Today's Issues continues on AFR with Ed Battagliano
>> Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Ed Battagliano.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And welcome back, everybody. Ed Battagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon this week, joined in studio by Fred Jackson and Wesley Wildmon. Chris Woodward has departed the studio to go to, continue his other job here, another part of his job covering the news. And in steps Steve Paisley Jordal. Or should I say Steve Flamingo Jordal.
>> Steve Jordahl: I think that is.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I like that shirt. You've had that before.
>> Steve Jordahl: Don't confuse people.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, it is a black shirt, which I'm always partial to black or blue. And it's got flamingos on lsd. Yes. With, what would you call that? That color pattern. I'm not sure what. That's water.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Oil.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Water.
>> Steve Jordahl: Oil.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Water. Oil.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Think about oil and water.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, I like. I like that.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Oil.
>> Fred Jackson: There's only one explanation for Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah. Oh, I want to hear this.
>> Fred Jackson: He's from California.
>> Steve Jordahl: That's true.
>> Ed Vitagliano: California. Although, enough said.
>> Steve Jordahl: See, you guys are talking to Matt Staver. Matt's from Florida. And, he and I go back years, decades, actually. We've been talking and doing work together. And, he, said it was great to have a flamingos. Like, I was welcoming him because he's Florida.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Florida flamingos.
>> Steve Jordahl: So, yeah, you know, I got to tell you, so at the ACTIVATE conference, I met a lot of people. We have great listeners, but to a person, they wondered where my Paisley was. So next year I'm gonna have to find some way to put some paisley on for the.
>> Ed Vitagliano: For the fans. You gotta. You gotta keep the fans happy.
>> Steve Jordahl: I'll keep our listeners and our donors happy. That's for sure.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, yeah, absolutely.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Who are fans of yours.
>> Ed Vitagliano: But they. They want to see the paisley.
>> Steve Jordahl: You gotta give the page.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You got to give the people what they want. So.
Liberty Council is taking on a lot of Covid cases
>> Steve Jordahl: All right, you guys were talking in that last, hour. And I also. I don't know if you guys, you know, I don't think I didn't hear the whole thing, but I don't think you guys had a chance at time to talk about this. His law firm is one of the leading, if not the only law firm that's taking on a lot of these Covid cases, churches that were shut down or zoned out, masked things, mandates, illegal firings. he has waited neck deep into the COVID stuff. And he is defending, religious and other freedoms, individual freedom, as well.
>> Ed Vitagliano: As seeking, I'm guessing, punitive damages for, organizations or companies or governments that, acted. He's Doing either illegally or unconstitutionally.
>> Steve Jordahl: But, but yeah, if you have a Covid complaint, he's your man.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Liberty Council. And we gave out the website for that lc.org if you want to contact them for your case. Good point. All right, Steve, go.
All databases of SEPA bank in Iran reportedly wiped in suspected cyber attack
>> Steve Jordahl: Alright, so I have several reports, from several sources. None of them major news sources. But I'm reading that all the databases of SEPA bank, which is one of the largest banks in Iran, were erased in cyber attack. All the ATMs are non functional. Customers can't withdraw cash. In fact, there's no indication that the bank even knows who has what cash anymore.
>> Fred Jackson: Who would, who would do such a thing?
>> Steve Jordahl: I don't know.
>> Ed Vitagliano: How do you spell that?
>> Steve Jordahl: Sepa S E P A H Bank.
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, so Fred, explain. Explain your point that's made. And I looked over at you, saw you grinning. you're probably on the right, on the right track. Well, what are you thinking?
>> Fred Jackson: Well, think exploding pagers. All right, think of that. Number one, think about in the last four days, the ability to pinpoint where an Iranian general was sleeping at 2:30 in the morning. And it all comes back, to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, which not too many people argue against the fact that they are the best in the world. Well, and, and then we had the story off the top of the show today, that the Iranians are telling their people not to use their laptops and their cell phones because the Israelis probably are using them to track where these individuals are.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Steve, you mentioned that these were not large news sources.
>> Steve Jordahl: I would say this is unconfirmed but reported in several.
>> Ed Vitagliano: What I'm, what I was going to say is that might have been earlier in the day. I don't see it on Fox, but Times of Israel, Axios, Jerusalem Post, dailytimes.com. i'm not sure.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, that's an Indian.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So these are all mentioning what you're talking about. So it looks like this may be an actual thing. And I'm with Fred. That's, that's the Mossad, That's Israel, or at least Israel adjacent, somebody in support of them. one of these articles also mentioned gas stations being disrupted.
>> Steve Jordahl: So, so this is you could argue that this is not a military target. No one's dying in this kind of thing. But I imagine this is an attempt. This is in my imagination, speculation on my part, for the Mossad to push the Iranian people towards getting a new government.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Steve Jordahl: If they find that they have no Money. Their world's in chaos and they're blaming their, the mullahs for this because the mullahs started the war. I think that's just fomenting a little bit of anger on the ground.
>> Ed Vitagliano: There on the other side. Just, I think this is pretty cool story. but also remember that our enemies have these capabilities too, and we do. I'm sure that it, so bury your money in the backyar, put it in the mattress. No, I, I, you should be prepared. Not everyone can do this, but you should be prepared with some cash on hand. Because in a hot war, for example, between the US and China, or even if China just decides to invade Taiwan, they might, as a precursor to that, a preemptive strike, try to toss the US into some chaos by doing the same thing to banks. So, and again, not everyone can, can buy, five gallon buckets full of rice and beans, but those kinds of things, you should take some steps to, to at least get you through a week or two.
>> Steve Jordahl: I'm just coming over disasters.
>> Ed Vitagliano: No, no, don't come to my house. I'm going to be at my son's house.
>> Steve Jordahl: Okay? We're all meeting at Tony's house.
>> Ed Vitagliano: He, he's, he's the, the prepper dude in the family.
>> Steve Jordahl: So, I, we were talking yesterday, you remember, about the Mossad and how they snuck agents into Iran and launched, drones from within like a mile of these launching sites without Iran, knowing a thing. I was talking yesterday with Gary Bauer and we were kind of amazed at, you know, doing the whole, I'm amazed at how good the Mossad is. And then he kind of turned the corner and gave me a little bit of a chill when he said, you know, we have had open borders for the last administration, Billions of, of people, many of them, if not most of the military age, young men.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Steve Jordahl: Got over the border, we don't know where they are. He says it's without question that there are people pre positioned in our country.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes. And the fact is, some of them I have no idea about percentages. I'm just, I'm just going by what our enemies can do without being able to prove how many are on their side. But the Iranians, I'm sure, have what they call sleeper cells in the U.S. the only thing probably keeping them from being, sent, into action is probably the knowledge that that would be considered an act of war against the, the U.S. but the Biden administration did, for four years, untold damage to this country. Much of which has not become apparent because of the kinds of people that have been allowed into the country. And when these. And you know, I know Wesley, you don't care about this issue on immigration.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Oh yeah, exactly. And immigration. I was wondering where you were going with that because I knew it was sarcasm. I just didn't know where you were going. but if you look at the, these terrorist groups in the Middle east, they had their hands full right now with Israel that I don't know if attacking us from a strategy wise is a good time for them. So that may be to our advantage, to our favor right now. However, I've heard the same thing that Steve was reporting on and that's that you. And that it doesn't take a genius to realize just sheer number of illegal immigrants or the invasion that took place at the border during Biden administration. Somebody or a lot of somebody's came here with bad intentions.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Beyond just gang members.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.
>> Wesley Wildmon: I mean which is all a problem and there's so many other problems. But if you think about all the way back to like an attack like 9, 11, that, that type of planning, there's been years, there's been plenty of time for something like that to be planned. Having an open border which goes back. We got time. I think looking at the clock, that there is a lot bigger issue now. There was the national threat to what took place during the Biden administration of the invasion was not emphasized enough.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: In my opinion, even. Even amongst the most conservative news outlets from a national threat standpoint. It was, we did. Our side did do a good job of pointing out the fact that they're breaking the law.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: it's causing Americans, to lose jobs, that gang members. I think Trump, Trump campaign did a good, a better job of pointing out the gang members and the violent crime that was coming over. But, and that. Because that was, that was firsthand.
Reporters need to emphasize what to do about potential terrorist attacks
We were seeing that firsthand. But now that we're at the point. We are now it's time for us to as, as reporters to emphasize that what are we going to do about the potential terrorist.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And I do remember, I do remember Ron DeSantis before he dropped out. Now this goes back many years now, but Ron DeSantis, while he was running, he did, he, he did emphasize that.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That we're, that we are allowing that there, that there could potentially be a terrorist attack and it would have happened.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Because of it could be coordinated attacks all across the country.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And his point, what he said that. That you could. You will be able to trace it back to the open border. That's what he said.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Absolutely.
>> Wesley Wildmon: So.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And. And it will be to the everlasting shame of. Of the Democratic Party leaders.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Who have been. Who have defended Joe Biden for four years. Covered up for him. Alejandro Mayorkas, one of those. But then also who currently are going after Trump, trying to clean out the mess that, Biden created.
>> Steve Jordahl: It'll be to his detriment. Unless you're reading the New York Times, which case, they'll blame Trump.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Sure. And that will be hard to do, but they'll try, for sure.
The Trump administration is imposing a travel ban on dozens of more countries
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: All right.
>> Steve Jordahl: The Trump administration is imposing a travel ban on dozens of more countries. This, according to npr, and what I'm finding interesting. Npr, of course, as we know, is a very liberal outlet. Not one place in here do they talk about a Muslim ban.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And that's what it is.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes. Well, no, it's not.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I mean, it's. It's targeted to countries with radical Muslim population.
>> Steve Jordahl: No, no, I will, No, not all of them. Some of them. This is targeted. The memo says some of these nations are designated as state sponsors of terror, or some of their citizens have been Amish.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Amish terror.
>> Steve Jordahl: Amish terror.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Come on. That was funny, Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: Come on. Some of their citizens is involved with acts of terrorism in the US Some lack credible government authority to produce reliable identity documents. Some, are beset with widespread government fraud. So some of these countries. Cambodia. It's not Muslim.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's true.
>> Steve Jordahl: Congo, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Syria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and more. Several of these.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's a fair point.
>> Steve Jordahl: In the, In the Caribbean.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Steve Jordahl: So if you. If this is on top of what.
>> Ed Vitagliano: He did last week.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Or earlier.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: In the. On the travel ban.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah. So, the. If what he's saying is, if you cannot know who you're sending us, if you can't guarantee their identity and something about them, then we don't want them.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That seems fair and reasonable.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Sure does. I'm. I'm. I'm all for this. And, Trump. And you know what? Maybe he's covering up. Some of those countries are very problematic. Congo and Nigeria and some of these, Zimbabwe. But the Trump administration may be covering the fact that instead of being accused of this being a Muslim ban, he may say, no, no, all these countries aren't Muslim.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah. you're sticking with a Muslim thing.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm trying to rehabilitate my earlier point, but you make a good Point. So not all these countries are not. But if they are chaotic, you don't want. Listen, we, we wound up with Haitians coming, over here and others, that these folks aren't doing anything except getting on welfare, and maybe causing some crime. Not all of them, obviously. And you want. The old way of having people come to the country was you had to prove you had a job.
>> Fred Jackson: Right, Fred?
>> Ed Vitagliano: When you came from Canada.
>> Fred Jackson: Yep.
>> Ed Vitagliano: A developed, non chaotic country, you had to, you had to prove that you weren't going to be a drain on the welfare system.
>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. My father in law had to sign a letter saying that if I lost my job here that he would support us. In other words, I could never be a draw on the federal government. Praise God. you know, everything's been good. But, at that time, you had to prove, this is what kind of irks a lot of us who went through the hoops to come here to the country legally. when Joe Biden said come one, come all, I mean 15 to 20 million people, some people would call that treason.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: You know, the first job of the president is to protect this country. He opened the doors. You know, it's interesting you mentioned, Haiti there a moment ago. not a Muslim country. But what we're seeing in a lot of these countries that have been mentioned, it's. They're gangs.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.
>> Fred Jackson: It's opened lawlessness. and we know all about Haiti and what has gone on there. And so you don't want those kinds of people.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Fred Jackson: Because they will gravitate once they get into a country to a gang.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Fred Jackson: That's what happens.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Or create a Haitian gang in, in.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: In a major city.
>> Fred Jackson: Yes.
President Trump is being cautious about allowing Haitians into the United States
And then, you know, lawlessness stems from all of that. So he is just being super cautious about this. And yes, the left is going to go ballistic. You know, look what you're doing to these poor people who want to come into this country. No, no, no, no. It's, it's about crime. We have enough crime now. We don't need people coming in from countries like Haiti that are just running among us.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's all that they know.
>> Steve Jordahl: Nobody has a right to come to this country.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Steve Jordahl: We allow them in. Just like somebody knocks on your door, you may allow them in your house if you know them or trust them, but they can't just come to the door, knock and say, I demand to be let in. And you have to let them in.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Right. It's a privilege.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yep.
Jihadists have massacred about 200 Christians in Nigeria
you guys mentioned Nigeria, a little bit ago and, there's some tragic news out of Nigeria. Jihadists have massacred about 200 Christians in Nigeria. so these were families. The Fulani jihadists are the terrorists that did this. this town that they went into, was housing these Christians, that had been displaced before. So the Fulani came for these people before and they fled. And they fled to the safe. What they thought was a safe place. but they weren't safe. They started burning down. The police tried to stop them, but they started burning down buildings and then they began slaughtering people. I'm quoting here from Daily, Wire. Mostly women, children and displaced families who thought they had found safety here. so pray for the church. it's a terrible persecution. Ah, and some martyrs.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. Wesley, the. You know, AFA has had, ah, a. At least a hand in trying to. We, we used to do. Do we still do the Orange Letter campaign?
>> Wesley Wildmon: We have in the past we partnered with, G3, I think it was. I'll have to look that up.
>> Ed Vitagliano: But anyway, we, We. We do understand that the Great Commission is important. Now this weren't necessarily missions groups, but, a lot of times here in America, we have no idea of the kind of terror that Christians in, places. A number of countries in Africa, but also North Korea, China. These Christians are always putting their lives on the line to keep the faith. This is something that all missions groups understand and, and that a lot of afr. listeners also understand. And we need to be praying for Christians in other countries.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Very much so. And, I'll try to use an analogy that I understand that every doctor's appointment is scary for the person that's going to the doctor's appointment. Okay. Or it has its variations of worries or concerns, but the hard reality. And I'm glad Steve brings in stories like these, for our time on today's issue, because this does give a healthy dose of reality to what other people experience. So while we may think that there are things that we experience here in America that are difficult, we feel attacked for our Christian faith. For example, the story we've mentioned several times today in Loudoun county, two Christians being targeted because of their faith, which is, terrible and awful. But then we also have layers in the States where we just are mistreated personally. But then you have situations, and I'm getting to a point here.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Sure.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Then you have situations like what's happened in Nigeria where 200, 200 Christians, families, children, in total were killed because of their Christian faith. Now the reason I use the different examples and paint the big picture is because let this remind us as Christians here in America, this story that we should be as Romans 1 says that we should be bold and we should have courage and we should be courageous to share and live out our faith with great confidence that we can trust God with the results. Because if other people in other parts of the country, which all we can do is read about this, we can't even empathize or sympathize, but we can do the best we can to sympathize and understand that there are, there are Christians that are so committed to their Christianity and they're in there and they are so confident that the Bible says what it says about for me to live as Christ and to die as gain, that they are willing to, endure this. Now, in some cases, you got outright martyred and then you got murder, you know, but, but Christians are being targeted, to your point, all across the world at an even higher level with no first or Second Amendment.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah. we understand our legal, we got all got issues about the legal system and the will's moving fairly slow at times in different situations in America.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: But in other places it doesn't move at all.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Wesley Wildmon: And so we need to be thankful for where we live. Thankful for our first and Second Amendment, and we do not need to be ashamed of the gospel, Jesus Christ, here in America, for the American Christians, we should not be ashamed. We should be bold as, as we can be.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And if, and if the worst thing that's going to happen to you today is a slow line of the Dunkin Donuts.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. you have a pretty good life.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And we're not making light of the, as you point out of the struggles people have with money and all those kinds of health here, but there are places that are even darker.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.
Fred: I want to give you an example of a use of AI
>> Steve Jordahl: All right, let's end on something way more positive than anything else we've talked about. So, you know, I cover the AI artificial intelligence beat here at afn and, half the time, maybe more than half the time, I'm talking about, you know, literally, the horror movies, the Terminator movies, when, you're bringing.
>> Wesley Wildmon: In videos with robots.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.
>> Wesley Wildmon: That are talking to you.
>> Steve Jordahl: Right. That take over the world and everything. But here is a use. I want to give you an example of a use of AI that is just fantastic.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And we are going to post this on our Facebook page.
>> Steve Jordahl: We will post this on our Facebook page. There's a, there's a class, like a fourth grade class about fourth or fifth grade. And, the teacher there ask each one of these kids, what do you want to be when you grow up? She took their picture, and then she used AI to age the picture and put them in the garb of what if they wanted to be a firefighter?
>> Ed Vitagliano: They were in a fire, like, in their 20s.
>> Steve Jordahl: In their 20s. Well, this is what you'd look like if you. If you achieve your dream. I want you to hear the excitement that these kids had looking at this. There's no words in here, but you'll just kind of get an idea of what was going on. Cut. 12. Every time there was a new, each kid had. You know, I wanted. One wanted to be a veterinarian, one wanted to be a soccer player. When they saw themselves as a grown up doing that, they just were floored. The, the look on their face was just raptured.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Fred, this was really cool. Steve showed us this this morning in our story, meeting. And to see, listen, what it seemed like to me was that these kids were being given a vision of what they could be if they would just stick with it in the fourth grade, seeing themselves having completed their educational or career journey.
>> Fred Jackson: Great encouragement and, I'm sure it would prompt students to work even harder, because someday that can be me. And to be given a visual representation of where they could be in 15, 20 years if they work hard. I thought it was fantastic. You're right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Brent Creely will get this up on our Facebook page, so that you can take a look at the video. Was this on an Instagram post or X or something?
>> Steve Jordahl: It was. I had the story.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, they would be able to access the video itself, though.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes, it was, through,
>> Fred Jackson: All right, Social media.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, folks, more great programming directly ahead. Stay tuned to American Family Radio.
