World Over - 2019-09-26 - Full Episode with Raymond Arroyo

Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats are pushing hard to impeach President Trump over a conversation he had with the Ukrainian president House Judiciary member Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner will respond and the president delivered an historic speech on religious liberty at the UN this week ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback is here with analysis and will the UK ever breaks it from the EU Niall Gardner of the Heritage Foundation will discuss and finally how can we navigate the madness of the modern PC culture deal Hudson author of how to keep from losing your mind is here with some practical advice the world over begins right now [Music] now from Washington DC Raymond Arroyo a warm welcome to all of you joining us in the United States and the world over a great show for you tonight Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner ambassador Sam Brownback Niall Gardner and deal Hudson are all straight ahead if you'd like to comment on tonight's show send me a tweet I'm at Raymond Arroyo Sam Brownback is coming up but first some breaking news House Democrats renewed their push to impeach President Trump this week in the wake of revelations that the president reportedly asked Ukraine's President to investigate the business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter the transcript of the phone call in question was released on Wednesday here with analysis of the situation and to explain the house rules governing impeachment is member of the House Judiciary Committee Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner congressman thank you for being here are you having a bit of deja vu about all of this congressman more horror than deja vu chairman Nadler has completely ignored the procedural safeguards that we used in the Clinton impeachment 20 years ago here's what he's done he has had hearings where the president has not been able to have witnesses come and defend the president prevent it presented defense he has broken house rules he is now talking about not having a vote establish formal impeachment inquiry which was done in both the Clinton and Nixon impeachments and the reason that he's doing that is that he is denying the President of the United States due process because with the formal inquiry the president will be able to present a defense will be able to cross-examine witnesses and let the American public know exactly what happened rather than having the far-left of Jerry Nadler Nancy Pelosi and the Judiciary Committee Democrats dominate the news cycle speaking of Nancy Pelosi I want to play this this was from earlier in the week actually before the full transcript of this conversation between the Ukraine president and Trump was released Nancy Pelosi had this very dramatic announcement of a formal impeachment watch and this week the president has admitted to asking the president of Ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically the action of the truck the actions of the trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections therefore today I'm announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry I'm directing our six committees to proceed with their investigations under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry the president must be held accountable no one is above the law what do you make of that announcement and what does this really mean congressman Sensenbrenner well it doesn't mean anything because she's refused to put on the floor a motion to have a formal impeachment inquiry which Republicans did against Clinton 20 years ago in which Democrats did against Nixon in 1974 once again the speaker's mouth has gone into third gear before her mind started up they didn't have a copy of the transcript of the speech with ukrainian President szalinski now we are seeing before the house votes on he demand that the whistleblowers complaint be submitted of the house that's being submitted as the house is debating this issue they want if they want to be a lynch mob the American public will understand this as such we ought to get back to legislating that's what we were elected to do rather than tying up the country and debating impeachment for the next nine months to a year yeah it seems like we just went through this for two years with the Russian collusion bit nothing came of that or the nothing but they could prosecute the President on or impeach him over so now it's this call with the Ukrainian president just to give the audience a fuller understanding I'm going to put up the transcript this was released on Wednesday here's what the change between presidents Olinsky and president Trump sounded like this is the relevant part everybody's talking about this is szalinski we are ready to continue to cooperate for the next step specifically we are almost ready to buy more javelins from the United States for defense purposes then President Trump says I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it I would like you to find out what happened with the whole situation with Ukraine they say CrowdStrike I guess you have one of your wealthy people the server they say Ukraine has it the other thing there's a lot of talk about Biden son that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so you can take a look into it it sounds horrible to me end quote now first of all that line about can you do me a favor congressman sensenbrenner that is what Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are hanging there impeachment talk on that that they they say that this is a quid pro quo implied all of us have asked friends or acquaintances to do them a favor there's not a quid pro quo involved in that it's just saying please look into this now what happened is is that Biden was in the Ukraine asking that the prosecutor that was investigating hunter Biden's sons company for corruption be fired now if this was done in the United States that's a clear case of obstruction of justice but I guess because it was done in the Ukraine it's not it's corrupt Biden got involved in this and his son was making over six hundred thousand dollars a year from the company that was being investigated I think that's outrageous and if that's the case maybe Biden is going to end up being the collateral damage for what this drive for impeachment Pelosi is decided to lead will happen does this any of this sound like a betrayal of the oath of office or of our national security to you you've been you've been on this committee on the on the judiciary for 40 years does it does it reek of corruption to you as Nancy Pelosi implies well you know clearly not you know we do have something that is called a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and if United States citizens are involved in any type of bribing of foreign government officials the Justice Department should go after them and they've done that a number of times because many cases the Foreign Corrupt Practices have ended up disadvantaging American companies that don't go bribing foreign officials to foreign companies that do and this is a way to protect American jobs and American businesses which is something Donald Trump has been for ever since he became a candidate for president yeah I want to play this for you this is a congressman Adam Schiff he is the chairman of the Intelligence Committee one of the committees and trusted by Pelosi with investigating these charges here's what he had to say about the conversation between szalinski and President Crump watch the notes of the call reflect a conversation far more damning than I or many others had imagined it is shocking at another level that the White House would release this these notes and felt that somehow this would help the president's case are caused because what those notes reflect is a classic mafia like shakedown of a foreign leader they reflect a Ukrainian president who was desperate for US support for military support to help that country in a hot war with Putin's Russia was this a mafia style shakedown in your estimation congressman Sensenbrenner and does it marry a call for impeachment or even an inquiry clearly dot in both counts you know the fact of the matter is is that the mainstream media over last weekend was talking about Trump talking about Biden eight times the transcript indicates that he only talked about Biden once and that was because of an issue that was raised by President Zielinski now you know my opinion is this is much ado about nothing and furthermore the inspector general who got this whistleblowers report forwarded on because it was based on hearsay and his cachet is only to investigate alleged misconduct in the intelligence community the President of the United States is not an employee of the intelligence community or any other Department what the Democrats are trying to do is to reverse the result of an election that happened in 2016 they're going to tie the country up we're not going to be legislating major problems and I doubt that if there is a Senate trial it will not happen until sometime in the early to late spring of next year when we're already in the season of having primary elections and choosing nominees if they want to get rid of President Trump you know rather than tying the Congress in the country up they ought to take their case to the American people and I doubt that a damaged Joe Biden are ultra left-wing socialist Elizabeth Warren is going to get the votes of Americans who don't want to be in the middle and don't want to have any taint of scandal which mr. Biden I think is God as a result of the events of the past week do you think this could ricochet back on Joe Biden you've got mention of this crowd Strike Group that secured these servers the DNC the Democratic National Committee apparently contracted with them but the servers are in Ukraine that's what the president was asking about it seems to my eye he was asking of foreign into to a foreign country to look into corruption in their country that may have affected our elections isn't that what everybody was so concerned about over the last two years well listening to my Democratic colleagues you know they thought that there was collusion between Trump and the Russian government the malla report very clearly indicated that there was none even though the Russian government tried the influence our election through popup ads on the internet and stuff like that so you know they they put all of their eggs in the Muller basket the bottom of the Muller basket ended up collapsing and the eggs fell on the floor and broke now they're looking at something else and I think that this is equally speculative and when the American people look at it away from the nonstop propaganda mill that we're hearing from the other side of the aisle they will see that this is just another hit job on a president that they have done nothing but hate since the moment the election results were announced in November of 2016 congressman Sensenbrenner I want to tie two things earlier in the interview you talked about Nancy Pelosi not wanting to bring this to a vote of the entire house that which would really be the trigger for a formal impeachment inquiry it's clear there are members of the Democratic caucus who don't want to vote on this because they've got an election they're facing and then on the other hand you've got these polls the mammoth poll 57% of Americans against impeachment a new Quinnipiac poll 57% of Americans against impeachment why risk this politically when you're so close to another election because she's got you know the left-wing led by the squad the four freshmen representatives on the Democratic side that have been pushing for impeachment and all other kinds of extremely left-wing socialist legislation that they want to get passed the American people aren't for the you know we're a moderate to conservative country and they were sick and tired of what had happened in the swamp and Donald Trump was able to put his finger on that and ended up winning the White House even though none of them expected that ever to happen but there is another thing that is involved in this as well and that is due process for the president without a formal vote on an impeachment inquiry which Pelosi might lose the fact is is that what is going on in the Judiciary Committee and other committees does not give the president due process he is not able to confront his accusers he is not able to put on his own witnesses and what they have done is completely forgotten in this country is that someone is innocent until proven guilty and if we ever flip that around where you're guilty until proven innocent you know one of the things that has made America the country that it is is the fact that you do have a presumption of innocence until either a jury or somebody else that is empowered to do that includes that you're not innocent and in a criminal case it's unanimous and beyond a reasonable doubt final question I mean you have real experience here you were mentioning something before we started that you you you really have a historical asterisk next to your career you're resigning at the end of this or you're gonna be in Congress till the end of this term relieving in in January tell inform people about you I mean you really hold a historical marker here for having been involved in more of these impeachment enquiries than anyone else what would your advice be to the White House and to the Democratic leadership about this rush to impeachment well I think the rush to impeachment the White House is going to have to take it seriously because Pelosi is I think is going to try to get the votes to keep her caucus in line at least until the election now she may lose some seats over this when the public sees how this plays out over the next year the Republicans are going to be you know very very aggressive which I hope I'm doing right now you know and pointing out that this latest iteration which involves the transcript with the president of Ukraine you know it's nothing more than hot air and you know hopefully they will turn their concern about global warming and closing down some of the hot air that is coming you know I have done as a manager a prosecutor elected by the house for impeachments in the Senate the Clinton impeachment and for federal judges who are impeached and removed from office in the history of the country there have only been 19 or 20 impeachments ever voted by the house only one against the president because Clinton was impeached and tried Nixon resigned which dropped the impeachment charges but nobody has handled more impeachment trials in the Senate than I have in the history of the country so I do have an institutional memory and what they don't realize as the Senate requires that everything be proven from scratch meaning we lawyers say it has to be tried de novo and it is one heck of a lot of work to be able to put together a case where you start out with a blank sheet of paper and again you're dealing with reversing the decision that the voters made in 2016 hmm do you see this stretching clear to the next election yeah I mean that process you just described we are clearly looking at something that could run till November of 2020 well they're going to try to speed it up by narrowing the focus on this there's some talk in the democratic caucus of only using the R you crane Fiasco mad ler has already said that he is continuing to investigate the other thing is that the Judiciary Committee has been tied up in doing and this mean that if the first impeachment fails they're going to try and try and try again because they never can take no for an answer they didn't take no for an answer when the people of this country elected Donald Trump they're now taking no for an answer on having one investigation after the other there are 20 separate investigations going on in these six House committees and you know then when there's a Justice Department investigation or two or three you know they cry bloody murder you know the hypocrisy here you know it's just overwhelming and the American public is going to have to look behind the hypocritical press releases and MSNBC interviews to figure out exactly what's going out it's angrist from doing the business we were elected to do congressman Sensenbrenner I'm gonna have to leave it there I thank you so much for your insight and for being here and we will talk to you in the coming days thank you very much Raymond president Trump visited UN headquarters in New York this week to shine a light on the problem of global religious persecution in doing so he became the first u.s. president in history to host a meeting at the UN on the subject of religious freedom joining me now with his analysis of this historic event is the ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom at the US State Department Sam Brownback mr. ambassador thank you for being with us I want to give people a glimpse of the president's global call to protect religious freedoms here's how he began the United States is founded on the principle that our rights do not come from government they come from God regrettably the religious freedom enjoyed by American citizens is rare in the world approximately 80 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened restricted or even banned today with one clear voice the United States of America calls upon the nations of the world to end religious persecution ambassador Brownback president Trump also announced the u.s. is committing 25 million dollars to protect religious freedoms religious sites and relics from attacks how will that money be used that's being developed now next week I'll be at a conference in Morocco that we're going to be doing with AIG and others in the Moroccan government to discuss these religious heritage sites many of them that have been degraded fallen into disrepair in some cases destroyed because of opposition to that faith and we're going to be talking about how do those things get protected how can we how can we lift them back up and how can we make them into the valuable sites again that they are and the world can recognize the beauty of what they've given to their countries in their areas now ambassador Brownback how practically will this initiative works that the president unveiled at the UN how do you you and your confreres interact with these other countries to move forward the cause of religious liberty and freedom you know I actually I think these things are tied together the big thing the president put out though was the International Religious Freedom Alliance and the Secretary Pompeo talked even further about that about if you're a country that loves religious freedom come join us so we are asking for other nations who value and treasure and are willing to push for religious freedom to join us in this alliance to push this cause around the world because religious freedom has degraded over the years and we've got so many people records numbers of people being persecuted for their faith now now some critics say that the president's call for this protection of religious freedom is a plate of his political base other critics like rabbi Jack Moline was president of the Interfaith Alliance say this president Trump was elected on the promise of a complete and utter shutdown of Muslim immigration in the u.s. since then his administration has worked tirelessly to redefine religious freedom as a license to discriminate end quote how would you respond to that I totally disagree with this here is a fundamental human right the first amendment to the United States Constitution and our Bill of Rights it's in the UN Declaration of Human Rights one of the fundamental charters section 18 is about religious freedom but it has been degraded over the years and nobody has stood up and fought for it this administration is fighting for this right for people everywhere all the time around the world the United States we're not perfect by any means but we're one of the best in the world on religious freedom and we're going to push that because it's a fundamental right it's a god-given right for everybody everywhere around the world ambassador approximately 80% as the president said 80% of the world's population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened restricted or banned did the president raise religious rights with Pakistan's p.m. or Egyptian President al-sisi I don't know if he raised it specifically with them we have it in our report every year we do a Religious Freedom report the United States government does it's the gold standard around the world and we raise those issues and put them out there and then I discuss it in the Secretary of State's discuss it I don't know about the president's meetings if he has or not but I'd also say on this Raymond this administration has done more to pursue and push International Religious Freedom than any administration has before we are pushing it we're certainly not perfect but this needs to have a broad basis of push we'll have a meeting in the Vatican with the Vatican officials next week to discuss this very topic of religious freedom and how we push it together ambassador how does the u.s. justify relations with countries like with China who are some of the worst abusers of religious freedom or Saudi Arabia how do you square that with this devotion to human rights and religious rights I squared under the idea that we need to engage and I've been very critical both of those governments and many people around the United States government have but we believe it better in those cases to engage and to try to push him on forward in some cases we put some pretty heavy sanctions on forward and people were they don't like that but I think it's key that we do engage but with the bigger piece on this right now Raymond is this alliance we needed to be more than the United States we needed to be other nations to engage and help us with this push president Trump also used his time at the UN to speak on the international right to life here's what he say Americans will also never tire of defending innocent life we are aware that many United Nations projects have attempted to assert a global right to taxpayer-funded abortion on demand right up until the moment of delivery global bureaucrats have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life like many nations here today we in America believe that every child born and unborn is a sacred gift from God ambassador Brownback you were there at the UN well how was that received by the international community what did people tell you well I think people receive it as this is a clear statement from the United States president there are nations in places that don't agree with it there are groups and causes that do agree with it and I just this is one of the key divisive issues of the day is that is the question about the sacredness of human right and when I'm human life and if when does that attach we believe it it begins at the very moment of conception and the president was bold and aggressive in putting that statement out in front of the UN I'm not sure if something that clear has been said by United States president ever before no I think not at the UN no not at that level in fact I can remember covering Hillary Clinton years ago at the UN Population Conference where it was just the opposite message nonetheless several countries and women's groups have expressed alarm at those comments they claim the u.s. is putting unfair pressure on poor countries that depend on US aid to deny women abortion access you would say what well I I would say this has been a long-term political debate in the United States on this taxpayer funding of abortion and you can really generally get a Democrat administration in and they want to fund it you get a Republican administration and they don't want to fund it I'd say this is part of that ongoing discussion and debate within the United States other nations need to decide their own position and view on this this issue of the sacredness of life climate change really was center stage at these UN meetings earlier in the week Pope Francis even sent a message to the UN or he had this to say UN to Atanas initiate Eva's no sólo por parte de Rojo beer no sin a de toda la sociedad Seville en Cesario preguntar say she exists a una verdadera voluntad oolitic ax para destin our Maggiore cursos Amano's financiero Z technological half indemnity Garros effect of negative owes del cambio climatic oh yes Adela publisher neighs map oversee vulnerable a case under que mató so free O'Hara citation no inguinal Planeta so free la ventana para una oportunidad de esta abierto todavía todavía tamos a tiempo no dijimos sec or a umano integral para asegurar la generaciones foto de una vida mejor de ellos no no it ambassador what do you make of the Pope suggesting that there's a lack of political will to deal with climate change and really throwing the moral force of the Vatican behind it well this is not my portfolio obviously because I'm in the religious freedom space but what I would say on this issue is that the United States is very concerned about what takes place to the environment and we've been one of the more aggressive countries on cutting back our impact to the environment even though we don't get a lot of credit for it because the rhetoric sometimes is seen is in a different category if you look at the actual efforts and the actual things that have been done by the United States and by a number of good groups in the United States to reduce the co2 emissions and to really be effective in this space there not many countries that have been as as successful in addressing this issue as the United States even if the rhetoric that is such that what people don't like before I let you go ambassador Brown back in China this week Christian churches have been ordered to take down displays of the ten commandments and replace them with quotes from Jing ping which promote socialism and warn against the influence of the West on China now some have not complied and they've been in prison or the church has been shut down worshippers at non-compliant churches have reportedly been threatened with governmental blacklisting restricted travel the children of some believers have been barred from schools and jobs your response to that story well my response is just I think this is horrific of what's taking place in China China is at war with faith it's a war with fall faiths it's at war with Christians it's been at war with Muslims with Tibetan Buddhists Falun Gong groups and I think this should stop they are signed on to the UN ject Declaration of Human Rights they have in their Chinese Constitution the right to religious freedom and yet they're persecuting their own people and it doesn't mean that in a faith that you can write the faith the way you want it in your country the Christianity was written a long time ago it doesn't need to be sino sized and so really I would hope they would stand up for the right of the Chinese citizen to practice their own faith the way they see fit rather than being driven into this dogmatic government-run view of a faith that's that's not the true faith itself sam brownback thank you so much for being with us and to learn more about the work of the ambassador-at-large on behalf of International Religious Freedom you can visit the US State Department website there at state.gov thank you for being here Britain's highest court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks in the crucial countdown to the country's brigs at deadline was illegal Supreme Court president Brenda Hale said the suspension was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification end quote the decision immediately prompted calls for johnson to quit House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said in a written statement that the ruling vindicated the right and duty of Parliament to meet at this crucial time to scrutinize the executive and hold ministers to account Johnson who is in New York for the UN General Assembly has refused to say whether he will resign joining us to analyze all of this is director of the Margaret that your Center for freedom at the Heritage Foundation Nile gardener Nile thank you for being here pleasure to have you back now Johnson has claimed that he shut down Parliament to prepare for this new session he was given a green light by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the Supreme Court claims the suspension of Parliament was unlawful but did not rule on Johnson's motives however many in the UK are saying his motive was a contempt of democracy and abuse of power your bones well I think that Boris Johnson motive really is to deliver democracy I mean he is 100% committed to delivering the brexit referendum result from 2016 which is the will of the British people prorogation or suspension of Parliament as it's known is not unusual in British politics happens every single year in this case perhaps the the propagation was longer than typical but this is perfectly normal parliamentary procedure multiple governments have used this and I have to say that the Supreme Court decision here is being widely attacked by by brexit ears as an intervention by the Supreme Court in parliamentary affairs and procedure highly unusual actually and there's no precedent for this at all and so Johnson has accepted the ruling but he is saying that it's another example of those who are trying to stop brexit from happening basically acting in this in this case and so he is calling for Parliament here to respect the will of the British people and move forward with Brett said on October the 31st and Boris Johnson isn't going to be resigning he isn't going to be going anywhere he's going to be staying as prime ministaire are all those calls for his resigning and even I was stunned I was watching the BBC and there was Nigel Faraj saying that Boris should at least offer his resignation to Parliament not leave but off of the resignation it really out of respect to the to the body your thoughts well I think Boris Johnson should stay where he is and continue to lead the British country the British people he is a man who I think is firmly committed to delivering democracy which is what the Braxtons vote was all about seventeen point four million Britons voted to leave the European unity in 2016 Johnson is fully committed to doing so unfortunately the remain as in Parliament are doing everything they possibly can to try and block brexit and as the Attorney General I was saying today at his view is that the current Parliament is is dead it simply doesn't respect the democratic will of all the British people what do you make that the timeline isn't moving as you said a moment ago October 30 31st is the day yes will he find the support he needs in this what you just said is a dead Parliament the fact is that may be dead but they're still holding their seats yeah that's that that's true and so Johnson has a couple of options here firstly he's trying to get a deal with the European Union and a withdrawal agreement that will be acceptable to to Parliament that's going to be very very difficult of course for the for the Prime Minister to get not least because the majority of Parliament at the moment is against his against brexit the second option of course is to go around the demand of Parliament requesting an extension to article 50 of the European Union treaty Johnson has said he's not going to agree to that extension he has said he's going to deliver brexit on October 31st I think it's absolutely right to promise to deliver Breck's in October 31st because Parliament here is not fulfilling the wishes of the British people and that's the role of Parliament implement the Democratic will of the British fuel they're simply not doing that Johnson is saying he's going to move forward with brexit or a table 31st which is the legal default position now what about the suspension of Parliament he's claiming Boris Johnson is that he will suspend Parliament again can he do that now in light of this ruling what he can do say I think he has the right to prorogued Parliament again no doubt the courts will have their say again on this on this matter but certainly as a prime minister he has the right to call for the suspension of Parliament once again and we'll have to see what what happens Ernie Johnson is holding that out as a possibility right now or if no deal can be made with the EU what happens to the British economy I mean this this is this was the same thing that was hanging over Teresa may said yeah so if Britain exits under a new deal scenario on October the Britain is going to do just fine outside of the European Union under a no deal scenario simply means that Britain trades with the rest of the world on a world trade organization of terms and Britain is the world's fifth largest economy there's a huge amount of foreign investment continuing to flow into into Britain in the brac cetera I think Britain's going to do very very well outside of the EU under a no deal scenario and already president Trump has indicated that the United States it's got a fully support Great Britain deal or no deal with the wait year and this is a great segue this is Boris Johnson and Donald Trump this week at the UN General Assembly talking about trade between the two countries watch now we can quadruple our trade with UK and we can I think we were doing a big job of lighthouses here our Trade Representative your trade representative is here and I certainly hope that we can make a lot of progress quite fast bump in the UK depending on its trade with the US it could actually see a boost in its economy yeah absolutely I think that a US UK free trade deal would be great for both the US and the British economy already over a million Britons rely upon US companies for their for their jobs and vice versa and we have a huge amount of trade investment we between the world's largest and fifth largest economies a US UK free trade deal would further advance that trade and investment across the Atlantic creating a lot of additional jobs for British and American workers so this is a win-win situation for both sides president travels 100% committed to a US UK free trade agreement that's great news for brexit Britain the president ratcheted up the the tough talk against China this week also at the UN I want to play a little bit of this for you and then get your reaction on how this plays in Britain how important is the u.s. cracking down on on China for its trade violations how does that affect the UK watch the American people are absolutely committed to restoring balance to our relationship with China hopefully we can reach an agreement that would be beneficial for both countries but as I have made very clear I will not accept a bad deal for the American people the implication here is he won't accept a bad deal for the rest of the world either because if the United States were to accept it really the rest of the world would have to go along yeah I think person has an interest in China playing by by the rules that everyone else follows on the world stage and China has been playing by the rules for many many decades and President Trump has said enough is enough and and certainly I think the United Kingdom would benefit from China changing its behavior and also I think the United Kingdom would benefit from a China that also does not seek to steal intellectual property for example or infiltrate the the security networks through 5g for example right and so I think that it's in Britain's interests for for a China to play by the rules that everyone else plays by on the international stage at the same time though I think the Great Britain would be concerned there about a larger trade war that worried I could possibly come and so certainly the UK would like to see a us-china trade deal but the Chinese really have to make significant concessions for that to happen I want to shift gears slightly but this is related and it's often not reported this way there was a lot of media attention on the climate summit this week on the edges of the UN meeting the General Assembly meeting gretta Thornburg that the 16 year old activist from Sweden had this to say about climate change watch you have stolen my dreams in my childhood with your empty words yet I'm one of the lucky ones people are suffering people are dying entire ecosystems are collapsing we are in the beginning of a mess distinction and all you can talk about is the money and fairytales of eternal economic growth no I want newer thought because she subsequently along with some other teens listed countries that they would like to see act on climate change notable on that list for its absence was China yes your thoughts on what impact this could have on trade as well as human rights using this climate agenda if you will yeah well i think that china is the world's biggest polluter and yet you don't see calls for china right all of the focuses upon upon the united states there's a great deal of America bashing that goes on among a climate activists of course and there's a lot of anti-capitalist sentiment as well that is there and without a doubt I think that you know these climate activists should be focusing upon the real polluters in the world especially upon China who without a doubt do more actually to pollute the world and than any other country yeah no it was remarkable but they would carve out China's and as as someone a longtime UN Rapporteur told me this week had Greta Thornburg and these other climate activists tried to do this protest in Beijing yes they would be quickly rounded up in silence they wouldn't have to worry about you know doing the rounds of the talk show that's not that's the irony of it isn't it and they're not they're not focusing on on on China actually are I want to move on before we go and talk about Iran again Iran was a centerpiece of discussion at the UN this week the president president Trump raised it I want your reaction to this and what we could be seeing next all nations have a duty to act no responsible government should subsidize Iran's bloodlust as long as I runs menacing behavior continues sanctions will not be lifted they will be tightened are the sanctions working Nile and what is the reaction to the rest of the world when they hear that well I think the sanctions are working actually and what you're seeing with the Iranian regime is a desperate regime lashing out it's a regime that's in serious trouble the Iranian economy is sinking to its knees you have soaring inflation rising unemployment you have economic growth that is negative in in Iran this is an economy in deep deep trouble US sanctions are hitting very very hard and so I would argue that the maximum pressure regime is having the effect that's intended it's weakening Iran's ability actually to in the long term I think act as the world's biggest state sponsor of international terrorism but you are seeing the Iranian regime lashing out trying to intimidate trying to get those sanctions lifted we mustn't in any way lessen our God reduce the sanctions that are in place we mustn't follow for example the advice of Emmanuel macron I was about to say who is trying to facilitate a deal here exactly as brought everybody back to the table including the u.s. he calms yeah exactly Mac Ron is proposing some kind of 15 billion dollar bailout fund for for Iran which is the typical French approach to these things which is one of complete utter appeasement even surrender frankly mm-hmm well we'll keep our eye on this but I agree with you this is a dangerous regime in the region its own is thank you guys for being here you can also follow the work of Niall Gardner at the Heritage Foundation the shifting sands of prevailing culture can certainly be difficult to navigate how can we avoid the politically correct groupthink that dominates all over society my next guest has a simple remedy revisit the classics is the author of a new book how to keep from losing your mind educating yourself classically to survive cultural indoctrination here to tell us all about it is editor the Christian review.com deal Hudson now I want to start with why you wanted to write a book like this this was a surprising book I have to tell you I've read a lot of your books this felt the most personal I wanted to write Raymond what I've loved all my life and really what I loved that led me into the Catholic Church if you recall I wrote a conversion story you know and many of the same themes about beauty about the appeal of the arts the importance of fiction and music are in my conversion story but I decided you know it's been a long time yeah so I decided to as it were let it all hang out I just laid my heart bare in this book these are the things I love and in a time when there's so much negativity I mean news front pages it's all filled with criticism and anger and hatred and accusations I said to myself you know it's I want to lay out what gives me joy I want to lay out what makes me wiser you know yeah I want to lay out what makes me more human and so I I really dug as deeply within myself as I could and I came up with this book yeah well I love the line you Socrates quoted inside and you say wisdom or Socrates says wisdom begins in wonder and this is kind of filled with artistic wonder musical wonder even films why now you talk about a teacher you met eerily in high school oh is the Jan and I know well I'm here being a teacher but he was a janitor tell that story and how that led you to this book I was in the senior play and I was only there because I wanted to kiss the girl playing on earth I always a good riot after rehearsal one night the janitor asked me to come talk to him he was a younger handsome man and he asked me if I had ever read Plato I said no or Socrates no and he said he gave me his beautiful Princeton bound dialogues of Plato and then he said ah I want I want you to read these and come back and when I came back the first question was what precedes first existence or essence and I didn't realize he was introducing me to the main philosophical and theological issue that I would go on to study for the rest of my life Wow I did say existence yes I got it right you got it I would have said essence so yeah that's why that's why you're a news guy book how to keep from losing your mind about what against what what are we losing our minds to that this what you suggest here is somehow the restorative well--we're gets constantly getting the message that nothing is true really you know nothing is true my truth yeah my sisters were my feelings right and so forth and we're constantly getting the message that all the traditional morals all the traditional manners and customs that you and I learned growing up are not necessary to live a good life in fact some of them are inherently racist some of them are parently against women some of them are inherently a product of white privilege and so forth and so we're constantly being told that the world you and I and many of many of your listeners grew up in was completely wrong and you should tear it up and start over and I decided to go back and by relying on the text the music the films that have shaped our lives I mean deeply shaped our lives and shape us even when we don't know they're shaping us to go back to those and say to the reader let's take another look and you know the Internet has now made all these things and put them right at our fingertips and you can basically listen to the entire history of classical music on YouTube you can get all the great texts of the Western world free you can download the text on Gutenberg for example yeah and then the issue of film almost everything is available for maybe six dollars a month if you go on The Criterion channel these classic movies that I talked about including John Ford the three Godfather's a great John window solo break David Lynch the straight story which is amazing film about forgiveness and transformation it comes about forgiveness I mean these are things I'm saying look give these things a chance maybe maybe you left them behind and they'll just lift you up this is really this book is really art as formation I'm as personal formation yes that's really what this is and you open at one point with real cos great poem whose always been one of my favorite poets but in this day and age the value of poetry and its presence has really diminished enormous Lee yeah and it's too bad because I I quote and discuss one of Dana joy as great poems about going into a clinic where children are dying and it's so overpowering I mean poetry as it were gets passed all our defenses right always it poetry like music and philosophers have pointed out the connection between poetry and music but it gets past us and it resonates at a deeper level than just straight narrative and there are lines in your favorite poet whether it's Chaucer or Shakespeare who I deal with or Dante who I deal with that just kind of brand you on the heart in a way that you never get rid of ya know I'm one of those foolish people who drive around listening to Shakespeare I know you probably had a lot of a memorize well I I do but I but there's there's nothing like that it always it does it hit you like knives coming at you in different ways and you never expect it it's sometimes you're in a moment that day and that the phrase you thought you knew your whole life will suddenly open up to you that's the beauty of poetry music it it cracks our soul open a bit and let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments love is not love when it alteration finds or move with the remover to remove yeah that's it and there it is I've known that poem for 50 years what are you what's been the reaction I'm interested in well Raymond actually is this is really a curated tour when I'm dealing what since favorite work when I handed in this book to tan who great publisher by the way I felt like I was taking a big risk I had really laid myself open this was very personal for me this is what I love this why I care about this is what I consider valuable for other people to look at I was recommending all this stuff but the reviews on Amazon and the personal comments that have been made to me the review on the American expect ATAR by Frank Buckley all been amazingly positive I'm sort of waiting for somebody to come slap me and say wait a minute you know stay tuned Eli might be right no I want the the Kindle version I love because it's got all the hyperlinks to either the documents or the music you can watch vogner I mean it's all it that's really the way to experience this via can almost everything I recommend I have put in hyperlinks either to film scenes from the movies the entire performance of the music I recommend I mentioned dom john Dallin the great Elizabethan composer and I give you a hyperlink to a recording of all his songs and so forth and yeah I mean this is one of the great things about living in a virtual world there's absolutely no excuse not to educate yourself well what do you what do you say to people and I'm sure they're out there they say wait a minute I got the kids I got the grandkids I'm barely making ends meet it's too late for me all this stuff is this is this is college seminar stuff you'd say what take some time to yourself close the door turn off the music turn off the phone take a half an hour take an hour pick up a book that you've always wanted to read or you want to reread just go do it and what you find is you you come out of that door enriched you carry joy with you you have a different look in your eye and you're really better for all those people that you locked out for a half an hour an hour yeah you know my old acting coach Stella Adler used to say this platform is important she would stand on the stage and say this is where we teach the war world what humanity looks like and reminds them of their humanity and I dare say that is the artists role I mean that's really what we should all be doing what they should be doing and that's not always the case today it's become it's become warped in so many ways with personal agendas and politics and the really petty concerns compared to that big mission and I address that in the middle of the book I I warn the reader you know we're multiculturalism has led where post-modernism is read where radical feminism has read and basically this thing there's no common human nature and where there's no common human nation there's no common human narrative and the ability to compare books compare books to music compare films to books is dependent upon there being a common human nature and I basically argue and I think it can't be refuted that there is a common human nature even among those who claim there is not I love the section on Don Quixote that you and you go through there's certain key works that you expand on the book and share your own revelations about it she went into the tell us about Don Quixote what you discovered when you came back to it I guess or read a biography of Cervantes yes you know this happened to me over and over during this book I went back to books I hadn't read since maybe college or grad just like Huckleberry Finn or oh yeah great you know or The Scarlet Letter and I would get in about 20 or 30 pages I go wow this is it's totally new it's totally fresh I'm seeing things there that I never saw before I mean I was a young man yeah and in the case of Don Quixote which I compared to Shakespeare's Winter's Tale because Shakespeare and Cervantes were contemporary right the case of Don Quixote I found someone I got identified with he had ideals he had perhaps foolish ideals he had dreams he revered the past he revered the past of heroes of ladies and distress of night's rest skewing them from danger and I relate to that I mean this anyone who at who aspires daily to know more to find more beauty in life to be a better person has got to see in Don Quixote amira themselves yeah and and I love the Sancho Panza revelation do you want to share that or you won't is it too much to give well we saw to poncy you find there's like that are totally gone I have to tell you in my and I've read it twice yeah I never really saw that until I saw two panja you have someone who first of all realizes the foolishness a donkey Hanauma but totally accepts it embraces it and defends it right he knows that he's not that that man whom he admires but he understands those kind of men need loyalty they deserve it no it's spectacular okay now I noticed there is no Gershwin Berlin or Sinatra so will that be in the subsequent great American reads yeah how to keep you from losing your mind in America I actually think there ought to be a book that does the same thing except with the best of American pop culture yeah yeah I mean I I almost get into that a little bit some of the films like use with the Godfather yeah and but I think that it can be done not just with the great books it should be done with these for example the American Great American Songbook which involves Sinatra and Adam Cole and all these guys Cole Porter Irving Berlin and so forth and my favorite Jerome Kern oh yeah but because I think the best of our pop culture brings us to the same place of self-discovery and humanity as a classic book your back to humanity and the the the codes and truths that are knitted into the human person that unites us all listen this book is premised on the fact that all human beings desire God all human beings in desiring God desire the the true and the beautiful I'm assuming the authors the composers of filmmakers regardless of what they claim they are possess this desire for God which was how their art came forth from that desire great deal Hudson thank you for being here how to keep from losing your mind educating yourself classically to survive cultural indoctrination by Dale Hudson is available at bookstores everywhere and online well that's all the time we have for now until next week the show continues on Facebook and Twitter you can like me on Facebook follow me on Twitter the links are at Raymond Arroyo dot-com and be sure to tune in to next week's show until then we'll be scouting the world over for all that is seen and unseen on behalf of the staff and crew of EWTN news thank you for watching I'm Raymond Arroyo from Washington DC I know you

Channel: EWTN

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Length: 59min 51sec (3591 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 26 2019