be able to close open doors? That's a tough one. I'm going to go with I would rather not be able to close open doors. Nice. It leaves opportunities open for you. Absolutely. Yes, I love it. If you were given 400 acres of land, what would you use it for? I would take some of it. I would make it into a small farm of sorts, enough to produce enough produce for my family and friends. And then I would have a small portion for maybe some farm animals. And then I would love to leave the rest of it very wooded and maybe put a few trails, hiking trails, biking trails through some of that land. OK, that'd be pretty cool. How much time do you spend on the Internet? Way too much. I spend most of my work day on some form of the Internet, whether that is Google Docs, whether that's email or a social media channel. And then unfortunately, I spend too much time of that on social media or on various forms of Internet in the evenings as well. So way too much is the answer. OK. Yes, I agree. I would certainly say the same thing. What is the best way to start the morning? The absolute best way to start the morning is with some meditation and some gratitude. Sweet. Is that all? Or is there more to it? Well, those would be the best. I also love doing some journaling first thing in the morning and reading something that is inspirational, encouraging, something that really helps me set the tone for the day. I believe that our morning is kind of like the rudder, if you will, for the day, like a rudder on a ship determines where the entire massive ship goes. That one little rudder in comparison to the ship. I believe that our morning routines act in that same way. And unfortunately, for so many of us, we are unintentional with our morning routines. We allow the alarm to go off multiple times. We hit snooze, we rush, we hurry, and all of those things fill our minds subconsciously with worry, with stress, with thoughts of I'm late, with thoughts of I'm not going to be on time. All these words and all these feelings that, in my opinion, have a very negative connotation. So, yeah, I think that's that's the rudder for the day. Okay, yes, couldn't agree more.
The Aloönæ Show
Fresh update on "wayne" discussed on The Aloönæ Show
"Interesting. What's your favorite quote? That's a that's a really hard one. I mean, the one that the one that's always stuck with me, I'll give you two. The Wayne Gretzky quote, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. I think it's always really stuck with me because first off, you know, greatest of all time, but more important. It really is the kind of thing that whenever I have a moment of self-doubt about, you know, is this really going to work? I really do this thinking, thinking in that mindset really helps me get past that and helps me understand like, yeah, you know what? It doesn't matter if it fails because I always get another bite the apple. It's not going to be my last time. And so there's been times where I've looked at ads and I'm like, I don't know if this is really going to work. I still push it out there, I still put the money behind it, I still try it, because the reality is, is the ad that, you know, helped me scale my business last year and has continued to perform and has brought me, you know, hundreds, if not over well over a thousand discovery calls in the last year that I had the same feeling about that one. I had the same feeling like, I don't really know if this is good enough. The other one that has always stuck with me is from a headmaster I had in high school. He's now retired. He just retired this year. His name's Bradley Rogers. He was the headmaster of the Gao School. Now he is enjoying retirement, but he's honestly one of the most he's one of the people I credit with the most in life in terms of life lessons. And he had this saying that if you're on time, you're earlier, if you're earlier or if you're earlier on time, if you're on time, you're late. And if you're late, you're lost. And the first time he said that, I said, what a stupid saying. That makes no sense whatsoever. And then as I came into the professional world and I had people that would show up on time and then I'd have to wait for them to open their laptop and get all set up before we could start the meeting. I started realizing this is what he was talking about. If you show up early, you have time. Just like today, like when we got on the call, we had some like little technical issues at the beginning, right? If I showed up right at nine, then we would have started five minutes late because I would have been dealing with the technical issues then. But I showed up five minutes early. We dealt with the issues and we started right around the top of the hour. So it's that it's that thing that when I was a kid, I didn't understand it because I didn't understand how the real world worked. And then once I got in the real world, that just that really resonates with me. And so now I try to be early to everything where I can. And whenever I'm even a couple of minutes late, I feel awful because I feel like, boy, I really am lost in this world if I can't keep a keep a tighter calendar. Oh, yes, absolutely. Is it is there an app you hate? We still use it anyway. Mm hmm. I mean, the obvious one is Facebook, Instagram like Facebook is arguably the worst social platform in the world. Mark Zuckerberg is just a I don't I don't know him personally, but if the way he runs his company is any reflection on him as a person, he's not a good dude. The customer support for an agency like mine who is trying to solve problems for people is abysmal. It is absolutely garbage to your customer support. And the thing is, is that we're not just takers. We're not just free users of the platform. We're paying to advertise. So if I'm paying for something, I expect a level of customer support so that I can keep paying. And we just had a client today that we're pulling off a Facebook platform entirely because there's a bug in their account that won't let them pay. Like their cards won't go through. We already were on the phone with one of their people. They said, oh, yeah, it's a bug in the system. We'll fix it. And then we got sent back to the beginning of triage. And now we're having to argue our way back up to the top about fixing an issue that we shouldn't have to fix anyway. Right. It's their problem. And so I think I still have clients on that app. I'm still on that app. We still post content on that app. But the reality is, is that if I had my choice, I would I would cease my relationship with Facebook today. I think there's just far better platforms out there. Yeah, and who knows, maybe the next year or two, there may be a new platform that may be rising the ranks in terms of switch engine optimization, randomization of advertisements and also the efficiency of advertising promotion, too. There's potential for that for more competition. Oh, yeah, there's I mean, there's always a new platform, right? Just this year, there was Lemonade that came out that focused more on it. They're kind of like a Instagram. I don't know how to even describe them. I mean, their their target is kind of the Pinterest target where it's like mostly women. But there's also Clapper, which is a U.S. based TikTok alternative. TikTok has been crushing it with ads. We've made most of our money this year from TikTok ads. And we've been we've been helping clients run ads successfully in that space. So, I mean, there's there's just tons and tons of opportunity now out there. And Facebook has gotten so bad and the results from Facebook have gotten so bad that now when people ask us, the only people we put on Facebook are people that can't afford to play in some of the other ball fields. And it's like it's sad that, yeah, you can't afford to play in this. But if you need to do something, you know, something's better than nothing. But certainly if you have the money, I would not I would not give Facebook a dollar. I don't think they've earned I don't think they've earned anything in the last three to five years in terms of they have not released anything. That's really impressive. I'm sorry, but the Oculus meta world is not that impressive. Like and if it was, we'd all we'd be doing this podcast interview. They're not not on Spotify. Right. Like that's just the reality of it. So I just don't I don't think they've earned it. I think they're kind of in the same situation Apple is, is after Tim Cook left. Like Apple has not really innovated much at all. Like their stuff looks almost identical as it did a couple of years ago. I have a three year old phone that can still outshoot most of the new iPhones in terms of quality as an Android. So I just think that those are Facebook's in the same bucket is like they had all their innovation front loaded where they did all this cool stuff early on. You know, their first real social platform to have ads. They started that trend. They had Instagram, you know, they did all this stuff. And now the only real value they have is just copying off of other people. Like, you know, what they did with Snapchat, with stories, what they did with Twitter, with threads, what they did with reels, with TikTok. Like they're just they're just thieves now. They're not really creating anything new. Yeah, there's a platform you can guarantee Metta will create its own alternative to it. Oh, yeah, 100, 100 percent. Like because I think they see the writing on the wall like Metta is not long for this world. Like you were asking, what's what's something that might not be here in five years? There's a good chance Metta is not going to be here in five years. Like the only reason that I have more faith in them than pickleball is the fact that they're sitting on a lot of money, but that could dry up. Like if they don't start innovating and coming to the market with something new, something exciting, something that people can actually like get behind. I don't I don't think they're going to be, you know, pickleball might be gone in five years and Metta might be gone in six. Yeah, I think I think Metta might have my last little bit longer, because again, the money and also they have like all they have at least one alternative to every major platform there is. The thing is, if there's more competition and Metta's alternative starts to fade away, then you know, it's over guaranteed, period. Oh, yeah, well, I think the other thing is you have to keep in mind that the the Metta demo gets older and older and older every day, every week, every year. They're not attracting young people at all. Like young people are going more. And this is the funny thing. More young people are joining Twitter, which is just as old as Facebook, practically. But they're more attracted to Twitter than they are to Facebook, because Facebook's Facebook's where your dad's at. It's where it's where your grandma posts pictures. You know, it's where your uncle posts conspiracy theories like that's what Metta is. Metta is not like not the hip, cool platform anymore at all. Yeah, so, so sad. Yeah, fall from grace. But, you know, that's if there's a great chart out there that shows the cyclical patterns of social media and, you know, once they peak, they never regain. There's never been a company in the social sphere that has ever regained their peak. Once they peak, it's over and like people start looking for the next thing. And I don't know if TikTok peaked yet. I'm guessing they're probably edging pretty close to it. But there's still a lot of growth on that platform. So I'm still bullish on on TikTok. But like, think about Snapchat. Snapchat was five, 10 years ago. That was that was a hot ticket. Now, like, I don't know anyone that uses Snapchat. Yeah, and that is all we have for this episode. It was great having you on, Drew, talking about Growhouse and everything, marketing and advertising based stuff, everything else has been great. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on it. It was a very interesting interview. I can't say I think you have asked at least 10 questions that I've never been asked before. So it was very fun doing this. Yeah, it sure was. And until next time, stay tuned for more.
Postcards to the Universe with Melisa
Meet Rebecca Whitman, The Magnetic Abundance Mentor
"So I wanna talk to my guest today because everything I talk about each week in the beginning of my show, Rebecca and I are gonna be talking about today. So Rebecca Whitman, she is called the Magnetic Abundance Mentor. I love that. She's an international best -selling author. She graduated with honors from Princeton University. She was awarded Life Coach of the Year and Empowered Woman of the Year by International Association of Top Professionals. LA Weekly Magazine featured her as one of the top seven entrepreneurs to watch in 2023. She hosts the top 1 .5 % globally ranked, balanced, beautiful, and abundant podcasts, which won the Positive Change Award. Her philosophy divides life into seven pillars of abundance, which include spiritual, physical, emotional, romantic, mental, social, and financial. She helps people achieve balance within these seven areas so that they can experience more fun and freedom in life. She has been featured in New York Weekly, Miami Magazine, and LA Weekly Magazines. In addition to her appearances on ABC and CBS, she has guested on over 100 podcasts. She has given keynote speeches at Columbia University and UCLA and has shared virtual stages with renowned thought leaders Grant Cardone, Jack Canfield, and Les Brown. You can find out more about her if you visit her website. It's RebeccaElizabethWhitman .com. Welcome, Rebecca. Thanks so much for being here with me. Thank you so much, Melissa. I'm so excited to be on your show with such a delight to have you on my show a couple weeks ago, and now we get to continue the conversation. Exactly, yeah. So I was on Rebecca's show on her podcast, The Balance Beautiful and Abundant Show, and it aired August 29th. And you guys who are listening, you can find it on any of the podcasting platforms, Apple, whatever you listen to, Spotify, Google, and yeah, you can listen to the show. And it's also, it's on YouTube too, right, Rebecca? I think you're on YouTube also. Yep, YouTube as well as Apple, Spotify, and all the podcast platforms. Absolutely. It was so much fun. It was so much fun. So yeah, so now she's here. So let's talk about you and like what got you into this kind of this abundance mindset, like starting to do this kind of work? What made you want to do it? Were you always doing this your whole life or is this something that you kind of fell into or came to, I should say? Yeah, I moved to Los Angeles 22 years ago to pursue my childhood dream of being an actress. And I had small parts on huge shows like Friends, CSI, and 24, and I never got that big break. So I supported myself at children's acting schools and the children were busy during the day at school. So I would attend spiritual lectures with great teachers of the law of attraction like Michael Beckwith, Esther Hicks, Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, and I started applying it to my life and I got immediate results. I was making six figures working part time at a kid's acting school. And I didn't quite apply it as well to my love life. I had a series of really painful breakups with emotionally unavailable men. And I even married one thinking he would change. Three years later, I filed for divorce and my marriage was slowly and painfully unraveling as my dad was slowly and painfully dying in a nursing home. And in one of our last conversations, he asked me to write a book. And a few months later, my dad had made his transition and my marriage had dissolved and I was sitting across the desk from my financial planner. And he said, Rebecca, I find it interesting that you are making more money than you've ever made the same year that you lost your marriage and your father. And I think you should write a book. So I wrote a book based on the seven key areas of life, which I now call the seven pillars of abundance, and it's called How to Make a Six Figure Income Working Part Time. And now I help women go from burned out to balanced, beautiful, and abundant. And using these principles, I'm now happily married to my soulmate. And now I just coach women. I have the podcast and I just love this mission, teaching people they don't have to be burned out and overwhelmed to receive abundance in life.
The Breakdown
A highlight from How Impactful Will FTX Estate Selling Be on Crypto Markets?
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Friday, September 15th, and today we are talking about how much pressure FTX selling will put on the crypto markets. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello friends, happy Friday. We have lots to catch up on today, starting with what has emerged as a key narrative. That is, of course, that FTX has been granted approval to begin selling their crypto assets. On Wednesday, the bankruptcy judge ratified the sale plan, which was filed in late August. Galaxy Digital has been appointed as the selling agent. At last count, FTX said it had $3 .4 billion worth of liquid crypto assets to sell. Galaxy has been authorized to sell $50 million worth of crypto this week and next week, then $100 million per week after that. Creditors can agree to increase this amount to $200 million per week on a temporary basis before seeking court approval. Galaxy has also been given permission to hedge their sales using Bitcoin and Ethereum derivatives without sizing limits and at their sole discretion. Staking of assets will also be allowed if Galaxy deems it necessary. During the hearing, the judge questioned the need to sell crypto rather than distribute it directly to customers. FTX lawyers explained that there was no meaningful segregation of customer assets and balances held didn't line up with customer accounts. They said, quote, it's all part of one pool. There are assets that are associated with the exchange we call the dot com customer pool and the US pool, but they don't necessarily match customer entitlements. So when we dispose of this, we'll be turning it into cash effectively and the cash will be available for distribution pursuant to the plan. Now, all parties appeared concerned with getting this liquidation moving quickly while also limiting the price impact on the portfolio. A lawyer representing the ad hoc creditors committee said, the sooner we can get this process rolling, the better. Now, the speculation all over Twitter has of course been that this would lead to incredible downward price pressure across the crypto markets with any asset that was being sold. However, Jeff Dorman, CIO of ARCA pushed back on notions that this liquidation will be an uncontrolled dump. Here's a summary of his Twitter thread. He pointed out that Galaxy Asset Management, not their trading desk won the bid. They must act as a fiduciary and sell gradually and opportunistically. He pointed out that Galaxy is receiving massive amounts of reverse inquiry already, some from real funds and some fishing expeditions, but over the counter sales will dominate the buying. In other words, we're less likely to see a lot of selling on exchanges or via TWOPS. As good bids come in, they will engage. Hedging, he points out, will be opportunistic, i .e. long puts to offset a large drop in the portfolio. And he points out that people thinking that Galaxy will rush to sell $3 billion in futures right away is crazy. The goal, he points out, is to outperform a static portfolio, not turn the estate into a long short fund. He reminds that Galaxy cannot front run the sales and profit internally, that that is very illegal and that their asset management business is completely walled off from their prop desk. Finally, he points out that this is not some half -baked plan. It involved months of working with the courts to win this business, and that the point of bankruptcies is to maximize the upside of the estate, not speed of distributions. In other words, this may be capped short -term gains due to opportunistic sales and to strength, but it is not a fire sale into weakness. Now getting even more granular, much of the speculation in recent weeks has specifically surrounded how sales of the hefty FTX Solana portfolio will impact that market. In their most recent accounting, FTX said they hold $1 .1 billion worth of Solana, which is able to be sold. That would be around 14 % of the current market cap. It was previously believed that much of this supply was staked and would be unlocked between 2025 and 2028, although the latest FTX filing threw this into question by lumping all of the Solana holdings in together. FundStrap published a report earlier this week detailing the FTX crypto holdings and claimed that less than $150 million worth of Solana is liquid and able to be sold off. Now, ultimately, no matter what people say, it's going to be very, very hard to get people away from the concern that this amount of selling will impact the market. Liquidity is incredibly thin right now, and probably the best that we can hope is that some of the negative price action over the last few weeks has been in anticipation of this and trying to front run it. But ultimately, the only way out is through, and so we just have to deal with this as the next thing we have to deal with. Now moving over to that other big exchange, two more Binance US executives have joined the exodus from that embattled company. The head of legal, Krishna Juvadi, and the chief risk officer, Sidney Majalia, are leaving the company according to WSJ sources. Juvadi was one of the firm's main contacts for communicating with the SEC, which is currently in active litigation with Binance. This makes three executives reported to be jumping ship from Binance US in less than a week. Remember on Tuesday, sources said that Binance US CEO Brian Schroeder had left his position. Now, Schroeder has not been active on social media since February, leading some to speculate on whether reporting was simply catching up on events that had quietly transpired much earlier. According to a company spokesperson, chief legal officer Norman Reed has stepped in as interim CEO. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Safart said the obvious thing when he tweeted, well, this cannot be a good sign for whatever is going on at Binance. On the flip side, crypto has at this point, I think, written off Binance US as a going concern. The Flow Horse writes, why does anyone care about Binance US employees leaving? They don't have a job to do. The exchange is a placeholder and no one uses it. Proof of Talent founder Rob Hayon writes, Binance US doing $9 million in 24 hour volume right now. At what point do they shutter the doors? Gotta be soon, right? Now, staying on the Binance train for a moment more, the SEC have accused Binance US of refusing to cooperate during the discovery process of their ongoing lawsuit. A court filing made on Thursday noted that only 220 documents had been produced by the exchange. Binance US had signed a consent order regarding the scope of discovery in June, but the SEC are claiming that many of the documents produced in accordance with that order, quote, consist of unintelligible screenshots and documents without dates or signatures. The SEC noted that Binance had refused to produce essential witnesses for depositions, including former CEO Brian Schroeder. Instead, they unilaterally limited the list of witnesses to just four employees. The SEC said that Binance US quote, has responded to requests for relevant communication with blanket objections and has refused to produce documents kept in the ordinary course of its business, claiming those documents do not exist only for the SEC to later receive such documents from other sources. Now the bulk of the SEC's filing related to SEFU, the wallet custody system at Binance US, which is provided by Binance International. The regulator called attention to contradictory statements about Binance's involvement in the management of US customer funds. They argued that the usage of SEFU violates the terms of a prior agreement that Binance US customer funds would not be diverted offshore. The heavily redacted filing also included information obtained by the SEC with the cooperation of a former Binance US auditor who has provided over 6 ,500 documents related to Binance's accounting. The SEC are treating the lack of disclosure of these documents from Binance US directly as evidence of a lack of transparency. Now continuing on the cleanup theme, three Eros Capital co -founders, Kyle Davies and Suzu have been slapped with a nine year ban from the regulated financial services industry in Singapore. The pair have been prohibited from taking part in the management of or being a major investor in any regulated firm involved in capital markets. Now MAS, the Monetary Authority of Singapore handed down the ban after concluding its investigation into the collapse of the once high flying Singapore based crypto fund. They found that 3AC had failed to notify the regulator of the appointment of a new fund manager, falsely claimed that this manager wasn't conducting regulated activities and failed to have in place appropriate risk management. MAS assistant managing director of policy payments and financial crime said in a statement, senior management of fund managers are required to implement robust risk management measures to protect the interests of investors. MAS takes a serious view of Mr. Zou and Mr. Davies flagrant disregard of MAS's regulatory requirements and dereliction of their directors duties. MAS will take action to weed out senior managers who commit such misconduct. Now, alongside spending much of the last year ignoring requests to engage with the 3AC bankruptcy process, Zou and Kyle launched a new offshore exchange based in the Seychelles. However, that crypto and bankruptcy claims marketplace was recently reprimanded by Dubai authorities for advertising within the emirate. They were issued a $2 .8 million fine, which big surprise remains unpaid. Moving on to yet another hanging chat on Wednesday, Digital Currency Group formally proposed their Creditor Agreement as part of the Genesis bankruptcy. The agreement seeks to refinance a $630 million intercompany loan owed by DCG, which fell due in May and remains unpaid. According to DCG, the plan could offer, quote, all unsecured creditors a 70 to 90 % recovery with a meaningful portion of the recovery in digital currencies. DCG claimed the repayment of loans over time using crypto would allow creditors to, quote, capture the appreciation of cryptocurrency up to $85 ,000 for Bitcoin and $8 ,500 for ETH. We'll come back to that in just a moment. DCG called the deal a, quote, remarkable outcome for any liquidating Chapter 11 case, let alone one in the volatile cryptocurrency industry. Now, the deal will, of course, require the agreement of creditors before moving forward. DCG have secured the consent of the unsecured creditors group. However, the major creditor, Gemini, have so far been silent on the deal. Gemini claims to be owed approximately $1 .1 billion in the bankruptcy on behalf of hundreds of thousands of their customers. The Gemini claim is in a much stronger position than unsecured creditors, as Genesis posted about 31 million GBTC shares as collateral when taking loans from Gemini customers. This collateral has appreciated significantly since the bankruptcy and represents about 60 % of the total balance owed to Gemini. DCG indeed claimed that Gemini customers could see an excess recovery of up to 110 % under the new agreement. They wrote in their filing, at current pricing, the Gemini user collateral is worth approximately 607 million. If Gemini agrees to provide 100 million to Gemini earned users under the proposed agreement as it previously did, or to distribute even a small portion of the Gemini user collateral to Gemini earned users, there would be little doubt Gemini earned users would receive a full recovery. DCG then contended that Gemini is failing to, quote, put its money where its mouth is. The filing stated that Gemini, quote, is not contributing a single penny to provide Gemini earned users a better recovery. Now, the crypto community was not as convinced as DCG made it out that this was a great deal. Lumina Wealth CEO Rama Lawalia writes, The deal between DCG and Genesis reeks of self -dealing at worst and incompetence at best. The deal presumes an $85 ,000 for Bitcoin and $8 ,500 for ETH. The defaulted party should make the creditors whole, not speculate yet again on a risky gamble on behalf of creditors. Creditors lent money expecting credit risk, not volatile equity -like risk. If DCG truly believes those numbers, they should ensure that outcome for creditors through an options contract. Genesis creditors should seek the removal of the Genesis CEO, who was conflicted in a party to the alleged fraudulent balance sheet statements, petition the judge to have a new trustee, pressure Genesis to focus on the turnover motion and resume litigation. What a mess. Now, speaking of Genesis, Genesis will also cease all trading services according to a company spokesperson. If you're surprised to hear that Genesis's trading services were continuing, you're not alone. Although the crypto lending arm of the firm declared bankruptcy in January, many other DCG subsidiaries which shared the Genesis branding continued to operate throughout this year. Earlier this month, the Genesis company which handles US -based over -the -counter trading announced it would be shutting down throughout September. At the time, it was believed that Genesis would continue providing offshore OTC trading from their British Virgin Island companies, but with this announcement, Genesis has signaled their exit from OTC and derivatives trading globally. A spokesperson for the firm said, this decision was made voluntarily and for business reasons. With this termination of services, Genesis no longer offers trading services through any of its business entities. Now, while this was highly expected, it still marks something of a big moment. Wayne Vaughn tweeted, the former largest OTC crypto trading desk is officially closed. Genesis announced today that they are no longer offering trading services through any of its business entities. Seems like a juggernaut falls with every cycle. In this cycle though, friends, I think we can agree that numerous juggernauts have fallen, but perhaps it is just to clear out the way for companies who will use that juggernaut status a little more responsibly. Anyways, friends, that is going to do it for today's episode. I appreciate you guys listening as always. Until next time, be safe and take care of each other.
DerrickTalk
A highlight from The Disrpect For BG Is Crazy
"Spotify for Podcasters has revolutionized the world of podcasting by allowing the novice and seasoned podcaster to create a podcast painlessly and in real time. No cost, no hassle, and you can even record from the comfort of your own PC or phone. That's right, and the Q &A polls allow real -time interaction between the host and his audience. What are you waiting for? Download Spotify for Podcasters now and make your voice heard on sites like Spotify, iHeartRadio, Deezer and more. Welcome to Convo Over Cigars. I'm your host, Derrick Andre Flemming. Shout out to a gentleman by the name of Christopher Noel Dorsey, aka BG Man, short for Baby Gangsta, an member infamous of the Hot Boyz. They formed the Hot Boyz back in, was it, 1997. It was Lil Wayne, Juvenile and Turk back in 1997 with BG. Those guys formed the Hot Boyz. Probably one of the most successful rap, would you call them a trio, in history, man. You know, the block is hot, Juvy had a lot of commercial success with Back That Thing Up. When talk you Lil Wayne, Birdman, that whole cash money clique, man, they just, they did things that are historic when it comes to hip hop, especially when you're talking about New Orleans. Of course, you got people like Master P that are also mystical, that also put New Orleans on the map, but you gotta give BG a lot of respect, and the disrespect that I'm seeing for this young man online since he's been released, it's kind of crazy. Back in July of 2012, BG was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on a gun -possessing charge and an obstruction of justice charge. Now I'm reading that he did 11, I think it was 11 or 12 years on that 14 -year sentence. BG is now a free man, and since he's returned, of course, I mean, and I'm not sure what his age is, but he's a little bit older now. When BG was first incarcerated, of course, he was basically a kid. So now that he's done his time, he's now out, he looks a little different with the braids. A lot of people are saying he has a lot of female mannerisms, he looks and appears to be kind of girly, kind of zesty, that's the word that they're using, but I just think the disrespect for BG needs to really kind of stop, man. You're talking about a guy who did his time, he didn't tell, he didn't snitch, he didn't do anything. He basically held true to that whole street code, and we got to give this guy a lot of respect, man. Now that he's out and he's doing his thing, obviously, he is under the tutelage and he has signed with Brian Birdman Williams with cash money, so he's not going to have any money troubles or anything like that, but I'm just wishing that he has a lot of success and that great things manifest in this young man's life. So the disrespect, the saying that he looks girly, he's a little sweet now, got the braids, the mannerisms, hey, the man's been locked down for 11 years, man, he did his time. Let him live, let him be great. We as African American people specifically are kind of tearing this man down unnecessarily, and that's my opinion here on Convo Over Cigars on a Thursday. I'm your host, Derrick Andre Flemming, BG, baby gangster. Like I said, he was locked up back in, I think it was 2012, for obstruction of justice and a gun possession charge. He did his time, he took it to the chin, he didn't tell or cooperate, everything that we talk about in the streets that gives people real credibility. BG stood solid on all 10 toes, so obviously a man who deserves a lot of respect, but the comments, the disrespect for the gangster that he is now out, he is no longer incarcerated is a bit much. In my opinion, we need to respect this young man and wish him well on his journey back to the top of the cash money regime. You guys have been locked into another edition of Convo Over Cigars. I'm your host, Derrick Andre Flemming. Guys, take care.
What Bitcoin Did
A highlight from Orange Pilling Through Sport with Steven Nelkovski & Patrick O'Sullivan
"The beautiful thing about Bitcoin is if it works with baseball, it works with anything. If you think about value for value, the model, it changes everything. Right. Hello. How are you all? Hello from Lebanon. What a cool country this place is. It's really strange. As I travel around the world, sometimes I go to these places where you worry about the economic situation, you end up meeting the most amazing, incredible people, most amazing resilient people, and Lebanon is exactly that. So I cannot wait to get this film out. Anyway, welcome to the What Bitcoin Did podcast, which is brought to you by the legends at Iris Energy, the largest NASDAQ listed Bitcoin miner using 100 % renewable energy. I'm your host Peter McCormack, and today we have Perth Heat on the show. We've got CEO Stephen and chief Bitcoin officer Patrick, Patrick O 'Sullivan. I was going to try and say Stephen's name. I think it's Nelkowski, Nelkowski, I think Stephen Nelkowski. Danny, what is it? Nelkowski. We've never had Danny on an intro before. Nelkowski. Yes. CEO Stephen Nelkowski. Now I've known Stephen for quite some time. When we announced Rael Bedford, he'd already announced his Perth Heat Bitcoin project, and then I met him out in Miami. He gave me a jersey, and we've kind of been knocking back DMs on Twitter for this whole time sharing ideas, talking about what they're up to, what we're up to. There is so much alignment between the Perth Heat baseball team and what they're doing in Australia and what we're doing with Rael Bedford over in the UK. And so yeah, I've been keeping an eye on their progress, been impressed with everything they're doing. They're definitely a little bit ahead of us, but there's so much alignment between us and them. And I know not everybody loves the football side of things, but this Bitcoin and sports thing, I'm telling you, it's so important. It's important on so many levels, there's so many chances to orange pill people by meeting them where they're at. And I'm telling you, Bitcoin and sports is going to be big. So give me your feedback. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy the show. Absolutely loved it. Steve is a legend. Patrick is absolutely beavering away like a legend trying to get all the Bitcoin stuff going for them. I'm going to be nicking some of their ideas. Hopefully, we will have some cool ideas. They can nick as well. But yes, let me know your feedback. Let me know what you think. It's hello at whatbitcoindid .com. Welcome, brother. Good to be on. Who's your friend? This is the chief Bitcoin officer of the Perth Heat. You actually the chief Bitcoin officer? That's it. That's the title. Chief Bitcoin officer. That's all I do. That's what I'm trying to get Ben Ark to do for us. You know Ben Ark? Yes. He doesn't even like football. But he comes along. He gets the whole thing. Great role to have. Emerging role. Yeah. You saw that job ad for that Bulgarian team. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. We've got a call with them. Joe Hall's trying to get me to talk to them. But there's two upcoming Bitcoin football teams, young whippersnappers. The league is expanding quickly. We've had a couple of recent inquiries from teams in Europe wanting to speak about what we've done with the baseball team. But as we've said so many times on Twitter and in comments that the Bitcoin sports league is a lot closer than what most people think. There's a lot of interest. Yeah. You beat us to it. I think you beat us to it. We had a couple of weeks between us, I think. Was it that close? It was. There was a nose between, I think, the two announcements. We were early November. I think you were late November, early December, something like that. We're talking 21, aren't we? 21? 20 said? Yeah. It was 21. Because I think I announced - November 21? Yeah. I think I announced December 21. Yeah. And we took over the team in April 22. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You just beat us. Justin. So many things have changed since then as well in so many ways. What we thought we'd be doing in two years has just dramatically changed so quickly. It's awesome. There's loads we can get into and we're going to. But let's just do a bit of background stuff just for people listening so we can build the picture of what we're doing. So, like, introduce yourself, what you do, and yourself. I know we know you're the Bitcoin officer, but like, and then just tell people about Perth Heat, who they are, and then we'll build from there. Yeah, easy. So my name's Steven. I'm the chief executive of the Perth Heat, who are Australia's most successful baseball team. We've won 15 national titles. We've had 34 players who have played Major League Baseball. We've got an exceptional relationship with the Tampa Bay Rays, who send us out six to each eight players Australian summer. And these are top end draft picks. So one of the players they sent us last season, Junior Caminero, is on the verge of playing in the big leagues right now. So they send us the best of the best in terms of their young talent. And we build a squad and we play a season in the Australian summer. We've got a history of winning. We've got a history of producing great players. We're also the Bitcoin baseball team. And it's been, yeah, it's been an incredible ride. How big is baseball in Australia? It's big. It's look, it's obviously we've got the big sports in terms of Aussie rules. You've got rugby. You've got strong national teams with the Australian cricket team. You've got the Socceroos, you've got the Matildas. So it's not a tier one sport. But in terms of the quality of the competition, if you look at the fact that Perth Heat have had 34 players who have played for the Heat and then gone on to play Major League Baseball, there's no other team or competition that could produce that sort of statistics. So if you looked at one of the football teams like the Perth Glory, they haven't had 34 players who have played in the Premier League. So it's the competition is extremely tough and would be one of the best winter leagues in the world, especially with our association with Major League Baseball. So they send players out to you to get game time. And they also scout players that you have got of your own. There's a bit of scouting. There's international scouts in every city. But the idea of sending them out to us is they will see how the players will react in a foreign environment, a different style of baseball, different time of year. How do these players go in an environment over Christmas, New Year? Some of them are coming back from injury. Some of them have had interrupted seasons. That's a good chance for some of them to also build game time. But it's a program now with Tampa. Then in the last five years, we've had five players already play Major League Baseball. Jacob Lopez was the last just a couple of weeks ago. And as I said, Junior Caminero is knocking the house down, his 27 home runs this year. It's just a phenomenal generational athlete. And what kind of crowds do you get? Yeah, they vary across the weekend. We play a series. So we'll play Friday night. We'll play two games on a Saturday. Two? Two games on a Saturday. And then we'll play another one on a Sunday. So there's four games in the space of 72 hours. And the crowd's roughly between 5 ,000 to 7 ,000 over the weekend. OK, wow. So two in a day. What kind of demands are put on the players? Well, it's different. So baseball, if you're a pitcher, the demands are extreme. Every time you throw the ball, it is logged. It is monitored. It is counted. If you're an outfield player or an infielder, one of the batters, then that's what you're built for. You're built to play every game. So all the pressure's on the pitcher? Pitchers, yeah. Good pitching will win you championships. You need a really strong pitching lineup to bring in the different times of the game. And that's the part of your lineup which you really have to monitor so carefully. Because you could start a series with a pitcher. And if he doesn't perform well, when you bring him out of the game, when you introduce someone else. And then if they don't perform well, how quickly do you run through your rotation knowing that you've got four games to get through? So there's a lot of analytics that we look at, we monitor. And as we said, that pitch count is very, very closely watched. I've been to a few baseball games. I've been to see the A's. I've been to see the Dodgers a few times. I've been to see probably your team. Yes. We went to the Yankees. Yeah, we went to the Yankees. It was too hot, wasn't it? Yeah, it was so hot. It was so hot. Our knees were burning. There's not many roofs on the stadiums, yeah? So you're sitting out in the sun, yeah, baking. But there's heat, but it was too hot. Our legs were in shorts, our legs were burning, so we just went and stood at the back and drunk beer. Then the Yankees get absolutely back. I think they were 10 down within two innings. It was like insane. Yeah, but it's a crazy game. It can be 10 down, and you can still win. My wife has now accepted that no matter how far in front we are in a game, she won't relax until that last out. You can be 6 -0 up, 8 -0 up, and you can still lose a game just like that. It's very, very different of football. In football, if you're 3 -0 up, it's effectively game over, yeah? But in baseball, a three -run lead, a four -run lead, it can change with just one pitch if a batter walks, and then suddenly things just change. It's taken a while to understand and to even get comfortable with it. When I first started in the role five years ago, baseball traditionalists would say, well, that's baseball. It's like, no, it's not. It's bad game management. But yeah, it's baseball. It happens in the big leagues. It happens in Australia, and sometimes it happens with Perth Heat. And so your wife, is that because she's got into the baseball, or she's planning for what your move's going to be like? Bit of both. She has to be into it, but I'm not a good loser at all. Yeah, I'm not probably the best person to speak to if we lose a game for a good 24 hours. After we lost the championship series, that 24 hours was probably four months. Mate, honestly, I know exactly how you feel. We lost three games last season in the league. We lost one cup game, and then we got thrown out of a cup because we played an illegible player should have been suspended, administrative error. Every single one of those, I was not good for 24 hours. I spent the next 24 hours saying, what did I do wrong to contribute to that? Even though it's the team and the manager, it's like, what could I have done more? Could we have prepared the team better? Did we not provide the right resources, or did we not get the balance of the roster correct? There's so many things that go through your mind, but yeah, I'm certainly not a good loser. Were you a Perth Heat fan before? No, with a surname like Neil Kobski, you grew up with a round ball in my household. I was a football fan from an early age. This is a true story. Before I took the role with Heat, I had not watched a baseball game from start to finish. I had not watched a full nine innings. I'd watched parts of a game, but I hadn't watched a whole game. That first year in charge was challenging because you'd be with corporate partners, and I didn't know all the rules, and something would happen during a game, and they'd ask, why did that happen? I'd scratch my head and say, I'd have to find out for you. I'm obsessed with it now. My wife loves watching players steal bases, just running from base to base or trying to steal. Then I look at my family, Grey Caritage, and they're all into it and enjoy coming to the ballpark. Most people I introduce do enjoy it because, again, it's a different sport in terms of the pace of the game. You can relax a little bit more and then sit back and enjoy the menu of the hot dogs or the crackerjack and see some home runs in the background. Well, you don't understand the sport. It's a bit like cricket, right? Most Americans, almost every American does not understand cricket. Are you trying to explain test cricket, that it's five days, two innings each, it could rain and end in a draw? Nobody understands it, but when you understand the game, you understand what brilliant test cricket is. Like my son, he watched the Ashes with me, and I had the first two tests, I was explaining how this works, why they might declare, what the follower knows, which never got used. Trying to explain the strategy of it all. And then once he understood, he got into it, and I was mentioning going to watch baseball. I said to you before we started recording, I was dating that girl in LA, so we were going to watch the Dodgers. It was a playoff season, and I must have gone to maybe five games. I went to the game, I don't know if you know the one where Justin Turner hit a walk -off home run in the playoffs. I think it was against, it might have been the Cubs, but by the way, that itself was an unreal moment. The great finish there. Unbelievable. But I had a guy who was sat with me each game explaining it to me. And one of the things I'd never known about is the whole pitcher strategy. My from assumption the little I'd watched here or there, it was just one guy all game. And if somebody came on and it was injury, I didn't realize you're strategically placing different pitchers in the game, especially towards the end of the seventh, eighth, ninth innings. I didn't know any of that. And so once you understood that, you understood the strategy. And then there's huge strategy, whether you're bringing in a left -handed pitcher to pitch to a right -handed batter, left -handed batter, or someone that can face up to a curveball better than a slider, et cetera. Explaining the game to someone in baseball is a lot easier in the ballpark. If you're watching it off the screen, it's a bit harder to pick up. If you sit in the ballpark and you've got someone that can explain the rules, you will understand it a lot quicker than watching it at home. But the strategy behind pitching is nuts. The movie Moneyball and the strategy behind the analytics is spot on. There's so much you can gain out of the numbers. And that's a big part of our relationship, even with Tampa, is the Tampa front office and what they have in terms of identifying talent and how they use it is something that is a great benefit to an organization like the Perth Heat as well. There's a whole Moneyball thing that started coming to football as well. I know specifically teams like Brentford and Brighton have used it. But they're using it in a different way. They're trying to identify talent, which they sell out. I mean, Brighton. Can you look up their sales of players? I mean, Brighton. They have a profit of 130 million pounds, was it, this summer? I mean, historically, they weren't ever a Premier League team. No. It's only in the last, what, five, six years did they become Premier League? They're now established. But the volume of players they sell and the rates they sell their players for, have they got recent sales? Yeah. Let me pull it up. It was the same with Southampton. They kind of had that strategy as well. So there we go. Okay. Caicido, 160 million euros. McAllister, you went to Liverpool, 42 million. Sanchez, 23 million. But there's more in the previous. I mean, is that just this season? Yeah, that's this season. Did you have last season as well? I don't think it was on him. What was up at the top when you scrolled to the top? That was people who had come in. Right. Okay. But this is their whole strategy. I mean, they're now talking, this guy just got a hat -trick. The other Ferguson got the hat -trick against Newcastle the other day. People are starting to talk about him. And they've managed to have this rotation of players. Even though they're selling their best players, they've got these new ones coming through and they've got like an identity, which means it's a profitable business. Luton were the same. So Luton Town managed to get back in the Premier League from going into non -league, which itself is incredible. But they had a whole strategy of bringing players through and it's part of their revenue model. Does that perform part of your actual revenue model to develop players? For Perth Heat, it's a little bit different because if we have players that we continue to develop, they'll get drafted. And the draft system works a little bit differently to football where the club doesn't take the profit. The actual transfer fee goes direct to the player. Oh, wow. It's one of the first questions our board of management asked when they took the license over. How can we develop players and on -sell them? But it doesn't work like that in baseball, unfortunately. So, yeah, we've got a great farm system of producing young Aussie talent to go and pick up minor league contracts. But there's no return there to the club, unfortunately. Were you a baseball fan before you joined? I mean, I played when I was a kid. But not much of a fan. No. No, it was strictly because of the opportunity that came up that I joined. And when did you join? When? Same time. So about a year before, when the talks happened about, well, maybe this is something that we might be able to do. And then what the details look like for making it a possibility for a team to embrace Bitcoin as much as the team has. And then suddenly realizing that it's going to be significantly more work than what it first appeared to be. Because I didn't really have a role there to begin with. I didn't have a job. I wasn't working there at all. But then sort of trying to orange pill the board after Steve got it and to show them what we could do with it. It was very much, this is the idea. This is what we think we can do with it. And their attitude was, OK, go out and prove it and show them exactly what we could do to kick things off. And then from there, it was just small win after small win. And then realizing, well, if we're going to actually do it and announce things in November about just how far down the rabbit hole we were going to go, that we couldn't just, you know, Bitcoin is not at the point now where you can just launch and say, OK, everything worked perfectly. I mean, you know, it's so hit and miss with things that will work and things that won't work. And that's integration with systems that are already in place, especially when you're talking about a business of this size. You know, it's not your micro strategy. We don't have teams and teams of lawyers or people that can look after all of the various elements. And to go all in on Bitcoin means really restructuring how you do everything. And eventually that came back to me as my sort of ability to transition and see what will work, what's going to work now, what will work in 90 days from now and what it's going to look like in 180 days from now. All of that has changed and just somewhat to stay on top of that and to help integrate it into the systems that Steve is already looking after. Yeah. So I'm going to be interested to compare and contrast what you've done to what we've done, because like we're tiny. You know, our crowds are tiny. When we take, if you want to pay with Bitcoin on a match day, we're talking a handful of transactions. You got up to 7000 people there. So that's that's an entirely different beast. What were you, sorry Steve, what were you doing before you joined? My background is media marketing, so I used to be a sports reporter on one of the commercial networks here in Australia with Channel 7. I was there 14 years as a broadcaster, used to commentate to football games. But after being a reporter for the best part of 15 years and seeing how sports organisations run, that's where the real appetite for running a sports organisation came in and wanting to win championships. So I went and worked for a local football team, which is the Perth Glory, who play in the A -League. I was in a media marketing role there for a few years. Is that where Robbie Fowler played? He did the great man. God. Yeah. He used to come over to Mum's house every week for dinner. Shut up. Yeah. Are you serious? A gentleman. One of the most beautiful men. Yeah. We're always on the text to each other. He's a... You're friends with Robbie Fowler? Yeah. There we go. You're in. I want an interview with him. He's one of my childhood heroes. Oh wow. Yeah. And you know what? He's just a lad. He's just brilliant. He came and played for the organisation. And yeah, it was Monday night's dinner at Mum's house. He loved the Greek food, so we kept to a winning formula. That's unbelievable. Do you know the song the Liverpool fans sing about him? About we all live in a Robbie Fowler house. Do you know about this? I don't know. So Robbie Fowler is one of the footballers who was very smart with his money. He just bought just properties all over Liverpool constantly. And see, he's got this huge property portfolio in Liverpool. And so the Liverpool fans sing, we all live in a Robbie Fowler house. Yeah. He's a... He's God. He's God. He's just an awesome guy. Good fun to hang out with. And yeah, made so much time for the people of Perth. We had a great year together. And he's also very cheeky as well. There was a time where we weren't performing too well. We'd lost, I think, five games on the trot. And it was the time that Wayne Rooney was having a whole heap of issues with Manchester United. And we were about to do this live TV cross for Channel 7. And we knew the chairman wasn't too happy at the time. So I said, we've just got to try and deflect here. And Robbie had been in the UK for a week. And the presenter said, so Robbie, what was the trip to the UK all about? And he said, it was to chat to Wayne. And my phone had been, the media marketing guy just blew up, Fleet Street just went mad with this. It was just an off -the -cuff joke that we were trying to sign Wayne Rooney. And it was just everywhere within hours and we had to put out a press release and it was great because it deflected off the five losses that we'd had, but it was just a bit of a piss take. What was his scoring record like at Perth? Look, it wasn't as good as what it was at Liverpool. We would have been nice for him to score a few more goals, but the team struggled a little bit that year. And I think he ended up maybe with a dozen goals from memory somewhere around there. But it was a good year. And then again, I remember him taking out a little urn when England won the Ashes out before a game. And he put it up on his head and there was photos of it. He's just a great prankster in a lot of ways. He's an awesome person to have in your change room. And yeah, I'm really happy to call him a friend. So I went down the Robbie Fowler rabbit hole with my son the other week because, did you watch the Liverpool Newcastle game the other week? No, I missed it. Right. So I said to my son that there were two games when I was a kid when Liverpool played Newcastle. There were four, three consecutive years. The first one was a back and forth. I think Liverpool went 1 -0 up, then Newcastle went 2 -1 up, then Liverpool got it back to 2. Then they went 3 -2 up, then 3 -0. Liverpool went 4 -3. Stan Collimore in the 90th minute. It's an unreal game. And then a year later, Liverpool went 3 -0 up, Newcastle got it back to 3 -0. And then in the last minute, Robbie Fowler scores ahead of this flying header to go 4 -3. And so I then just had to explain Robbie Fowler to my son, why everyone said he was God. And we went down this kind of rabbit hole of Robbie Fowler goals. I was always really sad, though, because when he left Liverpool, I'm trying to remember, was it Leeds and Man City he went to? Did play both, yeah. Yeah, and I just couldn't accept him, not in a Liverpool shirt. Not in a Liverpool shirt, yeah. It didn't make sense to me. No, iconic to that club, and yeah. Absolute legend. Sorry, there's a bit of a tangent. OK, so going from commentator to chief exec, that's quite a jump. Did you have to kind of prove yourself you were capable? Did you have to pitch yourself for it? Look, I did the four years at Perth Glory in a media marketing role. I then stepped outside of sport for the first time in my career and just did some sales, what they called home and land packages here in Australia, selling some land in the house with it, and quickly went into a management role there with one of the companies. And then the opportunity came with the heat, and I was given the chance to run my first club, which was good because at the time I'd just started as president of a football club as well. So the management position was quite similar. I've run both roles now for the last five years, which has been brilliant. What is the mandate for the chief exec? How does it compare to, say, a chairman in a football team? Just look, every club's structure can be a little bit different, so yeah, a chairman for us is one of the shareholders, majority shareholder of our club, so he's who I report to. I've got the day -to -day running of the organisation, and I report to our chairman. What are the main things that you're responsible for the team in ensuring they've got the resources they need? Everything, yeah. Everything, yeah. I run the organisation. So it's basically probably almost identical to my role. Correct. Yeah, absolutely. Bigger numbers. Yeah, there's bigger numbers, but I don't think it really matters, and there's probably a good contrast with a football club. Whether you've got 10 members, 100 members, 1 ,000 members, a million members, the communication is still the same. You still treat your members the same way, regardless of how many zeros are involved. It's the same if you do a social media post, whether your club's only got 50 members or 50 ,000, you're still putting out information. So in some ways, don't get scared by the numbers. It's treat the position with respect and your members and partners, et cetera. Again, corporate partners, regardless of what the partnership value is, they're a corporate partner.
THE EMBC NETWORK
A highlight from Dr Fitness USA The Show Presents The Magnetic Abundance Mentor Rebecca Whitman
"Hello, and welcome to Dr. Fitness USA, the show, exercises, medicine, strength training and stronger medicine with your host, Batista Gromod and myself, Steven Hersey, aka Dr. Fitness USA. Welcome to Dr. Fitness USA, the show, I'm Batista, your host, and I'm here with my co -host, Steven Hersey, also known as Dr. Fitness USA, the foremost expert in the world in strength training and body design, the Dr. Fitness USA show aims to inspire a society of stronger people. Today, we have an amazing guest for you, Rebecca Whitman. Oh boy, are you in for a great surprise. Rebecca is the magnetic abundance mentor, graduate with honors from Princeton University and author of internationally best -selling books. She was awarded life coach of the year and empowered woman of the year by the International Association of Top Professionals. She hosts the top 5 % globally ranked, balanced, beautiful, abundant podcast, which won the positive change podcast award. Her philosophy divides life into seven pillars of abundance, which include spiritual, physical, emotional, romantic, mental, social, and financial, all that you can imagine to have a fulfilling life. She helps people achieve balance within these seven areas to experience more fun and freedom in life. In addition to her appearances as an expert on ABC and CBS, she has spoken on multiple podcast at Columbia University, UCLA, and has shared virtual stages with great thought leaders like Grant Cardone, Jack Canfield, and Les Brown. Today, the topic of our conversation is the seven pillars of abundance. Rebecca, welcome to Dr. Fitness USA, the show. It's a real honor to have you with us today. Thank you. It's so wonderful to be here. I love talking to you guys already in the pre -show. We could have kept that conversation going, and now we get to do a podcast together. So I'm excited to be here. Beautiful. So listen, before we get started on the whole seven pillars of abundance and all this great stuff that you're going to share with us, we kind of want to know you a little bit, who you are, where you come from, and how did you get to where you are today? Sure. So I moved to LA about 20 years ago to pursue my childhood dream of being an actress. And I had small parts on big shows like Friends at CSI and 24, but I never quite made a living at acting. So I found myself working at children's acting schools, which I love because I don't have any kids, so it was fun working with them. And I had a lot of free time to study with great spiritual teachers like Michael Beckwith, Abraham Hicks, Wayne Dyer, and Miriam Williamson. And I really mastered the law of attraction in a lot of areas of my life. The one area that eluded me was my romantic life. And I had a really tough year in 2015. My dad was dying as my marriage was unraveling. And a year and a half later in 2016, in my last conversation with my dad, he said, Rebecca, I think you should write something. I think you're living life in a really different way, and I think you can inspire people. And I had no idea what I was going to write. My dad was buried on a Wednesday, 72 hours later, my marriage was dissolved and divorced on a Friday. And a few months later, I was sitting in my financial planner's office in workout clothes. And he's like, Rebecca, you always come in here like in workout clothes in the middle of the day, and I know you lost your dad and you lost your marriage, and you always come here with such great energy. And I'm looking at your financial portfolio, and you had the best fiscal year ever. So I think you should write a book inspiring people how you're living your life and how you're so resilient. And I believe that God speaks through other people. So I said, that's exactly what I'm going to write about. So I wrote a book called How to Make a Six Figure Income Working Part Time. And it's not a business plan. It's how I lived my life and live my life to make six figures working part time. And in that book, I divide life into seven key areas, which I call my seven pillars of abundance. And now I'm coaching women. I'm helping them go from burned out to balanced, beautiful, and abundant. I have a podcast called The Balanced, Beautiful, and Abundant Show, where I interview experts in each of these seven areas. You guys are going to be on the podcast talking about fitness. And I just love my mission of taking overworked, stressed out women and transforming them from burned out to balanced, beautiful, and abundant. So that's how I got to where I am today.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Nathan Finochio & Chris Palmer (Encore)
"We are representing a second whistleblower from the FBI, Marcus Allen. Due to whistleblower retaliation by the FBI, I've been suspended without pay for over a year because of you, ACLJ donors. You get the best attorneys in the world. Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxas show sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit Legacy PM investments dot com. That's Legacy PM investments dot com. Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to listen to a man of grace, sophistication, integrity and whimsy? Well, so are we. But until such a man shows up, please welcome Eric Mataxas. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. A big part of the reason I do this program is to introduce you, my audience, to people that I know and like. And today, unfortunately, I don't have anybody like that in the studio. I'm sitting here with Nathan Finocchio and Chris Palmer, and they're the best I could do on short notice. But seriously, guys, you're tough to sum up, and my favorite people are tough to sum up. Um, how do you how do you describe yourselves rather than have me try to do it? Nathan, why don't we start with you? Yes. So I describe myself as a genius. Yeah. Um, um, the one of the better looking people on the planet. Right. Adored by the Holy Trinity and Adonis. Yeah. Loved by God. Yes. Outwardly disheveled. But just that's just an act. Yeah, that's an act. Yeah, it's OK. Yeah. All right. So he's not going to be serious. Chris, how about if you tell me a little bit about Nathan before you tell me about yourself? Both of you. OK, you're you founded something called Theos U and Theos Seminary. Yeah. OK, so what are your backgrounds that you decided to do that? And what is Theos U and Theos or Theos Seminary? Yeah, I'll start. So I was homeschooled. My dad's a pastor. I came to New York. I was here for eight years. I was a part of a church called Hillsong, New York City. And when I was at Hillsong, I found that there are a lot of our staff and just a lot of people in our church that didn't have any theological training. And and they didn't know that adultery is wrong, for example, according to the biblical model. Yeah, exactly. For stuff like that. Stuff like that. So biblical training and theological training, you noticed this is an issue for us. Yeah. Yeah. And and it's not just an issue. It's not just an issue for Hillsong, I think is a microcosm of the Greater Evangelical Church. Correct. Where you have a lot of staff who are carrying services on weekends and they've never read. They're not they don't even know who Wayne Grudem might be. So so all that to say, I thought, hey, I could help. And so I took a number of courses that I was at Hillsong, New York City. I was teaching what was called Evening College on Monday nights. And we'd have about 300 kids who had never darkened the doors of a church and they'd come in. And I would teach for seven weeks, two hours every Monday night, essentially distilled Bible college courses. So I'd teach Romans, Hebrews, Old Testament. You understand it kills me that I was living in New York while this was happening and I didn't know this was happening. This was happening on third and 22nd. It's sickening to me. No, but I mean, it's seriously like the fact now that I know you a little bit. The fact that you were doing this and I and I and it wasn't on my radar is very upsetting to me. But we'll put that aside. So go ahead. So, yeah, I did that for four years and then I left New York before, you know, the proverbial crap hit the fan and I moved to California. And while I was there, I was just thinking, I want to put these on lines that people could, you know, that people could pay for the price of Netflix. They could access theological education that is conservative theologically. So I would describe that as Nicene Christianity, Christianity that's not departed from from Chesterton said that tradition is the democracy of the dead. And so the historical Christianity, the traditional Christianity that was passed down to us by the Apostles, the faith as delivered to the Saints. Yes. So this is what we call actual Christianity, right? As opposed to like Wokey pseudo Christianity, Christianity that I make up that, you know, Christianity that sounds good to me, right? You know, people, our churches are full of spiritualists, people who project onto God and tell God what he should be like. And I'm not interested in creating God after my own image. I want to know the God of the Bible. And so that's what we teach at the LSU is we teach like what it's got to kind of pass through the historical marker. And then obviously the next genocidal marker, Chris is like a die in the wool Pentecostal Scholar.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Necessity of God's Word (Part 2)
"Do you understand the magnitude and significance of the effort that we are part of when we engage in taking the Gospel to unbelievers? Find out much more on today's edition of Encounter God's Truth. We go back to Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, West Virginia to hear the closing portion of a lesson on The Necessity of God's Word and our series on biblical apologetics. I'm Wayne Shepard and our Bible teacher is Dr. John Whitcomb. We've been learning together from this classic series on apologetics and today's program brings us to the finish. As fall approaches and so many head back to school, how appropriate it is that we focus on the energy that scripture has to impact our hearts and minds with God's eternal truth. As Dr. Whitcomb demonstrates, it's more formidable than the greatest human intellect and even more powerful than seeing a miracle. Let's go back to Appalachian Bible College now and hear the conclusion of this message, The Necessity of God's Word. We begin by reviewing 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Who is sufficient for these things? My friends, we're in an infinite operation here that determines the eternal destiny of human beings in heaven or hell. Who's sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. Now friends, we can just begin to realize the magnitude of God's plan here in form of a little chart. I hope this will be of some help to you as it has to me from time to time. Over here we have symbolized the unbeliever with a darkened heart that doesn't have cleansing and purifying and forgiveness and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the unbeliever. And notice that he is surrounded by an impenetrable barrier to any outside finite pressure. It's called his sinful nature. And over here we've tried to depict the believer whose heart has been cleansed by the Holy Spirit based on the merits of Jesus Christ. And the believer may fall into the serious temptation of trying to win the unbeliever on a horizontal basis, namely just provide Christian evidences to penetrate that heart through logic and philosophy and history and science. And by the way, all these arguments that we've talked about through archaeology and history and logic, I mean there are hundreds and hundreds of evidences that show that the Bible has got to be supernatural in origin. But the amazing thing we discover is that no matter how powerful the arguments are in the realm of creation and prophecy and so forth, they cannot penetrate that heart. They cannot get through to that heart. Well then what's the answer? What's the approach? God says you have... Now this is very illogical from a human standpoint. God says you have to approach the unbeliever through the third heaven. You have to go this way, through prayer, faith and obedience in relation to God on the basis of Hebrews 4 -12, the word of God, not my word or your word. The word of God is living, powerful, sharper than a two -edged sword, piercing even to the dividing center of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and neither is any creature that is not naked and open before the eyes of him with whom he have to... God knows that person infinitely. He knows what can reach that person, namely his precious word alone. That's one of the hardest lessons I've ever had to learn. Well all the things, Lord, that I've learned about how we know the Bible is true, why can't I use those arguments, those evidences? Well friends, let's stop and think for a moment. As the word of God penetrates into that unbeliever, something of infinite power has reached his heart. Now just think of the evidences Jesus If provided. you think our evidences can be effective, and they can be, and that's a whole subject of its own, think of the evidences Jesus himself gave. Stupendous sign miracles, hundreds of them. In fact, someone has suggested that every sick, crippled, leprous person in Israel, by the time Jesus' ministry was finished, was healed. Thousands of people, it says that over and over, year after year, thousands of people can heal them all, heal them all. And I say, well Lord, I should think that the whole nation then would have turned to him. Why, on one occasion, friends with a boy's lunch, he fed 5 ,000 men plus their families with food left over. And they said, they all agreed, this is John 6, let's make him king. I mean, anyone who can feed everybody for nothing supernaturally is our candidate for king. Then he began telling them about himself and who he was and that they had to believe in him on the basis of his substitutionary atoning death. And guess what happened at the end of chapter 6? They all left him. You say, that's absurd. Haven't they seen sign miracles? Yes. Miracles like the like of which had never been seen before in the history of the world? Yes. And Jesus turned to the twelve and said, are you going to believe me too? And one of them finally spoke up, of course, Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Right. That's the difference. But even one of them was a doubter, Thomas, and another one was demon possessed, namely Judas. That helps me to understand what the miracles were for. Why Jesus, friends, said, an evil, adulterous nation demands signs and no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah, namely, as he was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In other words, his bodily resurrection is his final proof to the whole human race of who he is. The sign miracles, may I say it this way, were almost totally ineffective and worthless to convert anybody ever in Israel. That wasn't their function. It was simply to do what? To attract attention to himself as the God appointed Messiah and King of Israel so that they could then hear his message and then their response to the message would determine their eternal destiny. This is an awesome thing to think about. Now, I almost hate to read this chapter. With fear and trembling, I ask you to turn to Luke 16. This is absolutely awesome. The rich man in Hades. Luke 16, beginning with verse 19. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. Would you kindly agree with me he was in desperate condition. He had nothing of this world's goods. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. That means the place of blessing, the place of the faithful in what at that time was called paradise, the upper Sheol Hades where believers went when they died. And the rich man also died and was buried and in hell or Hades, the lower Sheol Hades, he lifted up his eyes being in torment and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom in close fellowship with him. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. That is the situation now of every unbeliever who's ever died. I just, I'm staggered by this. And Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented and besides all this between us and you there's a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, Lazarus can't get to you, sorry, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence and other you can't come here either. And then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that rich man in Hades and torment said to Abraham, Father, that thou would ascend into my brother's house. I have a plan. I want you to reach my living brothers by sign miracles. Now this would impress some people today because we are harassed in every direction by people who are committed to sign miracle ministries to change the hearts of people by spectacular things that they can see. Now watch the response of God through Abraham. I have five brethren that he may testify to them lest they also come into this place of torment. In other words, would you please send Lazarus, the beggar, back to the realm of the living because my five brothers often came to my mansion and saw this beggar by the door and they'd recognize him when they see him. Please send him back to the realm of the living. And I mean, think of this as an evangelistic program. He could go from house to house, knock on the doors of my brothers and say, I am back from the dead. I saw your dead brother in Hades in torment. Do you think that would get their attention? How do you like that for a sign miracle Look ministry? at God's response through Abraham. Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. They have the Bible. They have the Old Testament scripture. They have the infallible and errant self -authenticating word of God. In other words, that's what they need is Now, this is why he was where he was. Listen to how he despises God's word. Do you catch this? He said, nay, Father Abraham. In other words, who cares about the Bible? Old wives fabled stories for children maybe, but not for my brothers. You don't understand, sir, they're intellectuals. They're scientists. They don't accept stories supposedly from God. They want to see something that's empirical, tangible, self -evident and thus convincing. Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. That's what they need, a sign miracle. Hmm. And here's how it ends, folks. And he said unto him, Abraham said to the rich man, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Really? Well, that's what happened when Jesus arose from the dead. The whole story of the book of Acts is that in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ fulfilled his promise, he said, you destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it again. And he did and rose from the dead. And the apostles preached the resurrection of Jesus and the scribes and the Pharisees hated the message and threatened and tormented God's servants for mentioning resurrection, even of Jesus. Oh yes, friends, even if one rises from the dead, they will not repent. You know what Jesus did for his friend Lazarus one day in Bethany? He raised him from the dead. Lazarus, come forth. I'm very impressed by what happened, aren't you? Immediately, the corpse stood at the entrance of the tomb and he said, loose him and let him go. He's fine. He's alive. Probably felt better than he had in his previous life. He didn't have to be dragged out half dead for recuperation. Don't you think all the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees would have just swamped the whole, I mean, that settles it. We believe. Read what happened next. The enemies of Jesus got together and made a decision. Just for that, we're going to kill Lazarus and Jesus. Hmm, that doesn't sound intelligent. Well, that's the problem because the mind of man, which is an aspect of the soul, heart, spirit of man in his sinfulness, his darkness cannot function intelligently. Only the spirit of God can bring us reason to see God's realities as they really are. And I say, well, Lord, I just didn't know it was this bad. I just desperately need your help then to accomplish what is otherwise impossible. Help me to preach the word faithfully, clearly, completely, without compromise, graciously, patiently, in season, out of season, love people, whether they receive me, accept me, appreciate me or not, because the word of God has infinite power. I don't. He has it. He alone has it. Now, friends, there is a way in which Christian evidences can be used. I just want to be very careful here not to disparage the things that God has given us in the way of evidences. Let's take a look. The low value of Christian evidences, among other methods, shall by this all men, unsaved men who lack spiritual discernment to understand scripture, by this, Jesus said, shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another, John 13, 35. So the ultimate models for mutual Christian love in a godless world must be the Christian home and the local church. Now, think carefully of that statement, Jesus, that's the greatest of Christian evidences. When you go forth to a mission field, whether it's New Zealand or wherever, something you can do under God is undeniable and irresistible. And here it is. Demonstrate to the people to whom God sends you that you know what Christian love is in your relationship, husband and wife and parents and children and children to parents and hopefully other Christians and a little tiny microcosm of the Holy Spirit called a local church that God will plant there and the godless surrounding population sooner or later will have to see something they have never seen before and can't explain and can't duplicate. Christian love. Why, there are all kinds of evidences, friends, that are helpful, like maybe, you know, medical missions, helping people physically, that'll get their attention. Maybe hospitality, maybe English language courses in China or wherever, people almost do anything to learn English and you get them there and you demonstrate, you know, the things that they're interested in and show friendship. But you see, Jesus said, the greatest evidence we have that will really get people's attention is Christian love, one for another in the home and in a local church that God will plant here and there around the world. You see, friends, Jesus never said miracles will do the trick. He said to the apostles, you remember in John 14, the miracles that I've done you'll do also. And they did, they raised the dead, I mean Peter and Paul, I mean amazing sign miracles they did in the early church, book of Acts. But do you know what else he said, friends? Greater works than these shall you do because I go to my Father. And what are the greater works? Preaching the gospel, which when believed brings eternal life instantly. But the sign miracles Jesus performed never saved anybody. Did you know that? They were spectacular, they were undeniable. But every person Jesus healed got sick again anyway and died, every one of them. He didn't permanently solve anybody's problem physically. He fed 5 ,000 the next day they were all hungry again. Didn't solve their hunger problem. But Jesus said, because I'm going to my Father in heaven and send the Holy Spirit and create the church and grant unto you the scriptures, you will have the capacity under God to mastermind this book and make it known to people and you'll see greater works. I mean Peter the apostle, folks, preached one sermon and 3 ,000 men were saved in one day and saved forever. Vastly greater miracle than healing the sick and walking on water, which Peter also did. Don't try that, by the way, unless Jesus does to you what he did to him, namely says come. Don't try that. I have been fascinated, obsessed I guess is the word, with the mentality today that you have to have intellectual brilliance and you have to have spectacular miracles to attract anybody and to have any credibility as a member, as a representative of God. I've done a little booklet in fact that's out there and maybe have helped you. Does God want Christians to perform miracles today? No. In fact, you know what would happen? It'd be a regression. It'd be a step, giant step backwards because we'd be going back to the lower foundation of the church in the apostolic era before the superstructure was built on a completed scripture. In those days it was a unique way for God to give the apostles opportunity to attract attention, but now friends we have something they didn't have, the completed Bible. God says you master this book and sooner or later one way or another you follow my guidelines and instruction and you mastermind the basics of evangelism and church planning and missions and witness and you will have infinite power from above through this book that pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. And I say Lord, I desperately need your help. This book friend is so powerful that even when you preach it without love it'll change people forever. Did you know that? Paul tells us in Philippians 1 there are other people here in Rome that are offended by my being here and they don't like me and they don't appreciate me but they are preaching the truth and I will rejoice in it and I will continue to rejoice because even without love which is often the way we preach like on a radio station you never even see the people or hand out a tract and you see the people disappear you never see them again. Even under those situations the word of God has infinite power. Let me tell you a man who preached the word without love, Jonah. He hated every minute of his ministry. He said God why didn't you destroy these people? That wasn't a loving approach to missions. But you know what he did? He preached the word and the whole city repented and Jesus said it wasn't fakie either. He said Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and will rise up in the last generation and condemn this generation. I mean he must have preached more than just judgment. He must have said something about God. It's my opinion. The whole city repented even though he hated every one of them in Nineveh. But that's why God says preach the truth as we were reminded this morning. Preach the truth in love and you'll have even more effect. Yes, but whatever you do folks, hold on, preach the truth. That's the point. That's the power, the truth and hopefully it's done in love and graciously and prayerfully and patiently but whatever you do and whatever your motive and whatever the circumstances, preach the word. And I say thank you Lord, that settles it. I think I'll be a Bible believing Christian and a Bible believing teacher and I want to honor Jesus Christ and the blessed Holy Spirit who presented this book to us because that's an irresistible force. Even in a world dominated by what? Satan, millions of demons, billions of depraved people and even mice in nature. God says watch me. I have a special weapon, an instrument I'm putting into your hand and your mind and heart. Watch what I can do almost in spite of you for my glory through my word. Father in heaven, I just stand amazed at how you operate. Everything sooner or later will be for your glory or it will disappear. Help me to examine there for my own ministry. The church could be raptured to heaven and I and all of us will be confronted by the Lord Jesus with eyes like a flame of fire searching us, examining us to see whether we really have done the work of God in a godly way, in obedience, in faithfulness for his glory. Help me to be ready at any moment to give an account to you dear Father because that's why you sent me not to gain glory for myself or any of us as teachers and proclaimers of the truth but to glorify the Savior apart from whom we're lost forever and the blessed Holy Spirit who gave us this precious book. May ABC father stand brightly in a darkening world as a true reflector of the light of Jesus Christ until he comes I pray in his glorious name for his sake. Amen. If God's word has made an impact on you today we'd love to hear about it. Just leave us a comment at facebook .com slash Whitcomb Ministries where there's always something to encourage you. You can also find lots more on the subject of apologetics at sermonaudio .com slash Whitcomb. Find that page from our website WhitcombMinistries .org. You're listening to Encounter God's Truth from Whitcomb Ministries and we're grateful for the opportunity to emphasize week after week that God's word is true from the beginning to the end offering timeless truths for changing times. I'd like to close with a reading from Psalm 103. Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your iniquity who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from the pit who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. For everyone here at Encounter God's Truth I'm Wayne Shepherd praying for the Lord to fill this week ahead with much meaning and many blessings. Thanks for listening.
Game of Crimes
A highlight from 114: Part 1: Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith is still Defending and Protecting
"Ola, ola, ola, amigos, amigos, players, playwrights, dududettes, everybody in between. Welcome to episode 114 of Game of Crimes, the 114th attempt to silence us once again. And as I say, we shall not go quietly into the night, will we, Murph? That's right. We're not going anywhere. Not going anywhere, all right. It reminds me of that case with the guys from NYPD. Yeah, go fuck yourself. Hey, guys, welcome back. Hey, we got some good stuff for you, but as always, before we get to it, we gotta do just some quick housekeeping. Hey, head on over to Apple Spotify, hit those five stars. Really means a lot. Guys, if you're on Stitcher, move off Stitcher. That's like officially closed now. So I think you'll hear they've moved a lot of that stuff over to Spotify, but make sure you find us on your favorite podcasting platform and hit that subscribe button on it so you get these episodes delivered to you without thinking about it, without fail, every Monday and Tuesday. Also head on over to our website, gameofcrimespodcast .com. Hey, we've got some interesting stuff coming up. We've got guests, you know, we've got books, quite a few books that we're working on. We've got some guests coming up, like a medical examiner. We've got some books from there. We've got CIA guy. We've got a guy who writes for Tom Clancy now, former US Marshal. Got his books. So we got a lot of good stuff coming up. So head on over there. Also follow us on that thing they call social media at Game of Crimes on Twitter, Game of Crimes on podcast, Game of Crimes podcast on Facebook and the Instagram, but head on over to patreon .com slash Game of Crimes. We just got through recording a 911 episode that will, that's interesting, but it will break your heart, make you mad and piss you off. Oh yeah. I'm still, if I get a little bitchy on this intro, you'll know why, cause we just finished it. But we don't wanna give away the ending because you gotta put your ears on, you gotta be an audio Sherlock Holmes and figure out what went on. So, but we got a lot of good stuff. We got our Q and A coming out. You can't make this shit up. We did our Narcometer review, which Murph will never be allowed to recommend another movie for Narcometer review without prior review. It's a truth, I agree. Yeah, but we did just finish season three of Narcos where our buddy, Chris Feisal, Dave Mitchell, they were the DEA agents that helped bring down the Cali Cartel. So we go through and we analyze season three of Narcos, the gentlemen of the Cali Cartel. So we got a lot of good stuff. So patreon .com slash Game of Crimes. Also head on over and find Facebook, type in Game of Crimes fans, and guess what? You will find the internal, the secret fan group run by our favorite mafia queen, the iron fist with the velvet glove, Sandy Salvato, who shall allow you entrance into the inner sanctum. Answer a couple of questions, get close, come on people, give it a shot, give it the old college try. You too may be on the inside where all the hilarity, jocularity happens in a bubble of insularity. Okay, the arities. And that is, I tell you what, there's some funny stuff that goes on there. You really need to take a look at it. It'll brighten your day. Right, and you know what else brightens your day, Murph? What's that? It's our next little section. And we call that? Well, guess what time it is though. First of all, guess what time it is? Guess what time it is? What time is it, Murph? I bet it's time for Police Small Town Blutter. And I forgot to tell you, hey, this is Show About Crime. We talk about bad people doing bad things and bad people doing bad things to good people. We take the story seriously, not ourself. How do we know that? Because we do Small Town Police Blutter. Sorry, we got it backwards. It's like one of those endings at the end of a pharmaceutical commercial, you know, the previous hit of the mother. Anyway, all right, let's get into this. We're keeping you on your toes, that's all. I might've had some caffeine today. Anyway, hey, Murph, this story comes to us from Lancaster County, Nebraska. All right. You always want good citizens, right? A good citizen out there called in, told dispatchers, hey, somebody is driving a truck on the wrong side of the road. Highway 77 in Lancaster County nearly ran him off the road. So driver, I mean, the caller gives excellent description, says, hey, here's where it happened. Here's where the collision nearly happened. And so obviously they vector deputies in, right? So even though the guy's rattled, he's able to give them, you know, the calls. So the deputy gets out there and the deputy finds the driver and pulls it over. And he's the caller. He's the caller. Deputy goes, do you know why I stopped you? Yeah, because I was on the wrong side of the road. The man responded jockeying the air up to a missed exit. Oh, okay, well, you know, the problem is he had a blood alcohol content, twice the legal limit. Oh, don't you just hate when that happens? Yeah, so he confessed to calling 911 on himself and the deputy realized who he had in custody. Yeah, I did that because I thought somebody was on the wrong side of the fucking road, bro. The deputy goes, yeah, but it turned out to be you. But it turned out it was you. He goes, yep, like a dumb fuck. He says this on body cam day. Hey, you know what, ladies and gentlemen, we have a sectional Patreon called you can't make this shit up. This is the first one from that. Hey, there's a truck almost ran me off the road. Yeah, unfortunately for you, Skippy, they were going the right way. You were going the wrong way. That's wonderful. Hey, Mark, I know at your age, you're not on a dating app, right, but you've heard of those dating apps, right? Match .com, you know, Tinder. Yeah, you know, and what do they always say? You know, like, if you like somebody, you swipe right. I think it is, if you don't like them, you swipe left. Have my money. Something like that, right, so. Obviously you have. Well, no, no, I have, because I read the story. So, what do you think would be an innovative way to find a fugitive? Are you using a dating app? This guy out of England, he's a million dollar fraudster. He apparently swiped flight, you know, instead of right, he swiped flight. This wanted man, Wayne Parker, successfully evaded authorities for nearly a year after committing a million dollars in fraud, but then the farmer from Suffolk, England, signed up for a dating app, right? They were shocked to see, cops, coppers were shocked to see the convicted criminal crop up after Parker created a profile on Match .com. So, what happened was the 35 year old scammer was found guilty a year ago of owing a whopping $970 ,000 to a supplier. He failed to appear in court in February for sentencing and was being hunted by police to no avail until the on the lam lothario, this is them writing that, not me, decided to start looking for love in all the wrong places. So, I mean, if he'd waited, what, seven years, the statute of limitations run out, he could have done it, but no. Since going on the run, Mr. Paca is known to have been using Match's dating website. He's also been hiring cars in a bid and is believed to avoid detection by the police. So, he failed to appear in court. So, he said he would return to Suffolk to face the consequences of his action, but so far has failed to head to, has failed to do so. So, it's only a matter of time before the law catches up. We would strongly urge him to hand himself in. Well, guess what? They didn't have to wait too long. Now, this frisky farmer, he'd previously been prosecuted for posing a serious risk of spreading bovine tuberculosis. He failed to dispose of farmed animal remains appropriately, was found to be moving large quantities of cattle without following the proper process, as well as not keeping adequate records of the cattle. So, he was handed a 12 -week jail sentence and an 18 -month suspension from doing business. That was then, but now he's going to go to prison for a million dollars in fraud, all because he had the urge he got on the dating site. Oh, because he's stupid. He's stupid. Speaking of stupid, Murph, this next one comes to us from Vero Beach, Florida, population 16 ,534. Salute. And that's a beautiful place. Yeah, so Rashad McGriff, he, I'll give it away, he went to jail. He has a lengthy rap sheet, currently on probation, following conviction in March for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. What kind of taunt could an ex -girlfriend send over a text that would cause this felon, this person now charged with battery and burglary, what kind of taunt could send him over the edge? I'm going to guess it was a reference, a negative reference towards his private parts. She taunted him via text about having a little penis. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Investigators say that the 42 -year -old woman was in her bed when McGriff got into the house, which he has no commitments to. He then punched the woman in the face and choked her, which then obstructed her ability to breathe temporarily. She was bleeding from the bridge, did you ever know? She told police that she texted McGriff a photo of somebody else's penis and advised Rashad he had a little one. Oh my God. Oh, oh, I don't even know what to say. Sorry. Well, the judge ordered McGriff to have no contact with the victim because he threatened her as well. So he's been previously, the woman's previously sued McGriff three times for failure to pay child support. So they do have a hearing. So hey, look, domestic violence is not funny, but you know, sending a picture of somebody's junk and then following it up with a really small piece of junk and saying, you got a little one or something like that. Oh no, actually she sent him a picture. She sent a picture of apparently what she liked and said that you've got a much smaller one. Did she call him shorty or stubby? Yeah, we shouldn't make fun of that, I'm sorry. Yeah, well, we'll just see if the evidence stands up in court. Anyway, thank you very much. Hey, well, let's, we're gonna, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna talk about our next guest. We'll do the intro here because then when we get into the interview, we're not gonna do re -intro the intro. But this one, this one's the one I helped arrange because I've known this person for probably 18 years now. No, her and her husband. And for those of you in law enforcement, when I say the name JD Buck Savage, if you've been around, except Murph. Murph had no idea until they started watching the videos. Legendary police trainer, used to train Caliber Press, Street Survival, has a, him and his wife now, we'll talk about, have a company, The Winning Mind, they do a lot of this. Now, Betsy Brantner Smith, Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith retired after 29 years on the Naperville Police Department, which I used to be up in Naperville for some other stuff in a prior life, actually had a TV series about her, a lot of good stuff. But now she is the spokesperson for the National Police Association, nationalpolice .org. And Murph, I would say we had a good, some of you folks, I'm gonna tell you right now, this is gonna be a controversial topic for some of you. You're not gonna like it because, but we get into some, we, you know, hey, we talk about the facts around what's happening with police right now, what's going on, the narratives, and Betsy pulls no punches. Look, with all of our guests, they have the absolute right to the First Amendment. She gets to say what she wants to say because it's her opinion, it's her voice. But the other thing too is, I'm not gonna give it away, you're gonna find out on the episode, but Betsy has a right to say what she wants to say when you understand what she's been through and what she survived. And she's an effective, I remember times she used to get ahold of me and say, hey, I see you on Fox and CNN and all this stuff all the time. And she'd be jealous. I'm like, I sent her a text, hey, I see you on all these shows all the time, I'm jealous now. I tell you what, once you hear her talk, she's a feisty little lady, you can see why she was selected as a national spokesperson for the National Police Association. And as you'll hear me say at the end of the interview, she was honestly a breath of fresh air, standing up in discussion, hot issues that involve the police culture, but she's just not giving an opinion. She's backing it up with facts and statistics, which is, anybody can have an opinion, just like buttholes, we've all got them, but when you back them up with facts, there's a good position. So this was honestly a great interview with Betsy. It was a pleasure to meet you. I will continue to watch JD Buck Savage videos here. They're funny. If you haven't seen them, just go on YouTube and put in JD Buck Savage and you'll see them. Saw drunk? If you want to know where saw drunk arrested same originated as JD Buck Savage. You just know hanging out with these two, you're gonna come out with tears streaming down your cheeks cause they're gonna keep you laughing. Oh man, Dave and I had a good time. Well, Murph, we can't get to it until I ask you the question that is on everybody's mind, mind, mad, mind, on our mad mind. Our mad mind, are you ready to play the biggest, baddest, most dangerous game of all? The unadulterated, unfettered, unrestricted game of crimes. Here we are. Yes, we are ready. So get in, sit down, shut up and hold on. We got Ms. Betsy coming on. You're gonna love this lady.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Necessity of God's Word (Part 1)
"Welcome Encounter to God's Truth, a weekly half hour of Bible teaching from Whitcomb Ministries and Dr. John Whitcomb. I'm Wayne Shepard and we'll be going back to Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, West Virginia today to hear more from our series on biblical apologetics. We're going to begin the final lesson in our study. It's called The Necessity of God's Word. In this program we'll see that we have a power source that's readily available, which allows us, as mere finite human beings, to have victory and influence in the spiritual realm, even though we're opposed by all the enemies of God and His gospel, both human and demonic, as well as our own sin natures. What is the power source that can give us this victory? It's nothing hidden or mysterious, but something that's readily available to each one of us. It's God's Word, which is infinitely sufficient to meet our need, and as we teach every week here and encounter God's truth, it's true from the beginning to the end. If you've missed any of the earlier messages in this series, remember, you can always review them again in our library at sermonaudio .com slash Whitcomb. But right now, we join the students and faculty assembled at Appalachian Bible College with this important message on The Necessity of God's Word. Dr. Anderson and friends, it has been a joyful privilege to be back again at ABC and to share from God's precious, infallible, and errant Word, His perspectives on our personal life, testimony, and witness in ministry. I trust you've already begun to grasp just a little bit in our previous three messages that God's infallible Word is absolutely essential for effective witness to Him, no matter what the opposition may be. In fact, God tells us very clearly that the opposition to His Word, as far as we're concerned, from our perspective, is infinite. To Him, Satan, demons, depraved people are infinitesimal in contrast to His sovereignty and His glory in heaven. But as far as you and I are concerned, it is a hopeless obstacle to effective witness for Christ the Lord. If we depend upon ourselves. Now, we have already seen something of the amazing opposition, haven't we? The problems that make our ministry and our testimony hopeless in terms of converting anybody, of seeing anybody saved, namely, the fact of human depravity in 1 Corinthians and Romans and Psalms, all through the Scriptures, in fact, from Genesis to Revelation. And we understand what human depravity means, not that everyone is as bad as they can be, or that some people don't do some good things. Jesus talked about those and Paul, too, who are relatively good people. For a good man, some would even dare to die, we read. But as far as attaining God's standards, minimal standards of acceptance into His presence, we're sinful. hopelessly Now, friends, on top of all that and because of that, we have God's revelation concerning the function of Satan to help sinful people do their sinning more effectively. Isn't that an amazing comprehension that God has given us of His function? Yes, if people want to be helped by Satan to be more effective to oppose God, He's available. But the situation isn't hopeless for believers. If we humble ourselves beneath the mighty hand of God, we can then rebuke the devil and he will what? Flee from us, just as Michael the Archangel discovered, remember, in contending over the body of Moses. Satan is awesome in his power as far as you and I are concerned. In his vast army of hundreds of millions of demons, how can a mere finite human being possibly cope with such opposition? And, of course, in addition to our sin nature and the sin nature of the unbeliever and Satan and his armies of demons, we realize, friends, that only God's precious Word can help us see victory. The Word of God, Hebrews 4 -12, the Word of God is quick, that's alive, living and powerful, sharper than a two -edged sword, piercing even the dividing center of soul and spirit, is a discern of the thoughts and intents of the heart, neither is there any creature that is not naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. However awesome the opposition may be according to God's plan. God's Word is infinitely sufficient to accomplish what you and I and all our brilliance or experience or maturity or self -esteem could never, ever achieve in turning people from sin to righteousness, from Satan to God. Well, think of 2 Timothy 4 -2, in the light of this, preach the Word, Paul says. How often? In season and out of season. In other words, whether people appreciate it or whether they don't appreciate it is totally irrelevant. Continue preaching the Word. And sometimes it may take years to see an effect. I remember vividly the awesome choice I had when I first came to know Christ as my Savior at Princeton University in that dormitory room in February of 1943. I was an only child, my mother and dad were not believers. How could I help them? It took 30 long years, dear friends, of prayer and hopefully a careful, patient witness of the grace of God and the sufficiency of Jesus to see my Father finally, when he came to live with us after my mother died, to respond to the Gospel. Years and years and years, but God is in no hurry. You don't rush things and compromise the message in order to have immediate results. No, no. God, as for God, his ways are perfect and he wants his Word honored. Now, let's consider 2 Timothy 2, 23. I'm always fascinated by this statement. How does a true servant of the Lord function in the light of this situation we have just outlined? The servant of the Lord must not strive. Don't pressure people. Don't manipulate people. We often wonder, don't we, sometimes in great evangelistic campaigns we hear about and have seen and perhaps even attended occasionally. It's almost as if it's impossible not to go forward when the invitation is given. In fact, some evangelists sadly pressure people, manipulate people and embarrass people who don't stand up and come forward to make a public decision. And of course, we are not criticizing making public decisions. We're so thrilled at what we saw God do last night here. And I say, thank you, Lord, for that. But the tendency, the temptation is to pressure people into making a decision which later they regret and it's even harder than ever then to win these people to the Lord if they have a sense that they have been pressured or manipulated. Watch these words. The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men after capable of teaching, patient. Don't be pushy. Don't pressure people because it's not finite pressure, it's infinite pressure from the Holy Spirit that's going to bring the transformation. And by the way, when God does it, it lasts forever. When I do it, it never lasts. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, who is their worst enemy themselves? Not you. If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, God has to change the heart. God has to change the mind. The heart and mind is God's special realm of operation, see, to the acknowledging of the truth, the truth about God, Christ, sin, salvation, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil. Here's his function, you see, his snare, his trap, who are taken captive by him at his will. Now, the whole scenario is presented in this brief passage that I've just read. And I say, Lord, that's an amazing outline for Christian ministry and the dynamics of how people are going to be convicted of sin and born again. God will do the work as we patiently, humbly, graciously, but clearly present his plan of salvation to lost people around us. Now, let's consider then 2 Corinthians 2 .16. A born again Christian has an enormous influence if he walks with God in a godless world. How do you like this statement? Let's begin with verse 14. Now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. Some of the things we've had to look at in the Bible have maybe created a sense of depression and defeat. Lord, if people are that bad and I'm that bad, and Satan is that powerful and demons are that plentiful, then how can we ever do anything for you? Well, thanks be unto God, said Paul, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. We're on the victory side, dear friends, there's a battle going on. And maketh manifest the savor or the fragrance of his knowledge by us in every place. As we were reminded by our Dr. Herbster, may your face attract attention and create a question, why are you so joyful? Why are you, you're different. Do you attract attention that way to the fact that God has changed your life and your heart and your mind and your direction and goal? Listen, listen. And maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. As you give out a gospel tract, do it with a smile. Maybe gain attention by saying something gracious or something encouraging that may open up an opportunity to build step by step into someone's heart by the Holy Spirit. For we are unto God a sweet savor or a fragrance of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor or fragrance of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life. And I like this question, don't you, even from the Apostle Paul. Who is sufficient for these things? My friends, we're in an infinite operation here that determines the eternal destiny of human beings in heaven or hell. Who's sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ. Now friends, we can just begin to realize the magnitude of God's plan here in form of a little chart. I hope this will be of some help to you as it has to me from time to time. Over here we have symbolized the unbeliever with a darkened heart that doesn't have cleansing and purifying and forgiveness and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the unbeliever. And notice that he is surrounded by an impenetrable barrier to any outside finite pressure. It's called his sinful nature. And over here we've tried to depict the believer whose heart has been cleansed by the Holy Spirit based on the merits of Jesus Christ. And the believer may fall into the serious temptation of trying to win the unbeliever on a horizontal basis. Namely, just provide Christian evidences to penetrate that heart through logic and philosophy and history and science. And by the way, all these arguments that we've talked about through archaeology and history and logic, I mean there are hundreds and hundreds of evidences that show that the Bible has got to be supernatural in origin. But the amazing thing we discover is that no matter how powerful the arguments are in the realm of creation and prophecy and so forth, they cannot penetrate that heart. They cannot get through to that heart. Well then, what's the answer? What's the approach? God says you have... Now this is very illogical from a human standpoint. God says you have to approach the unbeliever through the third heaven. You have to go this way. Through prayer, faith and obedience in relation to God on the basis of Hebrews 4 -12. The word of God, not my word or your word. The word of God is living, powerful, sharper than a two -edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and neither is any creature that is not naked and open before the eyes of him with whom he have to... God knows that person infinitely. He knows what can reach that person, namely his precious word alone. That's one of the hardest lessons I've ever had to learn. Well all the things, Lord, that I've learned about how we know the Bible is true, why can't I use those arguments, those evidences? Well friends, let's stop and think for a moment. As the word of God penetrates into that unbeliever, something of infinite power has reached his heart. Now just think of the evidences Jesus provided. If you think our evidences can be effective, and they can be, and that's a whole subject of its own, think of the evidences Jesus himself gave. Stupendous sign miracles, hundreds of them. In fact, someone has suggested that every sick, crippled, leprous person in Israel by the time Jesus' ministry was finished was healed. Thousands of people, it says that over and over, year after year, thousands of people can heal them all, heal them all, heal them all. And I say, well Lord, I should think that the whole nation then would have turned to him. Why, on one occasion, friends with a boy's lunch, he fed 5 ,000 men plus their families with food left over. And they said, they all agreed, this is John 6, let's make him king. I mean, anyone who can feed everybody for nothing supernaturally is our candidate for king. Then he began telling them about himself and who he was and that they had to believe in him on the basis of his substitutionary atoning death. And guess what happened at the end of chapter 6? They all left him. You say, that's ridiculous, that's absurd. Hadn't they seen sign miracles? Yes. Miracles like the like of which had never been seen before in the history of the world? Yes. And Jesus turned to the twelve and said, are you going to leave me too? And one of them finally spoke up, of course, Peter. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Right. That's the difference. But even one of them was a doubter, Thomas, and another one was demon possessed, namely Judas. That left ten out of thousands by the end of that day. And I say, Lord, that helps me to understand what the miracles were for. Why, Jesus, friends, said, an evil adulterous nation demands signs and no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah, namely, as he was three days and nights in the belly of the great fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In other words, his bodily resurrection is his final proof to the whole human race of who he is. The sign miracles, may I say it this way, were almost totally ineffective and worthless to convert anybody ever in Israel. That wasn't their function. It was simply to do what? To attract attention to himself as the God appointed Messiah and King of Israel so that they could then hear his message and then their response to the message would determine their eternal destiny. This is an awesome thing to think about. Now, I almost hate to read this chapter. With fear and trembling, I ask you to turn to Luke 16. This is absolutely awesome. The rich man in Hades. Luke 16, beginning with verse 19. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. Would you kindly agree with me? He was in desperate condition. He had nothing of this world's goods. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. That means the place of blessing, the place of the faithful in what at that time was called paradise. The upper Sheol Hades where believers went when they died. And the rich man also died and was buried and in hell or Hades, the lower Sheol Hades, he lifted up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom in close fellowship with him. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. That is the situation now of every unbeliever who's ever died. I just, I'm staggered by this. And Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented and besides all this between us and you there's a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, Lazarus can't get to you, sorry, neither can they pass to us that they that would come from thence, and other you can't come here either. And then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that rich man in Hades and torments said to Abraham, Father, that thou would ascend into my brother's house. I have a plan. I want you to reach my living brothers by sign miracles. Now this would impress some people today because we are harassed in every direction by people who are committed to sign miracle ministries. To the change hearts of people by spectacular things that they can see. Now watch the response of God through Abraham. I have five brethren that he may testify to them lest they also come into this place of torment. In other words, would you please send Lazarus, the beggar, back to the realm of the living because my five brothers often came to my mansion and saw this beggar by the door and they would recognize him when they see him. Please send him back to the realm of the living. And I mean, think of this as an evangelistic program. He could go from house to house, knock on the doors of my brothers and say, I am back from the dead. I saw your dead brother in Hades in torment. Do you think that would get their attention? How do you like that for a sign miracle ministry? Look at God's response through Abraham. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. They have the Bible. They have the Old Testament scripture. They have the infallible, inerrant, self -authenticating word of God. In other words, that's what they need is the Bible. The truth inscripturated by the Holy Spirit. But he said, now this is why he was where he was. Listen to how he despises God's word. Do you catch this? He said, Nay, Father Abraham. In other words, who cares about the Bible? Old wives' fables, stories for children maybe, but not for my brothers. You don't understand, sir, they're intellectuals. They're scientists. They don't accept stories supposedly from God. They want to see something that's empirical, tangible, self -evident and thus convincing. Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. That's what they need, a sign miracle. And here's how it ends, folks. And he said unto him, Abraham said to the rich man, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Really? Well, that's what happened when Jesus arose from the dead. The whole story of the book of Acts is that in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ fulfilled his promise, he said, You destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it again. And he did and rose from the dead. And the apostles preached the resurrection of Jesus and the scribes and the Pharisees hated the message and threatened and tormented God's servants for mentioning resurrection even of Jesus. Oh yes, friends, even if one rises from the dead, they will not repent. You know what Jesus did for his friend Lazarus one day in Bethany? He raised him from the dead. Lazarus, come forth. I'm very impressed by what happened, aren't you? Immediately the corpse stood at the entrance of the tomb and he said, Loose him and let him go. He's fine. He's alive. Probably felt better than he had in his previous life. He didn't have to be dragged out half dead for recuperation. Don't you think all the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees would have just swamped the whole? I mean, that settles it. We believe. Read what happened next. The enemies of Jesus got together and made a decision. Just for that, we're going to kill Lazarus and Jesus. That doesn't sound intelligent. Well, that's the problem because the mind of man, which is an aspect of the soul, heart, spirit of man in his sinfulness, his darkness, cannot function intelligently. Only the Spirit of God can bring us reason to see God's realities as they really are. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to one, a fragrance from death to death, to the other, a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak Christ. On the basis of these words from the Apostle Paul, Dr. John Whitcomb has been teaching us about biblical apologetics on this edition of Encounter God's Truth. Please keep in touch with us at Facebook .com slash Whitcomb Ministries, and you can find that link easily at WhitcombMinistries .org. I'm Wayne Shepard, praying for God to use His word in your life today. Thank you for joining us.
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Meet Nathan Finochio and Chris Palmer!
"Sitting here with Nathan Finocchio and Chris Palmer, and they're the best I could do on short notice. But seriously, guys, you're tough to sum up, and my favorite people are tough to sum up. How do you describe yourselves rather than have me try to do it? Nathan, why don't we start with you? Yeah, so I like to describe myself as a genius. One of the better looking people on the planet. Adored by the Holy Trinity. An loved Adonis by God. Yes. Outwardly disheveled, but that's just an act. Yeah. That's an act. Yeah, exactly. All right, so he's not going to be serious. Chris, how about if you tell me a little bit about Nathan before you tell me about yourself? Both of you, okay, you founded something called Theos U and Theos Seminary. Yeah. Okay, so what are your backgrounds that you decided to do that, and what is Theos U and Theos Seminary? Yeah, I'll start. So I was homeschooled. My dad's a pastor. I came to New York. I was here for eight years. I was a part of a church called Hillsong, New York City. And when I was at Hillsong, I found that there were a lot of our staff and just a lot of people in our church that didn't have any theological training. And they didn't know that adultery is wrong, for example, according to the biblical model. Yeah, exactly. Stuff like that. Stuff like that. So biblical training and theological training, you noticed this is an issue for us. Yeah, yeah. And it's not just an issue. Hillsong, I think, is a microcosm of the Greater Evangelical Church, where you have a lot of staff who are carrying services on weekends, and they don't even know who Wayne Grudem might be. So all that to say, I thought, hey, I could help. And so I took a number of courses. While I was at Hillsong, New York City, I was teaching what was called Evening College on Monday nights. And we'd have about 300 kids who had never darkened the doors of a church. And they'd come in and I would teach for seven weeks, two hours every Monday night, essentially distilled Bible college courses.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Necessity of God's Power (Part 2)
"How do you respond when unbelievers aren't enthusiastic about your witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ? How should we handle such opposition? Can a common Christian be expected to explain the gospel to someone who is more knowledgeable in worldly things? Dr. John Whitcomb has been teaching the Bible and apologetics for many decades, and he utilizes that experience to answer those questions today on Encounter God's Truth. I'm your host, Wayne Shepard, and we're in the middle of a sermon entitled The Necessity of God's Power as we continue a series on biblical apologetics. It was recorded live at Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, West Virginia, and Whitcomb Ministries thanks them for allowing us to bring you these messages. Today's lesson is vitally important in helping us learn how to share our faith with those who disagree and resist the message of God's grace. It goes into detail regarding the power source that influences unbelievers, namely Satan and his demons, and how they relate to history and prophecy. Please stay with us now and track with us in your own Bible if you can as Dr. Whitcomb deals with these significant issues. We open with a short review from last time looking at Isaiah chapter 64. And we all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and there is none that calleth upon thy name that stirs up himself to take hold of thee for thou has hid thy face from us and has consumed us because of our iniquities. Now this is Isaiah, probably the greatest Old Testament writing prophet, you see, whose sin nature was judicially purged away in that confrontation with God in chapter 6, one of the most amazing encounters with the living God ever recorded. And it's Isaiah who says, we, our iniquities, not somebody else's. You all know Jeremiah 17 9, the heart of man is what? Deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Like God said of the human race before the flood, and by the way, God makes it clear, he didn't wipe out the human race except for one family for no real legitimate reason. God looked down upon the human race and saw that the iniquity of man was great and that every thought of the intent of his heart was only evil continually. I'll give you my opinion on that. No human being, even with a fallen, sinful, depraved nature, can be that bad, that consistently without demonic help. I think the whole pre -flood world was not only depraved but demonized. That every thought of the intent of their heart was always evil. Always. Hmm. And so God, of course, I mean, my problem with the Genesis flood is not that God wiped out the human race, but that he waited hundreds of years for people to repent through the preaching of Noah because God is long suffering, not what? Willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And Noah preached and proclaimed and warned and appealed, pled with people, come into the ark, there's a flood coming. And people laughed and laughed. And Jesus said, in those days, men were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, all of which is fine, except that's all they live for. Just feeding and multiplying and animals can do that too. And God did not do what? He didn't create human beings in his image and likeness do nothing more than animals do. They had no thought for him, no response to his word, no interest whatever. And therefore, it said they understood not until Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. You say, isn't that a little bit extreme? Did you know that many Christians are offended by the Genesis flood account? Maybe one billion people. You mean only one family was saved. Isn't that an overkill? You know what's really amazing? I mean, I'm trying to be biblical. Would you pray for me? The amazing thing that anybody was saved. You say, well, Noah and his family were perfect. Oh, you know better. There were eight sin natures in the ark, which after the flood what proliferated and became what total blasphemers in the Tower of Babel project and later, of course, crucified Jesus and someday the Antichrist will be also a descendant of that family. And we say, Lord, help me to see things from your perspective. The fact that you even put up with the human race at all is an astounding thing in scripture in the light of what we are. And by the way, that's why God will never send another flood because Genesis 8 21 says that God said, never again will I destroy the earth as I have done because man is what? Is wicked from his youth up. You say, well, that sounds like a good reason to have a global flood every 100 years. No, a thousand floods, a million, would never modify our sin nature. And so God said that was once and enough to demonstrate who's in the next flood till the fire comes at the end of the world. The fire flood. Well, friends, here we are. This is our problem. And I say, Lord, we have a sin problem. Even the natural man, however nice, receives not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness him neither can you know them. They're spiritually discerned or praised. Romans 8 7, even while we were sinners or enemies, Christ died for us. Psalm 14, the fool says in his heart, what? There's no God. Romans 5 8 and so forth. I mean, these passages, friends, totally destroy any little thought we may have had that we can be persuasive in changing people's minds about God and his word. Okay. Oh, but we have another problem. Not only sin, but who? Satan. Oh my. Whenever you talk to an unsaved person, the Bible tells you this for you're talking to at least two persons, one of whom's invisible and maybe more. And that invisible one is Satan, who's the God of this world. And, you know, the Bible makes it so clear that Satan has, you know, enormous power. Turn to Ephesians six. Would you please listen to this? We learned in Ephesians chapter two that people walk according to the prince of the power of the air, who is the spirit that now worketh and the children of disobedience. Look at Ephesians six, verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. By the way, he has all kinds of names. Satan, devil, the prince, the God of this world, the prince of the power of the air. Listen to this. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, against mere human beings. Oh, you see, that's rationalistic apologetics. I have better arguments than you have about God and the Bible. I, when you lose, you're now converted. I have heard of, I have attended a couple creation evolution debates. And my friend Henry Morris and now the recently retired Duane Gish, I mean, these men are fantastic debaters. And they have won every debate. There have been hundreds of them in great major universities around the world, hundreds of them. I feel sorry for an evolutionist who is going to debate Henry Morris or Duane Gish or these other men in the creation science movement who have memorized hundreds and hundreds of arguments. They know better than the evolutionist does what his argument is going to be and how to answer them. They've never lost a man outwitted them. He did, he talked and talked and talked and never let them have a chance to answer. So he won. See, and most of them know they're going to be defeated and end up doing what? Using ad hominem arguments insulting the creationist, you see, because they can't answer his arguments, his evidences. They're overwhelming. They're undeniable. But let me ask a question. How many of the evolutionists who are defeated say, look, that's it. I unconditionally surrender now to Jesus. Where's the nearest church? No. In fact, it's almost like they're hardened even more in their hatred against the God of the Bible, the God of creation. That's very mysterious. Okay. I'm not saying that a creation argument can't be used of God, as we shall see, God willing tonight, to help people at least pay attention to some of the things you might have to say. And the best creation science debate scenario, in my opinion, is when you walk out the door of the auditorium after the debate's over with and somebody gives you a gospel of John or a Bible tract or an invitation to a Bible study and you say, well, let me hear more. And you might use some of that wisely, you see, as a serpent, harmlessly like a dove, to get people within the sound of the what? Of the gospel. But the debate won't convert people. You sort of knew that, didn't you? It's hard for me to realize it, but dear friends, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, against mere debaters, against mere evolutionists, against mere atheists, but against what? Principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand an evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the what? The fiery darts of the wicked or the evil one. 2 Corinthians 4 -3, if our gospel behead, if people can't see it, appreciate it, love the Savior you're telling about, is because what? The God of this world has blinded them. They may not see the Christ who's the light of the world. They can't see. I mean, Jesus talked, you know, in Matthew 13 about going forth sowing the seed. And you say, well, now wait a minute here. There's something unfair about this statement Jesus made because he said after the seed is sown, Satan comes and takes the seed away. My, it falls on hardened soil, irresponsible, irresponsive soil, and he takes it away. He blinds people. You say, well, that's not fair. That's a serious problem in the Bible. But men are responsible. It's like Pharaoh. Did God harden his heart? Did he harden his own heart? You see, there's a mysterious interaction. If you don't want the truth, you'll be further blinded. If you resist the word of God, Satan comes in and makes it even harder for you, and even harder, and even harder. And in rare cases in the lifetime of Jesus, and I think in the coming tribulation, people will be so hardened, they'll actually say of antichrist miracles, they are from God, and they will take his mark on forehand and right hand, and they're doomed before they die. They've committed the unpardonable sin. Some could do that when Jesus was here. When they saw his miracles, they said what? They're from Satan. They blaspheme the Holy Spirit, who confirmed the identity of their Messiah with sign miracles. This is awesome, friends. Now, I think the only unpardonable sin in the church age is you just keep rejecting the gospel. Until, and it's never too late, until when? Until you're dead. Then it's over. You're done forever. God says don't underestimate your enemy. Don't think you can manipulate him. You handle him. Outsmart him. No, no. Why, the greatest angel in the righteous angelic universe is Michael. He's the archangel. That means, number one, he's tops of righteous angels. And he was appointed by God on one occasion to protect the body of Moses in a distant remote region of the Dead Sea. Nobody ever saw him die. God buried him. And Satan came along to desecrate that body. Now, can you imagine the scenario here, friends? This is the night of the book of Jude, chapter 9, verse 9. Let me imagine the interchange, okay? Satan comes and says to Michael, step aside. I'm taking that body. I hated Moses for 40 years, and I'm going to destroy and desecrate the body. In the Old Testament times and in many parts of the world today, the way you're buried tells a lot about who you are. Did you know that? The body is precious to God. I mean, it's not essential. He can raise you from the dead without your body being visible. That's another issue. But Michael said, in effect, no, you can't. I mean, I was appointed by God just because he knew you would show up. You can't touch this body. And Satan says, well, you don't know who I am, do you? Did you know Satan is higher than Michael? Satan is the greatest creature in the universe. Read about him in Ezekiel 28. Oh, friends, Michael finally gave up arguing with a superior being. And he used presuppositional apologetics. Listen to this one. The Lord rebuke you, and that ended it. In other words, I can't handle you, but I know somebody who can. And I'm going to turn you over to my God. Goodbye. That's you. That is I. Lord, I can't handle this person. I need your divine help. I'm facing something vastly superior to any of my intellectual capacities to manipulate people. Help me to depend on you. You know what that is? That's an apologetic with power and passion. If you're going to have any effect on people, if you're going to be dynamic, irresistible, if you're going to win people to Jesus Christ forever and ever, you better be locked into a power system that is greater than yourself. Thank you, Lord. Now, friends, let's just take a little interlude here and look at the history of Satan, shall we? Satan's stages of downfall. You know, he had a great start. He was the anointing cherub that covered the presence of God. He was perfect in beauty. But then he had an evil thought, just one thought. I want to be like the Most High. And instantly, out he went. It didn't drag on with courts of appeal for months and years, trust me. And Jesus saw it happen. He said, I beheld Satan like lightning fall from heaven. It was instantaneous. Now, that's perfect justice. Human governments can't handle that. Watch how Jesus does it. Out he went, folks. That was his moral and spiritual fall, and perhaps 200 million demons fell with him. Jesus calls fallen angels demons. And then what happened? He experienced a second fall at the Genesis flood. Now, this is not well known, and this is based on some inferences. Okay. We read in 2 Peter and Jude that the angels that kept not their first estate, but went after strange flesh, those specially wicked ones, are now confined in chains and pits of darkness until the judgment of the great day. Who were they? Those are the ones at the time of the flood who, according to Genesis 6, you remember, took women and the sons of God, are who angels went after women, and God confined them at the Genesis flood forever to the place of judgment. I mean, they have no further access to human beings. And when Jesus the Lord showed up 2 ,000 years ago, do you know what the other demons said to him who had not been cast down into the Tartarus pit? They said, we know who you are, you son of the abbess, the pit. They still have access, I mean, millions of demons, but others are gone. They're gone. Now, friends, here was the final blow. Jesus said, now is the prince of this world cast out, and here's Genesis 3 15, and he will crush the serpent's head. And that was Calvary's cross. Maybe Satan was suspicious with suspicion that something bad would happen to himself, and he told Peter to tell Jesus what, don't go to Jerusalem and die. And Jesus said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. You say, well, if he was crushed at Calvary, then how come he's a roaring lion roaming around the world seeking whom he may devour? This is a deep mystery. I mean, did you know the Bible's full of difficult topics? He was judicially destroyed, but not actually. He is doomed legally, see, but God gave him an extension of activity during the church age to test the saints. See, that's very hard. I mean, just like Job chapter one, where Satan came to God and said, and God said, have you seen my servant Job? And Satan, I mean, this is so awful, I hate to quote it. And Satan said to God, oh, look, you've hedged him about, look at all the things you've done for him. You just take away those things and he'll curse you to your face. Ouch. You know what I would do if I were writing the book of Job? I'd say, God would say to him, look, I don't like you anymore. Kindly vanish forever. Now, why is Satan still here? Okay, the mystery of iniquity. Now, folks, Michael himself will have revenge on Satan someday in the middle of the seventh week of Daniel. He and his armies of righteous angels will be allowed by God to defeat Satan and his armies and cast them out of the third heaven where he has access. See, right now, Revelation 12 says Satan has access to the third heaven to do what? To accuse the brethren night and day. And he's right there now accusing you and me of all kinds of things for which we deserve an eternal hell. And the only answer Jesus can give him or needs to give him is what? Well, you're right, sir, he is really not a perfect person. And we only take perfect persons up here. But I died for him and I took his sin on myself and transferred my righteous to him goodbye. Now, you know, that's Zechariah chapter three, Joshua the high priest was filthy and Satan was there accusing him. And God said to him, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. Out of here. And clothed him, you see, in fresh clean garments representing what you and I wear in the sight of a holy God by virtue of his merits through his blood. Well, that's not the end for Satan. He's cast down knowing his time is short and he has three and a half more years on this planet to empower the antichrist, his human masterpiece, number two and who's the person in the Trinity of evil? And who's the second person? The antichrist, the beast. And the third person is who? The false prophet who performs miracles and transforms the statue of the antichrist into a living being that will kill people who won't bow before it. Talk about satanic miracles like the ones you know that Pharaoh's henchmen did in the court of Egypt to oppose Moses and Aaron. And what were their names? Janus and Jambres. Hmm. Wow. Satan will have enormous power for the final three and a half years. That's why it is called the great tribulation, the great and dreadful day of the Lord, those three and a half final years. And Satan will almost take over the world. Jesus said, unless those days are shortened, no flesh will survive. Say, thank you, Lord. I am a part of your bride and your body and you're not going to allow me to suffer the wrath of man or the wrath of Satan or the wrath of God in that awful period of time. Thank you for the pre -tribulation rapture. I heard three saying amen. Think of it, friends. We're going to be gone before this happens. Then comes what? The second coming of Christ, the Armageddon encounter and Satan and all his demons and the antichrist and the false prophet are cast down into the pit, the obeses. And there they will remain for a thousand years. But the amazing, amazing thing is that after a thousand years, Satan is going to be released again for a little time to test the nations who have been basking under the blessing of a perfect government, perfect economy, perfect environment for a thousand years. But many children are born, billions of people are born into the kingdom who've never really made a personal choice. And just like God had to do for Adam and Eve, he'll say, I'm going to give you a very, very credible choice alternative to me. And back comes Satan and enormous masses of people follow him like sand of the sea from multitude. And finally what? Fire comes from heaven and devours them all and consumes planet earth and the moon, the other eight planets, their moons, the sun, all the other stars and galaxies and the heavens and earth flee away from him who sits upon the throne. There'll be no place found for them. And Satan and the demons and those who never believed Jesus are consigned forever and ever to the lake of fire. And those who love Jesus and made a choice for him. Yes, even in the presence of satanic alternatives will be in God's heaven forever and ever. And I say, Lord, I just need help here. These are enormous things that are going on that I can't even see with my unaided eye. But through your precious word, these things come to light and you give me understanding that I need to be effective for you and patient and gracious and loving and prayerful, knowing that apart from you, I can do a thing. Help me, I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Do you have questions about what you're hearing in this series of biblical apologetics? Please share your thoughts with us at facebook .com slash Whitcomb ministries, and we'll try to respond and make use of your questions and comments. You can pass this message along to anyone at sermonaudio .com slash Whitcomb and point them to many additional resources at Whitcombministries .org. I want to read a portion of Psalm 107 to you before we depart. Until next time, I'm Wayne Shepard. Thanks for listening to encounter God's truth, where we teach every week that God's word is true from the beginning to the end.
DerrickTalk
A highlight from "Tory Lanez Gets 10 Years ..Wayne Brady Comes Out As Pansexual..Ciara & Russell Having 3rd Child....
"Welcome to another edition of Convo Over Cigars. This is the weekly recap. Let's talk about what happened this week. The big trending news stories. Rapper Tory Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison. This was on Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court for the shooting of Meg Thee Stallion. This was back in 2020. Last December, Tory Lanez was found guilty of shooting Megan in party at the home of celebrity Kylie Jenner. Lanez spoke for several minutes at Tuesday's sentencing. He described the victim as his friend, someone I still care about dearly to this day regardless of her feelings about him. He talked about bonding with Meg Thee Stallion over the loss of their mothers. Meg Thee Stallion did not appear in court for the sentencing, but she did issue a written statement saying for once the defendant must be forced to face the full consequences of his heinous actions and face justice. When the shooting occurred, Meg and Lanez left the party along with a friend of hers and his bodyguard. The artist got into an argument in the car. Tory began shooting at her feet when she got out of the vehicle. She was hospitalized and Wayne Brady is opening up about his sexuality revealing to people that he is actually pansexual. The Let's Make a Deal host said that he initially couldn't settle on a label for his sexuality. Nothing that bisexuality could truly describe how he felt. Well basically he was saying that being bisexual that term did not truly describe how he felt. The 51 year old says he's bisexual with an open mind. To be clear pansexual is defined as being attracted to a person regardless of their sex or gender. So Wayne Brady to me has come out as gay. He's basically a gay man who says that he's pansexual. If you are attracted to both males and females technically you're bisexual. So just to be clear but good for him living his truth. I don't have anything to say about that. I think Wayne Brady is a talented guy. I like watching his shows that he hosts. I think he's a very gregarious very charismatic host but you know living his truth and that's what we're Superstar vocalist Sierra has announced that her and Denver Broncos hubby Russell Wilson are expecting their third child together and their fourth child all together. So this will be their third child together and their fourth child all together. The couple shared the exciting news via a video announcement on Instagram filmed by the NFL star on the couple's anniversary trip to Japan last month. The baby on the way joins three -year -old son I think his name is Nguyen and the daughter her name is Sienna Princess. She's six. Sierra is also mom to future Zaire. He is nine who she shares with the rapper Future. Now Neo is addressing comments that he made about gender identity and allowing children to interview released on August the 5th 2023. Neo initially raised eyebrows during an interview over the weekend with Gloria Velez on Vlad TV in which he said he was you know he had no issue with the LGBTQ community but he questioned gender identity. I just personally come from an era where a man was a man and a woman was a woman and that you know that's just how I rock there were just two genders you know and that's how it was now you can identify as a goldfish this is what he said if you feel like it I don't care that ain't my business it becomes my business when you try to make me play the game with you. Neo who has seven kids also spoke out about what he has seen as a change in regards to how parents raise their kids. I feel like parents have almost forgotten what the role of the parent is it's like okay if your little boy comes to you and says daddy I want to be a girl and you just let him rock with that he's five he said if you let this five -year -old decide to eat candy all day he's gonna do just that when did it become a good idea to let a five -year -old or six -year -old or even a twelve -year -old make a life -changing decision for themselves he cannot drive a car yet but he can decide his sex.
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
A highlight from XRP New HUGE Partnership! (ETH Domination Heating Up)
"We are right here in the Bahamas. We are going to make it right. If you can't be a millionaire, would you keep working? The commander is here. What's going on right now? Is California trying to figure out? Don't beat me. Don't make that pop in your butt. Yeah. Oh, I can. Bad news, guys. I just got— Can we do a different background color somewhere in a blue shirt? I don't— And I'm drinking a blue drink. Nobody can see me. Fine. Purple. Purple? Purple? Green? I mean, we're having a good day. Green is good. Green. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. That's the show prep you guys miss out on. Guys, what would a big boy crypto, home of the big boy, the largest and greatest crypto community in all of the Interwebs? No channel works harder to keep you in the know about crypto. Someone says, Richard Hart, wannabe boy? Excuse me. Excuse me. I do not have a Burberry bonnet. Do not have a Burberry bonnet. Yet. Yet. It's on the way. We love Burberry. We love bonnets. I can't believe it's not butter. Okay, so, what am I talking about? My name is Bill. We come to you live every single day at 1130 a .m. Eastern Standard Time. Didn't even—big announcement. Didn't even need anybody to do the intro for me. I was here on time. I was ready though. You were ready. Tim boy crypto is always ready. I call him Tiny Tim Crypto. Tiny Tim Crypto. Tiny Tim Crypto. Yeah. Tiny Tim Crypto. So, guys, the purple looked better. People are asking for the purple? Oh, no, it's because it's saying salon. Oh, royalty. Let's go back to purple. They think I'm the king. They tell me I'm the king. Look at that, guys. I'm the king. Here we are. Guys, don't forget to smash that like button. Number one thing you can do as a member of the BitSquad, if you're in BitNation, make sure to smash it. Look at that. Do we put different shirts on this guy all the time? That's smart. I just noticed that today. What about on my monkey? Does he get a different shirt? Yeah, again, if you change the color of the shirt, we're like Madonna. Because, you know, do you know about Madonna? About her bored ape? Do you not know about it? I did not know she did. Do you know about it, Drew? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. First of all, what is this doing up here? Mmm. Johnny. The cats are in the office, so. Johnny, hide your trash. Hide your trash. Johnny, come up here and get your trash. Unbelievable. Get your trash, Johnny. Thank you, Johnny. Thank you. God. Monkeys? Okay. Mice? No good. We'll see. We definitely should have put a poll up. How many of you guys, when you use a computer, prefer the trackpad using Apple or a mouse? It's not a reliable poll, because a lot of people are dumb. Trackpad is far superior. When you understand how to use this, like a pro, you cannot do better. You cannot do better. Oh, here. You can't do better than a trackpad when you know how to use it. And when you don't know how to use it, when you're low IQ, you like a mouse. I get it. Technical analysis is borderline impossible using a trackpad. Absolutely not. High level. High level technical. Absolutely not. Kelly, what are your thoughts? Trackpad, mouse, TA. Mouth only. I'm telling you. These people are monsters. They're monsters. They're monsters. That's why I call them Tiny Tim. And that's why, well, Kelly's over there. I don't even call Kelly anything because he's just Kelly. Like I don't even, you know, he's irrelevant to me at this point. No, we love Kelly. He's coming on the show later. So I gotta be nice to him. Hey. What's the poll? Everybody's saying mouse, right click it? Yeah. Guys, it's because you're just not experts with a trackpad. When you understand the expertise of the trackpad, you will definitely move over to it. Now, what were we talking about? Bro, try playing counter. Okay, gaming, I get. I understand gaming. I understand gaming. I will give you that. What were we talking about? I lost my train of thought. Madonna. Madonna. Madonna. We love talking about Madonna. Madonna, thank you. We love talking about Madonna. Madonna Borde. This is so stupid what she did. It's so unbelievably dumb. Okay, so. You remember that NFT video? Oh, I do remember that. Not flashbacks. Let's not show that. Okay. That was terrifying. Yeah. Okay. Here it was. Wait. This is it, I think. I think that's it. Let me click images. Hmm. It's this one. Here it is. Okay, so. Here is the actual. I think this is the actual ape right here. Okay? Do you guys see it? This is the actual ape. Now, you can't really see it. Oh, here we go. You see it right here. Now, notice a couple things about it. Cigarette and background. She changed it. She literally changed her NFT. She got rid of the cigarette because it promotes smoking, and she changed the background. And this is what she put out. Madonna. It's just a scared monkey now. Madonna, that's not your NFT. That's not your NFT. That's not it. You can't change the characteristics of your NFT, and it'll still be the original NFT. Now, you can brand it, and then you could do stuff with the branding of your monkey, but that's not your NFT. I'm sorry, Madonna. I guess when it comes to these NFTs, she's like a virgin. What can I say? Don't cry for me. Don't cry for me. Okay. I can. She needs help. She needs help. Madonna. Madonna needs help. You know, she needs help. We got to say a little prayer. A little prayer. A little prayer for Madonna. It's another Madonna song. I don't know that much about Madonna. Well, it's because you're not like into like worldly things. You're not into worldly things. It's true. You're not a material girl, Tim. I'm not. There we go. Okay. Boom. That was a good one. You got a bit. That was good. That was good. That was good. Where do I come up with this stuff? I don't know. I guess I just, it's because I'm fashionable. I'm in Vogue. Okay. You just can't stop. Guys, I'm a secret. I'm a closet Madonna fan. I'm a closet Madonna fan. Like, I'm not going to rock Madonna on the radio when I'm driving around in the Lambo, but only because I'd be embarrassed. That's fine. I do love Madonna. I'll tell you this. My favorite halftime show of all time next to obviously the number one of all time, nothing touches it. Anybody know what it is? No. Dr. Dre, Snoop, and Eminem. Okay. That, yeah. A lot of people like Prince. A lot of people like Prince. The Prince one goes over there too, but like, I was, Prince, like, you know, purple rain, purple rain, purple rain, because I could have been a singer. Yeah. This purple inspired me. A lot of people like the Prince one, but my favorite halftime show ever was the Madonna one. I really loved the Madonna one. Actually. I really did like it. It was great. The Who. I don't know about the Who. I don't know about the Who. Let's see what other people. Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Yeah. I really liked that one. That wardrobe malfunction one was fun. Oh, the JT and Janet. Was that planned? It was planned, obviously. Obviously it was planned. She had a thing on. Yeah. Obviously it was planned. It was intense. Oh. Hey, my wife is here. Hang on. Hon, Ria is here. That's Ria. Ria's here. I just made an introduction from behind the camera, in front of the camera. It was amazing. Okay. All right. So, guys, let's get going on the show. Should we do the show today? We should do some form of a show. But before we do the show, if that buzzer ever stops working, I need one from my desk too. Okay. Can we get a new one? Probably. Where's my guy who made that one? A lot of people like Bruno Mars. Bruno Mars one was okay. Pregnant Rihanna. Not because she was pregnant, but I'm just not a Rihanna fan. I've never really been in love with Rihanna. I don't know why people are so. It's a strange show. Yeah. People like Snoop Cat. Snoop Cat. Snoop Cat? You do halftime show after 9 -11. What was that? Was it Bruce Springsteen probably or something? I don't remember that one. I'll look it up. Shakira. Shakira was pretty good. I like Shakira. I think the worst one was probably where they had Britney Spears, NSYNC, I think Aerosmith may have been involved in there. They had like Nelly was there. They liked too much. It was too much one year. Looks like U2 did the one after 9 -11. U2. Okay. U2. Well, I don't like U2. Okay. I've been in a few Super Bowls. So I saw the Snoop one. I was there for that one. And then how many Super Bowls have I been to? Two? Or no, I've been to three because I went to the one I forgot about, Falcon Super Bowl. Lady Gaga was a halftime show of that. So that's a great question, TC. That's a great question. I don't know what to do about that. I don't know what to do about that. Well, I think we were going to go to Berlin and say, we need to talk about this today. We're going to talk about all this today. Okay. People are asking. People are wanting me to come to Germany. Finally, The Rock has come back to Germany. The other one I saw was The Weeknd, The Weeknd, which the halftime show, The Weeknd halftime show was meh. The real life concert of The Weeknd was awesome. So there we go. Win Winnipeg? You want to do this, Winnipeg? Winnipeg, you want to do this? Winnipeg, do you want to do this right now? Look, Winnipeg. People in Winnipeg are great. Love Winnipeg people. Love, love people from Winnipeg. So great. Y 'all stole our freaking hockey team. I'm sorry. I'm not coming. Y 'all stole our hockey team. And what have you done with it? What have you done with it, Winnipeg? Yeah. Y 'all got Winnipeg. We got Winnipeg. Here. That's how it felt. You took our team. Did the Atlanta team move to Winnipeg? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Several years ago. You know what killed our hockey team was Danny Heatley. Danny Heatley was on the cover of NHL like 2001, whatever year it was. He was supposed to be the greatest hockey, the next Wayne Gretzky, and he came here, and he came here in Atlanta. He was a rookie, I think, or a second year maybe, and he was drunk, driving I believe it was a Ferrari and crashed and killed the guy in the passenger seat, which was another guy on the hockey team, and then we had to ship him out of here. So that was the beginning of the downfall of Atlanta. Very sad story. And, no, we had the Flames earlier in the 70s. I wouldn't lie for that. I don't know. But we love the Thrashers. Thrashers were great. But we miss them. Cobalt Chuck, you stole him from us. Saints Falcons meet up in New Orleans. We'll see. I like going to New Orleans. So, here's, here, we made this incredible video, incredible video. Where is it? Here it is. Well, let's go to the, let's go to videos here.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Necessity of God's Power (Part 1)
"God's Word has infinite power, and God's Word is true from the beginning to the end. And today on Encounter God's Truth, Bible teacher Dr. John Whitcomb presents part one of a message called The Necessity of God's Power. The Bible clearly explains that every person possesses a sin nature that renders us totally depraved. This desperate condition requires God's perfect ability in order to make it possible for anyone to believe the Gospel and be saved. This can never be accomplished by our feeble attempts to manipulate or trick people into accepting the Gospel. In this lesson, Dr. Whitcomb unfolds the place that arguments and evidences for the Christian faith should have and are witnessed in light of both the total depravity of man and the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. If you have your Bible, you'll want to follow and listen carefully as we turn to a number of different passages in both the Old and New Testaments. I'm your host, Wayne Shepard, inviting you to go with me now inside the auditorium at Appalachian Bible College in Mount Hope, West Virginia, for this installment in our series Biblical Apologetics. Here's Dr. Whitcomb. And friends, I greet you once again in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and what a name that is. Through Him, the whole universe was created, including the angels at the dawn of earth history. And through Him, the whole world is sustained, upheld, and directed. He's the Lord of history. Through His precious blood, we have been redeemed, confirmed by His bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and He is coming again, perhaps today, to catch His bride away, to meet Him in the air. Are we ready? And He will come and establish His kingdom upon the earth. He will be the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is not only the Alpha, He is the Omega, the beginning and the end. And what a name, well known in the third heaven, the name we must know to approach God the Father. Now friends, we are faced in this world with an impossible commission. The Lord Jesus said, make disciples of all nations. And then He added some more impossible things. These disciples are to openly publicly identify with the three persons of the triune Godhead, the second person being Jesus of Nazareth. Now for a Jew, that would be an impossible commitment. You mean that mere man who died on a cross? How could he be the second person of a triune Godhead? And so we're to be baptized into the name of the Father and into the name of the Son and into the name of the Holy Spirit. And we are to teach people to observe all things whatsoever He has commanded us. You say that is impossible, impossible. In a godless world, a selfish world, a satanically dominated world, a sinful world, and therefore He guarantees it will work. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And without Him, we can do nothing. And that's our purpose these days together, dear friends, yesterday. And I trust as well tonight. How do we accomplish the impossible task? Certainly not by shriveling it down and minimizing it so it's manageable by finite minds like ours. No, no. We don't compromise anything. Jesus said you're to teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. You say, well, Lord, there's so many things in here that I don't even understand that are so difficult. And God says, well, dear child, that's right. I have recorded things that are really impossible for you to fully fathom. And God is ultimately incomprehensible by finite minds. And we'll never know Him exhaustively, but thank God through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God we can know Him sufficiently and increasingly in the process of sanctification as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and His wonderful, wonderful work and His ministry through the Holy Spirit on our behalf from day to day. Now, friends, we have seen already, I trust, that every effort to make people believe fails. And there are enormous movements today among Christians, even born -again Christians, not just nominal Christians, such as dominate, I'm sorry to say, the intelligent design movement, for example, that are using rationalistic methods to reach depraved hearts and minds. And I have to always say to people who ask about this term depravity, depraved hearts and minds, what does that really mean? Well, friends, from God's perspective, and that is the way the whole Bible is written from Genesis to Revelation, from God's perspective, the human mind is so poisoned and distorted through sin that no matter how nice we become through, hopefully, positive environmental influence of families and culture and society, like in our beloved nation of America, we are incapable totally of making ourselves acceptable to a thrice holy God. And that's the whole point of these passages that, frankly, in the Bible seems so shocking to me, at least. Listen to this one, Job 15, verse 14. What is man that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous. Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints. And I believe that reference probably is to angelic beings, righteous angels, primarily. Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. Even the third heaven is contaminated, as we shall see, for a special reason. Almost unbelievable. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water? Now we had a huge aquarium in our home, huge by personal standards, under a beautiful window where the sun would frequently come in and just inflame those goldfish in there. six And our children just loved watching those goldfish slither through that water, and we often asked ourselves the question, do those fish know that they're wet? What do you think? Well first question, are they wet? Do they know they're wet? Why not? They're immersed in that medium to such an extent they don't even know they're in it. That's the point. And a fish discovers, if we can put it that way, how wet he is when you take him out of the water and he flounders around desperately longing for his normal, natural environment. And that's God's shocking picture, you see, of us and our sin nature. We're so immersed in a sinful world, Satan's world, with people of the world and possessed as we are of a sin nature that we're really not even shocked, we're not even aware of it, we're not even offended by it, we're not even depressed by it. We just sort of drink iniquity like water and it's just a normal way of living. And when God takes us out of that through regeneration, increasingly through sanctification, we become more and more sensitized to what sin really is so that you can read what the apostle Paul said, which I read with amazement. And I think maybe he's really not serious when he said, I am the chief of what? Sinners. You see, this is ridiculous. I mean, you're just playing games with words, sir. Chief of sinners. Why, you're an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and you've been gifted, you know, with prophetic messages and capacities to listen to and communicate the will and mind of God uniquely and you're an apostle. And what do you mean you're the chief of sinners? That is a genuine mark of self -awareness through the Holy Spirit's illumination. Now, of course, friends, we can become totally defeated and depressed if we look at this from just one perspective. We must do like the apostle Paul, while admitting he was the chief of sinners and not worthy to be an apostle and the least of all the saints, et cetera, et cetera, nevertheless, he knew that in Christ, he had infinite power. And that's the perfect balance. Never depending on ourselves or anything in ourselves, but only and totally and exclusively on him. Would you turn with me to Ephesians chapter two? Look at verse one. And you hath he quickened, or made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Dead. And I say, well, Lord, isn't that somewhat of an exaggeration? Keep reading. Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world. Now, this is a definitive statement of all people who are unsaved. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, and that is disobedient people, among whom also we all had our conversation, our manner of life in times past, in what? Watch it now. In the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature the children of wrath. That is, we are under the wrath of God, apart from Christ, even as others. And you say, well, Lord, that's serious. Well, friends, turn over to Ephesians 4 and look at how the Spirit of God brought to the pen of the Apostle Paul words that even more emphatically clarify what total depravity is. Ephesians chapter 4, let's begin with verse 17. Having this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. Now, walk, you understand, means just a manner of life, just your whole course of life, your day -by -day routines. In the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. You say, well, Lord, that must be a description of radical sinners. Is that a picture of every person who is not born again? And friends, here we have to be careful. Careful. You don't look at a person, a loving person, a lovely person, apparently an honest person of good reputation and start applying verses like this directly to that person. You don't look at a newborn baby and say to the mother, this is a total sinner. Careful in this. But the Bible says drastic things, even about children, that only the blood of Jesus can solve. Psalm 51, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and sin did what? Did my mother conceive me? That doesn't mean she was a specially sinful person or that becoming a mother is a sinful act. It means I have an infinitely deep problem that cannot be traced back to something I did when I was younger, a teenager or something. No, I was sinful. I had a sin nature I inherited from my mother and father who inherited their sin nature from their parents. And by the way, let me just give a side point on this. The reason Jesus had no sin nature is not because Mary was sinless, but because the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and controlled that aspect of her mother's nature. He inherited her nature and through her, you see, a connection with the human race, especially back to David, the king. But he did not inherit her sin nature. By the way, if she had no sin nature, then how could she have been born from a sinless mother who was born from sinless mother? This is total absurdity. You see, a stupendous miracle occurred at the conception of Jesus. He is the only baby ever born sinless in the history of the world or ever will be. You say, sir, these are very disparaging things to say about beautiful babies. Well, friends, that's why, of course, we know that every baby that's conceived is not created by God, but what? Procreated through sinful parents back to Adam who sinned. In Adam, we all sinned, Romans 5 -12. This is a very difficult Bible teaching to fathom. But I believe, as many of us do, that by a special work of God's grace, and this has problems with it, too, that I can't fathom, that unborn babies that are aborted or newborn babies or children earlier than the age of accountability, whatever that might be, are provided for by Christ who says, they behold the face of my father, of their angels in heaven. I mean, there's something about this that is very mysterious. David said about his baby that God killed, the first baby from Bathsheba, you remember. I will go to him. He cannot come to me, but I'll go to him. And that has to mean heaven. I'm going to see my baby. Now, friends, unless we think deeply about this, you see, we're hopeless in terms of being a witness to anybody and leading anybody to the Lord. If we allow for one moment the thought to cross our mind that people aren't quite as bad as the Bible seems to say they are, and therefore I can manipulate them and I can illuminate them by my brilliance and my superior knowledge and understanding, and I can outwit them and outsmart them, and they will have to be, what, converted through me. You say, well, I'd never think that. But there are thousands of Christian leaders, friends, who operate on that basis today. It's called rationalistic apologetics. It's a horrible sounding word, isn't it? But here's what the Bible says, that that mind that you're going to change by better arguments, by intellectual proofs of the truth of the Bible and Christianity and arguments even for wonderful, obvious truths like the bodily resurrection of Jesus, will fall on total dead rock. No response if it is your word and your opinion and your theories and your arguments and your evidences that are being used.
Mike Gallagher Podcast
Is Homeschooling a Better Option for Kids? Thea Shoemake Explains
"Is called School Insecurity. You can find all the information about Wayne's work at WayneBlack .com, WayneBlack .com. And Taya, it seems inevitable as Wayne talks about parents being kicked out of school board meetings, in some cases dragged out and arrested for trying to have a say in their child's education. This is a hugely important issue. We talk every day about efforts by the Leadership Institute, TakeBackOurSchools .com to give parents a voice and a say in their child's curriculum and their child's education. This has to be a reason why homeschooling is at an all -time high right now in terms of popularity. I got to believe parents have gravitated to the homeschooling environment because of that very reason. Absolutely. Certainly the number of inquiries that I've personally gotten has spiked for sure. But I think what Wayne's doing is so important. I don't think we have an either -or situation. I think we have a both -and. We want all educational environments to be safe, whether it's public, private, or home. Wherever your child sits for their ABCs and masks, we want that situation and environment to be as safe as possible. And I share Wayne's concerns in that regard. So when we have a situation where one or more of those environments is not ideal to Wayne's point, then other options exist, like private school or homeschool. So I think we're all on the same page there. And I think what I loved also about what Wayne said was we do that in the homeschool community. If we are in a gathering, and we do that often, we have security plans. We make sure that everybody's on the same page with cybersecurity, with environmental security. If we're in a new environment, we have parents that are looking out for situational awareness, et cetera. So I love that this is being more broadly applied to traditional environments.
THE EMBC NETWORK
"wayne" Discussed on THE EMBC NETWORK
"You become better. Because the energy that they bring and that confidence that they bring and just not so much because by that time, technique is already technique is already done. You have a style, you have a way. And there's always a technique, but it's so well grooved in. They're not really trying to launch into their technique, you know? They just pick up the script and they're like, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, hitting every moment as they go down through the script. And they'll do it on the first take. So, you know, I always shoot a rehearsal. That's one thing I always do is I filmed a rehearsal, even if I don't use it because I know that those guys are going to be on. Right. And you might capture something really nice. So I would say, okay, we're going to do one rehearsal and then we're going to do the take. And they're like, okay, you know. So yeah, they bring it. It was so fun to watch them. It was such a great learning experience, you know? And the learning experience, even if I didn't really see it on when I was there on the set, in the editing room, I'm just like, wow, you know, every take these guys are just, you know? And I had Charlotte Lewis, who was in the golden child of Eddie Murphy, right? They brought it every take, you know? And Karina RICO, who was plays Angela, the main character.
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"I mean, you're perfectly suited for our podcast knowing what we're objective as a whole week. Seriously, the facts, let's expose hypocrisy and honestly, common sense. Just banding together and actually contributing and making this a better country. This is about us as a country America. Not so much about all of certain people doing the heavy lifting and others just getting dragged along and complaining while they're getting dragged a lot. If you want to help America, take your journey. Right now to do it, it has never lowest interest rates in the last 5000 years. The Federal Reserve is printing a ridiculous amount of money. 40% of all the money was part of the last 12 months. Of all the money ever printed. So money comes easy. By the way, if any of you are listening here, get out of the dollar, you don't want to hold cash. Very, very bad. But go out and chase your dreams. Use this as a tool and not a toy. Because look, we live in a capital society. If you want to make a difference, you got to get the money. That's how our society works. And that's how that's how every society ever has worked. I always say this about people communist China being common. Yeah, yeah, but their leaders are capitalist, right? They're selling goods to the whole world. They're people live under communism and social, right? But they're leaders or not. Everything that's anything ever in the world is capitalist, right? It's just how it is. Well, capitalist works except when you mix it with the government does it, because fascism, back in 2008, they bailed out GM and Christ. That's fascist. They're doing the same thing now by building electric road for the big three when Tesla doesn't use it anyway. And Tesla has 70% of the entire EV market to add one thing to you said too about going for your dreams. It's never been easier too because the competition is so poor. That's the other side. The competition is, you know, I look at, I don't know how old you are, but I look at my age back and I'm like, man, I am way farther ahead than I ever thought I'd be because I just work. I didn't stay home during COVID, right? Our office was open during COVID. We didn't shut down. Why? Because somebody's got to work. And it just happens to be us, right? So that was our model the whole time. Somebody's got to be open. Why not the financial guy? 99% of it to me is literally getting to this chair. And once I'm sitting in the chair, I just got to do what we do. Right. But most people don't want to get in the chair. They don't want to show up to work. They don't want to get to school. We don't want to learn. They don't want to figure out all the background stuff. You guys got a bunch of buttons and stuff and cameras. I got to figure all that stuff out. I got a gentleman that just started working with me, he's going to help me out with that stuff, but I'll get in front of it. There's a whole bunch like I'm a construction worker, you know? I don't do computers but stay in your lane, all right? Stay in your lane. We stay in your lane. Okay. I'd say screw you. I take it out of my lane if I want. I mean, we're not the tech guys either. We don't know what the hell is going on in here. I got we have one guy in our office Griffin who can help us with this a little bit. But this stuff is beyond me..
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"You know, but you know what? I wanted to look at myself in the mirror tomorrow. I'm an independent person and an independent mind and I have thoughts that need to be said and I have a country and veterans that have fought and died for me to be able to do that. And it would be a disgrace if I didn't do that in the first place. I would be spitting on the grave of these soldiers if I had something to say and being in a herd is not hard. I might make a T-shirt. I mean, seriously. Meeting in the herd is so easy. It's a stay close to this guy and I'm just gonna keep shuffling along. The harder road is always the harder road because there's more complexity. There's more decision making. It takes more courage. Just, I guess, on the last note, as we part with you, what's going on in your life now since this? You're doing this podcast with us. Tell us, just beyond making a living now as a millworker. What else is going on in your life with this? Yeah, actually that's what I haven't worked as a mill right since last September. I refuse to wear a mask. Again, that comes to the independent thing. I won't do it. And if you guys want to have good hands, then start making people with a nest. I have started a different career as well as some exciting other things I'm working on for the people. Right now, my career consists of stocks and cryptocurrencies, and I've become very good at that. And I'm actually just now started to speak on that publicly, because I want to let other people understand it and they have them get into it because I truly believe that the way to our freedom is actually through cryptocurrencies. If you understand it correctly. Now, aside from that, I am become infatuated with shouts of innovation on the trajectory of where mankind is going..
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"I just believe though you always use the last election, right? I was everybody that listens to this knows who I voted for. It's not a surprise anymore, right? I was through and through for Donald Trump. I did that was my first big year with doing radio. I'll do an interview. I loved his personality personally. I know that's not a popular opinion. And I loved his policy. I was a big fan of Donald Trump. But that doesn't, you know, at the end of the day, he lost, and I had to go to work on Monday. Greater Wednesday, because the election was a Tuesday. So that's what I get being so ingrained like my whole life is politics now. It's all we do in this office is politics between radio and our clients. I mean, how many clients a week talked about politics? Every one of them? Right. It's what we're ingrained in, but at the end of the day, you got to just, you got to let it go and keep going. And that's what I get your point that it's emotional for them, but it's emotional for me too, right? But as long as you're able to take if I tell you, if I prove you wrong on a subject, right? As your, are you going to crumble as a person? Well, no, yes, that's right. No, I will not. That's the difference there. If you won't listen to you prove them wrong. Because you're destroying them. Right. When you start and you say, hey, this is the fact this is a factor like, you're too crazy for a man. They just walk around. Well, this gets to the point of saying something like, I hate you or saying I hate your behavior. I don't hate a person. I hate what they do. I hate that they might be a certain way. So if you never get past that though, if you are a trumper, I hate you. Right. Really? So there's no more conversation. If you do that, they're winning. If you hate somebody, because of their beliefs, that they're winning. No matter what the votes are. You know? But if you're wanting to take away like, see, I see things like this. If you want to take away my right to defend myself, you are an enemy to the nation. Period. There's no discussion about it. We have about hundreds of years of this..
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"Don't venture out 'cause it's gonna get dangerous and you're gonna be left with nothing. And that's like, that's the same like if the system, the systemic racism, right? Don't try because they're gonna be able to get you. Which, by the way, I'd like to talk about that for months. Yeah, please. Okay. Now I'm on both sides here, okay? The systemic racism. People like the left is like, it's also stomach and a right side that doesn't exist. There is a middle ground here, I think as nobody's talking about. Does the systemic racism exist? Absolutely not because that means it has to be in the books. Now, is there racism within industries that has deemed by people? So let me make an example. There are four years old and you walk up to the stove and you put your hand on a stove, it's a hot stove. It's hot. Are you gonna put your hand back there? No. No. If your goal, if you go walk into the projects and you get robbed, okay, do you want to go back to the projects? No, no. No. These are statistical anomalies that happen over and over and over and over. And it's driven in two our mind because we have a reptilian part of our brain that's a survival of survival part of the brain. And when you see different things people do in certain stuff, it registers into your brain that that type of person does certain type of things. That's something that you can not disagree with. This is how our minds work. And it's how we actually have survived as a species. So the only thing that I believe that are doing wrong is you're using the systemic racism as the wrong word. The thing is that even if people in the world are racist or they're sexist or whatever. So what? Do you. And if you just, if you just push joy and.
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"What is the point of living if you never have to venture out into the darkness? If you're always in this little thing and you never get to do anything, what is the point of being? So Jerry, I taught one of my careers, I guess, and I early 30s into my early 40s. I was a teacher. And I would literally draw on the board. Listen, students, mostly like fourth, 5th graders, right? I draw a little circle and I would say comfort zone and I'd say, listen, right now, a lot of them were shy. They didn't want to say anything. They were embarrassed or whatever. What we need to do guys is make this circle of comfort zone bigger. You know, we're going to do that. You're going to get out of it once in a while. And every time you get out of it, we're going to make the circle bigger. And I think they're comfort zone is berate you know, call you names. They don't listen. They don't invent things. They don't build things. They don't think of things to do. They don't help people. Yeah, it's called socialism is what they want. Why do you want that up? 'cause I have a view on that actually. We had this whole demographic of people that are not contributing to society. They're getting hand out from the government and they're using their spare time to push political narratives. At the same time, men like ourselves are at work working 40 plus hours a week. You know, 5, 6, 7 days a week, 8, ten, 12 hours a day. By the way, the skill trades and the one ones I work with, it is very, very normal to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day for months on end. We don't have a lot of time to be plugging into these politics. We want to go home. We want to kiss her king good night. We want to have dinner and then do it all again so we can actually provide for our families..
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"To find out. Okay, if you're that adamant about taking it away, do it. Because the what we're past the words, we don't need these words anymore. It's either show up, put it up and then find out or just shut up forever. Yeah. Because there is well over of a 100 million ready and abled men. That are ready to die for this. Not only die, they're ready to pull the trigger if need be. If you guys want to push at that far. So this conversation, it says shall not be infringed. Don't even talk about it because I'm not hearing. And if you guys want to talk, then barrels are going to get hot eventually. You know what I'm saying? I'm not advocating for anything. That'll be damned if I put my freedoms in another man's hand. If you want my freedoms come and get them, and one thing before you go out and say, too, you know, the other argument too that they make is how guns are so dangerous and you don't see this problem in other countries. And then the attack in Wisconsin last week happened, right? If people want to kill people, they're going to kill people. They'll use a gun. They'll use a knife. They'll use a bomb. Like the Boston bombers did. They'll use a vehicle. An SUV, right? Again, that just happens right? Exactly. I mean, these are the things that, you know, how many examples do you need if people want to kill they're going to kill if terrorists want to kill they're going to kill? They don't need guns. They can use many things to kill people. That's the other argument I hate about the gun control. I give it as the reacting as if like these guns just turn these people into, you know, demonic people. And it's the gun. It's not. It's the person. If they were insincere, even a tiny bit sincere. Because you know they couldn't care any less..
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"I think, though, a lot of people that aren't as, I guess, apt to do what you did, they are getting there. They are starting to go, oh, I might raise my hand because it is really bothering me and these people are now speaking up. I mean, you see it at local school boards. People that were probably petrified of a microphone are like now going, I got to get up in front of that microphone. I can't take this anymore. This is about my children. So I really give you credit for doing that. But thank you for that. I appreciate it. I think that you spoke for millions and millions of people. Well, I think that's what I was going to go. Our first topic with you here, I know we just went through a topic, but that all leads into the gun control. The whole idea behind this gun control get rid of the Second Amendment the whole 9, right? It really doesn't make any sense when you really break it down on what these people say. Your example right there is perfect. I'm not taking your guns away. I'm just telling you you can't have guns. Well, that's taking my guns away, right? People that take your guns away. I won't do it. I'm too scared of that. It makes no sense, right? That's number one. Number two, the fact that and I'll let you talk with this because you know more about guns than I do. I have a handgun, but the idea that the AR-15 or AR 14 is Joe called it is an assault rifle that just kills millions of Americans a year. Like, like the car that just happened to drive through the parade. It's car amazing. I just came out of nowhere. And imagine if the right said that. Imagine if the right said, it's not the people that are killing people. It's the gun that's killing people, right? We all know it's the person behind the gun at the end of the day. Right?.
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"Today, we have a gentleman I'd say that before a confrontation with then president candidate Joe Biden probably wasn't a household name, but Jerry Wayne, you are becoming a household name. So welcome to our podcast. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And yeah, you know, I talk about labels. I actually, I'm so labeled as the auto worker too. And I don't know how to work or I don't know why they started saying that. The auto worker that carries a gun around. Yeah, yeah. He doesn't have any drills or anything. You're not even an automaker, but yeah. So I think that's a good place to start Jerry. So can you tell us a little bit about it, especially for people, maybe that have seen the videos or have not seen the video and have no idea what we're talking about here. Explain a little about that day and what happened and how that even came to fruition. That whole I'll call it confrontation between you and now president Joe Biden. Yeah, for sure. So first of all, I'm a mill ride by trade. So I work on I work all over the country. I just haven't did that plant that day, but I work on robots conveyors, nuclear reactors and turbines. And but for that day, we were putting in machinery for the Chrysler plant. And I was, I didn't know that Joe Biden was going to come in until about 7 o'clock that morning. That's when we have our safety talk. And then they came and said, hey, Joe Biden's going to be around ten 30. So I was working with a few apprentices and they were just doing some miscellaneous work. So I had a couple minutes to set side to myself, and I started to articulate a question that I would hopefully be able to ask the presidential candidate at the time. And I kept sending some rough drafts to my lady and I after about now ten rough drafts. I was like, I got the one that I want. So around 9 30 10 o'clock we started headed over there. And what they do is they actually tell you they say, hey, you guys need to keep working or even go see the presidential candidate. And of course, everybody's going to be like, yeah, I'm going to go see him. That's how they get people over there. You know? Neither work or not. That you double if you go and listen to Joe Biden. Right, right, right. And then there's a lot of people that like, they've never seen a news news station before or anything. There's a bunch of cameras out there and they're like, okay, we have all these shirts. And if you guys want to, one wants to wear the shirt, we'll get you behind the president of Canada, and I'll take pictures. They don't know his. They don't know his standings on anything. They just know there's a famous guy and they get to me in a picture with them. And that's how they rally back. That's correct. Give me up. So I'm over there. I'm like, all right, I just hope I get to ask you guys a question. If not, no big deal. I thought he was going to be like on a stand or something. I can give him a speech, but no, he came in there..
TFG Truth
"wayne" Discussed on TFG Truth
"There is it's the gift that keeps on giving. About Goldberg and Omar. They got to get in a cage and do some UFC wrestling fighting. Just get it all out. Oh my gosh. I'm just so entertained by it. And then you realize how insane some of these leftists are. Yeah. I mean, they're just insane. And I'm not even going to use liberal anymore. I think of Bill Maher as liberal. And I think we've talked about this. Like Bill Maher, he might not be a guy I'd want to hang with. Actually, maybe I would, he might want to drink, maybe smoke weed, or whatever, right? I don't know. I don't know anyway. So I don't think I'd have a problem with Bill Maher. We probably have a good debate during whatever. Have some fun. But these leftists, they immediately drive you absolutely bonkers. Yeah, and I think that the problem is and we'll talk a little with our guests today about this type of stuff. But you're allowed to have an opinion, right? You're allowed to debate things. That's okay. It's not against the law to have a debate or to talk with people or just simply put, again, even if you agree with somebody or you disagree with them, just have a normal conversation. Like, you can't even do that no matter what. If you agree with people, I find myself sometimes, you know, on Twitter or other. I'm debating something with someone. I'm like, we're arguing the same thing. What are we doing here? Let's just come together as one person here. But I think that's the most frustrating part. There are zero debate zero real conversation anymore. It just turns into an absolute name calling battle everywhere you go. Right. I'm convinced I think at this point, they're just not capable of debate. They're lazy. They're often very ignorant. And it's super easy to just call you a name. I could just simply say, you might be right, but you're a racist..
How I Built This
"wayne" Discussed on How I Built This
"That you are is gone. And that put a lot of pressure on my personal relationship with my wife because she was less prone to taking risks and she was much more cautious so actually unfortunately we ended up getting divorced. And i went on my way and put more effort into innova. Ten in a lotta ways. I had so much pressure on me. I had to make it work now. Took it as far as i could up until two thousand twelve and then i felt at that stage. I had no options so i went to the marketplace and we went through a process and i raise some capital through private equity deal. You had no options because you knew that to grow you need more cash and if you didn't grow you might not make it. Yes because of all this that funder ability. And that's when i was afraid of and as you grow the brand the brand becomes it's bigger than any On the founder of the brand. So i see is on the caretaker of the brand and i was worried that if there was another financial crash will kick up in the financial markets that we wouldn't make it through so i took that decision and it's a difficult decision because you bringing in partners into the business. We went with private equity and they have a different agenda. Oh yeah because they were convinced cycles. But i'm wondering when you made that decision which you had to do sounds again to do. They then owned A significant amount of company right. 'cause they're they're putting money in. Did that allow you because up until that point. You're now what nine years into the brand and you weren't taking much of a salary because he didn't have much money to that. Allow you to take some money off the table and and at least have that is erred. Allowed me to de risk to a degree. I was still a major shareholder of the business of a took them. Forty two percent and by de risking. That took a lot of pressure off of a me. I was in a position to relax a bit mole so you. You sold almost half of the company to private equity and wouldn't happen. I i rather you kind of step aside to see you and your coo took over. And i guess your day-to-day responsibilities were were scaled back a lot. So why why did you make the choice or the decision to turn over running. The company to be needed that break. At that time. I been travelling at the peacful. I was away at the country for anything from six to seven months of the year i was in the us a visiting distributors going to raise his promoting the brand all over the world. I think got a bit of burnout. Because i just done too much for too long in the pressure of everything and so did you. Did you kind of really wind back. I did yes. I was fortunate that in two thousand ten omit maria. Who's now your wife. She that's right now married and she was great because she loves being outdoors Actually met one of the races that we put on his innovate and she then went off zealand and road. The length of the zealanders ran across the with new zealand. She loves doing so as long. Ultra staff and we then started living together so that was very good for me and but there's that fine line because it's quite difficult to actually hand of a to someone else that will lend stop taking all k- decisions on this brand that you found when you see some of the stuff of paps decisions that you wouldn't agree with and you know they were said board meetings where. I didn't agree on certain things. But i was outnumbered on the board and overruled on some of those decisions. But that's part of business and That's part of that journey. So i still stay close enough to the business but i wasn't involved in the day-to-day basis so this private equity group. I mean product what he has certain interests because they've got investors who want them to make a return and so they need Term returns they're less equipped to deal with a long term business. That's not the case with all private equity. But i think in in general time horizons are not twenty years or more like three to five. Did the private equity firm to a good job and efficient job at running at bringing being the company to profitability or or. No no say so. Actually i think the business was probably more profitable when i was see and known. Put the business because it you know. I always loved the longer term. Best for the brand. But i was very careful with the money. Because outmuscle self funded by myself. And i couldn't afford to drop that poe all right you are clearly. I think i'm channel. You hear wayne you are. You're getting frustrated. there's not much you can do. But you still have a controlling interest in innovate but in in two thousand fifteen eighty percent of innovate was sold off to a company called deante a japanese sporting goods company. Right yes sir. Disown port eighty percent of the whole company right. They bought up all private equity shares. And they're very keen for me to retain twenty percent because the president of the salt at the time he was very passionate about the brand and He wanted me to stay as a shareholder in the brand. He wanted you involved. Ese date but not on the financial side. They made it very clear that they only want to be involved on innovation. Of course i then became a real. A minority shareholder with only twenty percent. Have to accept that this brand that i founded an nurtured has gone through that sort of bumpy patch. Two thousand twelve to fifteen. I within let it go and are just twenty percent. I would die down from this a five years..
In The Pews
"wayne" Discussed on In The Pews
"Father wayne hello. Welcome to in the pews. It's good to have you happy to be here. So you're given name isn't wayne is it. Know what is your your full guinea. Clang mainly when min lee okay. Let's close enough really. Yeah as one mainly clang min lee okay. Oh there's a tone to it. Yes because his enemies. Okay okay and your parents are from vietnam. Guests cracked okay. Do they grow up there. Yes okay and then how about you. i was born in malaysia in a refugees camp. That's where my family was. Moving out from. The country landed air assayed for five years. Had me and then. I came to america when i was to in my younger brother was born in eighty nine so wild so i've been here since i was two. Wow so your parents must have really amazing refugee stories. Her they probably do. I just never asked. You haven't ever really asked them. Yeah they never took the initiative talk on their own to either so maybe you can sit down with them. One of these days in you know maybe recorded i understand. You're you know you're you're pretty savvy with a with a camera and in technology and all that maybe one day so they haven't told you any at all no no not really even when they lecture you know no none of that you kids should appreciate what you none of that stuff really. Yeah okay did you. Grow up catholic No i didn't realize. I was even catholic until i was in eighth grade when my mom just decided to take church and then i receive first communion at eighth grade so yeah never really faith filled family. Life was never really there. Okay so when did you have the first thoughts of entering the seminary becoming a priest. I guess the first thought will be after my confirmation retreat. I had a great spirit experience in my confirmation retreat and it was my very first time that really why thought was will.
Life Transformation Radio
"wayne" Discussed on Life Transformation Radio
"What does Wayne Kohl's life look like May 6th 2026? Robert ask this question. The harder question to my kids all the time. I never had asked to me, that's funny. Well, I'm asking it now. You know what? And that's, that's a great question. I never get stumped and this is loud too. So, you know, you, you know what I see me. Honestly. When travelling the world. Given given talks and maybe book signings and holding maybe lectures just being the best version to me. You know, I see me off You know, staying better in touch with you so I guess maybe, you know, doing a joint talk, have a buddy, Luke who is a cancer survivor and and we talk all the time, you know? Just right now, our message across, I see us doing a big thing with, you know, cancer research and you know, awareness mental health awareness, maybe after the hold my child maybe on I don't know radio or television you know talking about sports Maybe going back to my schools and you know donating having a non-profit. So hold me to this route. Oh, I will having a successful business and again just be a better way in cold and I was that previous day but it just poured out everything before I expired and it's probably as many people as I can and everything and my wife. Now we're getting too big-headed never get into high to low..
That’s Strange
"wayne" Discussed on That’s Strange
"This was something that was led primarily by the police force so that was one of the most difficult points for law enforcement with investigating serial killers in general. But in this case. john. Wayne casey is the fact that there are often prone to To believing the same things that you and i are so if people are saying the same misconceptions if people are saying he's this person because that's we said he looked so normal he's he's a relatively social person which is against the Mo so to speak of a serial killer right or earth's against that profile so Law enforcement can Gay wrapped up in that as well and it's what happened Basically they are they're able to Do their job but at the same time. They're you know these stereotypes that that we see can Can lead them into the wrong direction so this whole time. They're looking for somebody. That's really not the same profile as john wayne. Gase so between nineteen seventy to nineteen seventy eight Gase like we said he raped tortured and killed Thirty three young men and that was through the fbi that they eventually named that and the reason he was allowed to continue to do this was because the the police said they were looking for somebody else and they didn't have the means to identify a serial killer. Most of the time they were you know they didn't have the cameras and stuff like that that you're able to to kind of see exactly what's going on at all times. Obviously they didn't have Tracking and and things that because he's saying he's one place and and and not the other whatever so What did you. What did you guys think about about the investigation in terms of do you think that the police were. We're kind of being bought in a way. Well there is one thing that i think about with the the whole investigation and that is one thing like. I don't know how much you were going to get into this. So i apologize if i'm kind of blowing something for you but i really think it's important to talk about the way. They did surveillance on the sky. And that's kind of what i meant. Yeah with the with the surveillance cameras and so weird and like i mean if if if you dear listener don't know this already the surveillance that they did on casey after they started to kinda suspect him was a little weird They would follow him around. gave me being very manipulative person. New that they were following him. It wasn't like he. They were really good at hiding or anything eventually. They you know they were falling around to these different places. They eventually started following him into bars and into restaurants he would buy them drinks. They would buy him drinks like this. Is the most unprofessional surveillance that you can possibly think of and you know at a certain point. He's even inviting them in so that he can cook for them yet eventually turned into like a A a mutual friendship where. I think that gase was manipulating them. And that's kind of like. I was saying the beginning is is even so these officers. They were they went. They were entirely manipulated. The judicial system was manipulated at one point. So it's it was something that they're really got out of hand quickly and i think that another thing Was what wall. Let you finish not go ahead. All you're good. I mean i i agree with you. I think it started here..
News 96.5 WDBO
"wayne" Discussed on News 96.5 WDBO
"Wayne's stairs, but you're coming back. I cannot go Fuck my body. Do love Eladio. Johnny! Friendly journalist. Remember? Get back! Come on. Never guess Who is that going to be single? Okay, does almost it. Yeah. Baby, though correct. Wait, it'll come. Who simply wants ahead? They're ready. Oh, my God. It will be interesting more the God CEO baby us Miss Way. Nothing. Thank the 11. Come on, man. Shut your head. I know that. Made those things who's making going, son. So that's got to be cool it wonderful. He don't even second. But this is guessing anymore maker then goose poop. God will see it. No. Fucking maybe Amy, somebody You better be there. They better believe that I've got it. You guys got in there before Anything? Come away up in here, bro. Come in. It looks great. Put us alone. Hey, set out my best here. I live in other places. Moon Planet. Fellows don't make us think who's making Call my son Scott. Let me go. My girl whose will be left here? Make those things making. Yeah, homeboy son today that's got to be cool. No, they won't second. No, But this baby scared thinking maybe a little beat up. John In the end of us, Peter Never exceed those loving. They say Spawned a single You and your sister and convert your blab. Blab. Sistemas going must movie Grandma Musica $80. Nothing takes a single student, okay? Nothing. Just talking to my love my little free. Yeah. Get a personal freedom. Okay? E don't really, really want to fight anymore. Thinking no more. Let me like a bit of it. Just let it be so come and put the same man Yes. Don't really, really want Take in the morning. Let me let me just let it be my mom and dad. Freedom freedom. And if I don't It's okay, baby. Okay? Don't really, really want to find any more. I don't really wanna take it. No more. Maybe like a little baby. Just let it be coming..
The Remarkable Leadership Podcast
"wayne" Discussed on The Remarkable Leadership Podcast
"My guest here is weighing trial. He's the co author of that book and Wayne i. I've been working together for a number of years. I believe i was on his podcast way back in the day three times or something like that and i believe this is the third time that he's been on with me once a couple of years ago once at the start of the pandemic when everyone was freaking out with all of the remote work stuff and now today to talk about this new book of ours long distance teammate. So wayne is a longtime expert in remote work in remote leadership. Row communication He's written a number of books. We'll talk about some of those as we go. He's not only written a number of business. Titles co written some of those with me. He's also written a number of novels..
BiggerPockets Money Podcast
"wayne" Discussed on BiggerPockets Money Podcast
"But you're going to come work so so is there so you said you might want to scale that back and that was going to be my suggestion. My husband eventually retired but when he was still working he's like i don't want to cut the cord completely. Can i go part time in. His office was like sure. We don't care it was. It was a lot of anxiety for him. I think too. I talked to them about it and to do what i'm going to do it. And then when he finally did it they like find whatever that's awesome so that was about two weeks ago it was like i'm going to scale back on the time and that's fine so what's happening though is is. He's getting the skill set of a millionaire business owner for fifty grand a year net. Whatever it is right. And so that. That's great. And i find that that dynamic but i think that if i'm thinking through your situation i would be thinking about how do i fairly and amicably begin the process of finding a good solution here because the reality is you're just gonna be more valuable to i. I would imagine without knowing anything else. Just hearing your position how you handle your business and your affairs. I have to imagine that you're valuable employees so lots of compliments flow in your way it all with all that but you know. I imagine that that's going to be a central problem for your father. In law the business owner in the sense that that you probably provide a good value. There some solution. If i'm just think through the problem beginning to articulate it that way one solution that potentially presents itself is finding a succession plan there too. You know who is somebody who really wants that job. Who can afford to give more time. And we'll go all into it because it really is their opportunity to grow outta we find that person and groom them potentially to begin. Take net over for you. I thank you that there is one gentleman who could take that position but he's already does not want the role so it's a work in progress definitely will see when the time comes if i do ramp it up and say hey listen i want to cut this out completely. Then have a different conversation but You know it's in the works. I would say yeah. A conversation can go because maybe maybe there's a bigger opportunity there. Maybe that wants to problems exposed at. It's very politely professionally and understanding the dynamics between the family. The family dynamics there. Maybe there's a way to have that conversation productively where you say. Look i for me. it's not scalable. Give my position anymore. You can even share this this podcast potentially and say look say with this you know. Here's the here's the situation as. I'm seeing it right now and i wondering if there's a better way to spend my time here maybe there's a chance to take even more significant role in operations if that's something that you wanted or begin scaling back or whatever but the current status quo. I think i think that's the elephant in the room in your financial position right now. Yeah i one. Hundred and ten percent agree The timing of everything has been probably the biggest struggle only because my wife has been out for the past six months for Externally so having just the two incomes right now we kind of Our toes into the new lifestyle in the new house and tried to navigate kobe with all of our tenants end of things. The dust is settling. I would say in definitely within the next couple of weeks to months where something's going to happen whether it's going to be one of us moves from our position so great beyond beyond that particular problem. What are are there. Any other big challenges that you're facing around around that cove it has thrown so many curve balls. We owned previous house that we're was our primary residents. We ended up having to give seller financing to that purchaser. Because of they were trying to close right at the end of march early april and they couldn't get financing because banks were tightening up a little bit so we have some money tied up in another property would love to know your thoughts on potentially somehow trying to get those funds out of there sooner because it's a three year balloon with thirty amateurs ation so i don't mind being the bang for the for him but i would love to gain access to funds to invest a little bit more sooner. That's for sure so you. You're the debt holder on on. How much That property he owes one ninety. Ah so you you're one hundred ninety thousand at four percent interest. You're not going to get that back until three years. Yeah we're about to worry about seven months Has he tried to refinance. I asked him a million times to try and refinance. He's like money's just so cheap right now he just didn't wanna do it and i kept saying almost like you know you can even get lower than the four percent. Why not take that opportunity. He just doesn't seem to be motivated. You have the power to force that or is it just kind of like a is it more a year and a half years diplomacy here and get him to want to do it. Yeah i think he's just gonna want to or need to have that pusher some some reason to think beyond your push of just like look. I'm going to call the entire note due in three years when it comes. Do you either have it looming over your head or you can refinance the sunshines and the interest rates low but. Yeah if he's not motivated unless it's worth it to you to financially incentivize him to speak to a lender and get that going. I mean what is his reason to at. Because i don't want a balloon coming up in three years. Rates could be five percent or more probably not but they could be for those listening by the way a balloon payment is when you have a mortgage and in this case he's pay. The borrower is paying interest. Only let sounds like for three years. After three years the entire hundred ninety thousand dollar balance will be due to wayne here right and so. That's what a balloon payment is as opposed to a traditional mortgage. That amortize over time you pay off the entire mortgage over the over the period. Yes so what are his plans when he doesn't have that hundred and ninety thousand dollars in one lump sum easing independent contractor. So i think he was going to take Like a line of credit out on his business or some type of credit line from his business to pay it off. I why i all these talk to him because he knew this to wait. I think this was a bad loan on your part. frankly with this because because putting myself in his shoes he's paying four percent interest only for a couple of years. that's a really late payment and some people. I don't know this person but some people are of that mind set of like. Oh wow like. I can either pay for Is nothing like a few hundred bucks a month at most right or finding out a connection or earth. Eleven hundred twelve hundred on. This thing is Is roughly a thousand. it's also he is an amortizing. Yes i over thirty years. I'm sorry i had okay. I'm sorry. I thought it was interest. Only it's not that bad a sorry. I retract what i said earlier. I'm happy to hear that. Then 'cause i was out in my head. I'm saying i thought it was a pretty good deal because he was not getting financing at the hour with The way the pandemic was moving at that time. Yeah okay great so yeah. I think that that could be demotivating. But in this case. I just think you're the bank at four percent interest loan and the difference between you in a traditional bank is. You can't just go and sell this load on the mortgage market because it's not a check every box on the conventional mortgage market says a little bit more risky for you. Maybe in the future you charge a higher interest rate to compensate for that. But in the meantime i don't think you have much leverage in in arbitraging this.