Episode 393: When Temporary Became Permanent

Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. The following presentation is in Delmarva Studios production. You're listening to the Fact Hunter Radio Network. Here is your host, George Hobbs. Welcome back, truth seekers from around the world. It's time for another edition of the Fact Hunter podcast. as we record on this Sunday, February the 1st, 2026, a very cold, wintry day. It felt like negative three this morning, very cold weather. We had a decent turnout at church. Many churches around where I live didn't even open today, but ours was, and we had a decent little turnout. We had a great message, and I just hope everybody's doing well. We are certainly living in interesting times. It's nothing to be afraid of, but certain things you should be wary of. Today, you know, I have a bunch of these subjects that I wanted to talk about, but, you know, the schedule's been crazy, the weather, this, that, and the other things. So just if I have an opportunity, a free hour or 90 minutes, or even a half an hour in some cases, I'd like to just sit down, hit the record button, and get the message out. It's something I've been working on, right? we often say that certain events have to transpire for them to get to their end game, which is the beast system, right? Where you can have to buy into their system if you're going to be able to buy and sell and live. Otherwise, you're going to have a very persecuted life, right? They couldn't really execute COVID until they had a lot of that technology in place. All of these things, you know, are generational planning. And I just took a look back. It's February the 1st, which is hard to believe. January's already gone. Christmas was like five weeks ago already. But just in the short, I guess next month, it'll be six years since the scandemic happened, which even that in itself is insane to think it's been six years. But just to prove a point here, how they can, you know, normalize certain things that even 10 years ago, you couldn't even imagine. Now, obviously, some of these things that I'm going to point out today hit a little harder than others. And there's a list of 20 that I came up with. And by the way, at the end, I want to talk about a few things that are interesting and kind of a sneak peek working up to the Charlie Kirk episode. And here's one of the quandaries I'm having with that is many of the things that I want to talk about, I feel they require video. So I don't know if I'm going to do an audio video episode. I'm still kind of floating some things around because the more that we have dug into things, the less things make sense. If that in itself makes sense. but even some of the things I initially believed, I'm not so sure I believe them anymore. You know, if you Google what a 30-06 does just to a pumpkin or something like that, you know, quite a distance. There's so many things in play. The way, you never want to judge someone because everybody handles death differently, but there's just been too many red flags with Erica, and, you know, I'm trying to be careful with that, how to present it. There are so many things involved with this. The one thing I wanted to take away since September the 10th of 2025 was not to hold Charlie on a pedestal, but what was supposed to have been the heart of the movement, which was faith in Christ. But some of the things I'll mention at the end of the show, it kind of turns your stomach. It does me, how they have taken this and ran with it, made a money machine out of it, and it's just difficult to swallow. But we're going to start today with, we're going to talk about, you know, all of the things that shifted after 2020, right? Things that we would have never dreamed of, which is now, well, it's just the way it is now. And you hear that all the time, right? Before 2020, when you picked up food, you didn't tip, right? You tipped your delivery driver. But if you ordered a, you know, a cheesesteak and a side of fries and you went and picked it up, you paid whatever it costs for the food. But now they, everything, there's a tip request for everything. I took my grandchildren to the mall down in, I think it's called a Rundle Mills Mall outside of Baltimore. And they like these little cookies that are like one cookie is $4.50 a piece. Macaroons, I think they're called, right? And they want a tip for handing you cookies. And it's just these type of things that have become normalized post-2020. But the playbook is always the same, right? Crisis rules become default rules, and a lot of temporary measures that turn into these permanent profit centers. And obviously it's more important than profit in their eyes. It's about control. Right. And that's why the Zoom and all these things are so important to them because all these things are stored in the cloud. Right. And here's another thing I thought about. Are all these data centers really for AI? Or are they to store these digital conversations? Right. Somebody had messaged me last weekend and said, you need to go see this movie Mercy. He said, I believe this is coming a lot sooner than what people think. And my wife and I had some free time Friday after lunch, and we went and saw it was only about 90-minute movie. And I thought that the very first red flag was it was case number 19, right? And there's that number 19 again, right? COVID-19. All the numbers that we've seen associated with the number 19, right? It's very interesting. But it's very minority report meets, you know, AI judge, jury, and executioners. Interesting. But let's start with number one. Remote life becomes a business model, not an emergency measure, right? Zoom and Teams did not just normalize room meetings. they normalized remote everything. And I remember this back in 2020 when I saw the doctor, the VA had this special app on the phone and you could have a conversation with your doctor. All of these things had to happen to normalize it. And it's everything now. Job interviews, doctor's visits, therapy, parent-teacher conferences, even court appearances, right? my son has us hooked on these um police cam videos and there was this guy who had a court appearance for driving with a suspended license and he was because you know they do it remote now he was actually driving his car when the judge pulls him up for his suspended license uh case and the judge is just shaking his head. He's like, you're telling me that you're seeing me about a suspended license, and here you are on the phone driving. But even, of course, we've talked about worship services. You know my thoughts on church. I think that technology is an important tool to have in the toolbox, but I don't think it's a great idea to, you know, put on your pajamas and eat a bowl of Serial and Watch Church, I use it as a tool. I don't listen to music when I'm driving around. That's just me. I'm not telling you what you should do. I listen to certain pastors, certain messages, certain audiobooks that have meaning, and that's just what I do. And if I hear a good message, I'll go back and listen to it again. That's a tool. But to have it your primary is not the greatest idea. Now listen, I get it. I get emails all the time. I can't find a church. I can't find a church. You can find one. It takes a lot of work sometimes. It took me four years, guys. It took me four years. But worship service, and even family gatherings now, I will just do it on Zoom. So the bigger change is that being available expanded, and the expectation is not just that you can work from anywhere. Think about this. It's you can be reached from anywhere, right? And alongside that came the new home office with new overhead. Your power bill has gone up. Your internet bill has probably gone up, right? Desk, chair, extra room. Many people absorb the cost that employers used to absorb. Think about this. In 1988 or 89, I worked for Chase Manhattan bank, 802 Delaware Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware. They had a 13 or 14-story building that had indoor parking, a cafeteria. Think of the overhead that it cost that bank. Now, most people who work for Wells Fargo, Chase, Discover, they work from home. All that overhead has shifted to the employee. Where do you think that money goes that they used to spend on rent and everything else? It goes into their pocket. Remote work also made surveillance normal, right? They track your time, screenshots, activity monitors. Always on camera culture. Why? To normalize them spying on you, okay? Number two, contactless, right? Remember contactless deliveries, right? It turned into reduced human service. They don't want people mingling together. Why? What was the first rule of the Georgia Guidestones? Right? Keeping the population down. They want you home by yourself watching pornography, right? Remember, contactless started as health theater, right? Now it's resulting in staffing cuts. less customer support. When's the last time you've seen a cashier at the stores, at the Walmart on a busy day, you may see one, two, three, depending on where you live. And I'm nice about it. I try to be funny about it. But when people come up and say something to me, I'll ask about employee discounts. What do you mean? Do you work here? I'm like, well, I'm doing my own groceries. And what about the bags? Before 2020, let me ask you this. How many people remember paying for a bag? You know, you go to the Acme here, five cents a bag. If you go to Redner's, it's 10 cents a bag. Once again, who carries the burden now? The customer, right? Right? You can still buy things, but here's the problem. You can't easily speak to a human when something goes wrong. We all have our different hobbies. I'm a radio guy. I lost track of time. I was up till one o'clock in the morning working on my new DMR radio. I was like, oh my goodness, I got to get to sleep. It's one o'clock. They get up at six. but you know most of these come from China right the Baofangs the Jaigus even many of the things that have American names are China I'm a big Chuyang radio guy and when we have an issue I gotta email a guy in China and he's gotta translate it and the whole thing but it's the same here in the United States right you get less quality for more money. You pay more money and you get less quality. You get less food. Even the places we still enjoy going to, like... And by the way, I'm not trying to turn this into a boomer episode, just me complaining. I'm just trying to point these things out when they do. I think of all the things. It does get frustrating because we really like to go to Texas Roadhouse and we don't go out that much. I mean, we might go out to a restaurant once a month. Every now and then we'll hit the little delivery place down the street, but to actually go and sit down, we just don't do it much. We live in the sticks. We got to drive 20, 30 minutes everywhere we go. Church is 25, right? Lowe's is 25. Sam's Club's 30. But, you know, I got chicken from, and that's what I get for not getting a steak, right? But I got a chicken from Texas Roadhouse and it was medium rare. I didn't know that chicken, it was terrible. I got pretty sick from it. I rolled the dice, but you know, it's just, you know, self-checkout. Like I was saying, the customer does labor, the store saves on payroll and the customer gets watched like a suspect while doing unpaid work. This is the truth, right? And this pattern is everywhere. Kiosks, QR codes, app-only coupons, scan-to-tip screens. Convenience is real, but it also trains you, right? That's the thing. It trains you to accept less human accountability. Number three, delivery culture has become the default and it has changed pricing psychology. You got your DoorDash, your Uber Eats, Instacart, right? They just didn't add a new option. What they did was they rewired what people consider normal, paying higher menu prices, service fees, delivery fees, and then your tip. by the way, if you don't order X amount, there's a small order fee, right? By the way, we never, ever use any of those things I just mentioned. I know people who do. That's their choice, right? Obviously. But it's crazy. If you think about it, the average person now routinely pays 30 to 70% more for the same meal than they would have paid just six years ago. Now, you know, some people say, well, you don't really notice it because the charges are split into smaller prices. I don't agree with that. People see the end result. and, you know, somebody was saying, it seems like just a minute ago you could get a $4.99 value meal at McDonald's, and now, you know, it's $10.99 or whatever. It's everywhere. It is just where we are now, right? If you double minimum wage, you're going to basically cut your employees in half. And oh, by the way, it also normalized the idea that you do not see the real price until the end That a huge cultural shift I think what the new term for that Drip pricing And then not to beat a dead horse but I going to do it in the order I have it written down mass tipping right And what tipping was and by the way if you don if you've never been to Europe, tipping doesn't exist in Europe. I remember getting to Hungary and Croatia and Germany, you don't tip. It's just, you don't tip. It's in their wages. It's their job. And over here, again, this mass tipping moved from gratitude to payroll substitution, right? Tipping expanded into places that used to be strictly hourly, right? counter service, pickup orders, convenience stores, retail checkouts, even checkout kiosks, ask for tips in some cases. Again, it's not an accident. This is all. You could call it wage model shifting. That is once again, risking or shifting, I should say, the risk from employee to customer. So in the old model, you tipped for direct personal service, right? In the new model, tipping is a guilt lever attached to a touchscreen. It pushes customers to subsidize wages while companies preserve margins and keep base pay low, right? Now, how about the subscription model? Everything is a subscription now. That's all post-2020. Now, you could argue Netflix was really one of the first subscription services that started. And now that you know that the guy who started Netflix was related to—now I'm having a brain fart—the guy who did the Torches of Freedom, Bernays, right? The guy who founded Netflix was like Edward Bernays' nephew, right? Bernays was his uncle, right? Psychology, right? X amount of dollars a month. Remember, you used to get the DVDs in the mail, two of them. You'd pay for one, two, or three. You'd watch them, return them. You'd look in the mailbox and your DVDs would show up a few days later. but that was really that what I recall the first subscription service and then Blockbuster tried to emulate that before they went out of business but subscriptions it's everything now right you used to pay for cable your one bill but now you have to have ESPN you have to have Hulu you have to have Peacock you have to have Apple on and on and on right so you instead of having one monthly bill for your entertainment, you've got 10, right? You think about it. And if you have your PlayStation or the other one, Xbox, right? Software, entertainment, exercise, car features, printer ink, music, cloud storage, your ring security camera, right? And when you think about it, the normalization isn't just the subscription itself, its dependence. Where have you heard this before? You don't really own it. When I order, by the way, old Boomer here, I still order Blu-rays. If there's something like They Live, I have it on Blu-ray. My wife wants to get that movie we just saw on Blu-ray when it comes out, because when you watch it the first time, you're more invested in the story. But I like to go back with Contagion and take notes? And what did I miss? What's the true meaning? Investigate those things. What are they trying? What message are they subconsciously trying to get across to us, right? But the biggest thing is you don't own it, right? I buy that movie. I own it. I have it, right? I can bust out the Blu-ray player anytime and watch the movie. You pay for a subscription service. You stop paying, there goes the movie, right? That's, you will own nothing and be happy. It's the same, I wrote an article on Substack two weeks ago about your property. You don't own your property. Yes, I do. My house is paid off. Okay, then don't pay your property taxes for three years and tell me how that works out for you. You don't own it, right? And I think the psychological effect is a little heavier than what people realize, right? A thousand small, well, it's only $4.99. It's only $9.99. It's only $12.99, right? Those charges create a life where your income is pre-spent before the month even begins. And fees, right? You know, I hear people complaining about concert. I have not been to a concert, and I can't tell you how long. We went to the Cirque del Soleil Beatle thing eight or nine years ago, I think. But to actually go to, I never was a concert guy. And as bad as my tinnitus is, I'm thankful because I couldn't imagine it being any worse. But these convenience fees, right? The ticketing adding more layers, the restaurants adding surcharges, and if you want to make a reservation, many of the restaurants in Lancaster, believe it or not, you have to use a thing called Resi, R-E-S-Y, and they have charges, right? Online payments, service fees, kitchen appreciation fees, Even if you're on social media, you'll see a lot of people posting these, what is it, like employee wellness fees? Well, you're going to cover my staff's insurance, right? Again, a lot of it's the same story. The posted price is a suggestion. The real price, that's the surprise, right? And, you know, number seven, paying for basic necessities got reframed as environmental virtue, right? Again, this goes back to grocery bags. Charging for grocery bags is a good example because it was framed as a moral improvement, right? Just like those awful, whoever came up with the paper straw, you need to just go away. I'm sorry. Paper straws is the most discussed. I get very angry when I am sitting down with a friend. There was a place called the Green Turtle in Middletown, Delaware. We used to meet up for lunch once a month there. They're out of business now, but 2020 started and they rolled up with our water and a paper straw, a paper straw in liquid. Genius, I tell you. But again, it's framed as moral improvement. But again, in practice, it operates as a quiet, regressive fee. Not huge, but it's constant. And again, once people accept paying for bags, it becomes the norm. Ten years from now, nobody will blink twice when they pay for their bags, right? How about shrinkflation, became so common that it barely shocks anyone anymore. Packages got smaller, ingredients got cheaper. I'm not talking about price-wise, I'm talking about quality-wise, quality dipped. But the prices continued to climb when you were getting lower quality. And people noticed it first. I still do. I talk about it often. My wife, she hears about it all the time, right? Right? Now people just, I think people are just adjusting their expectations downward, which is sad, right? This is one of the most important normalizations since 2020 because it really touches our everyday life. It's not just economic. I do believe it is, once again, psychological conditioning. You are trained to accept less and you simply call it normal. And that's not the way it should be, right? That's not what we believed was the American way. This was a number nine is a big one to me. Service quality has declined. Like you want to talk about minimum effort in many cases. And I'm here to tell you, it's not always the guy who you see, right? Maybe it's the guy serving you the food. Maybe it's the guy who's coming out to do a, you know, who works for a big corporation, a service carpet guy, right, coming out to clean your carpet. Because I think these companies don't have nearly enough employees. The employees that we do see are taking on more than they can possibly handle, right? So, you know, now the customer is just expected to be understanding forever and tolerate everything, right? And I do believe in 2020, for the most part, even for truthers, those who could see, people were patient. We gave them the benefit of the doubt for 15 days, right? Long lines, reduced hours. Mom's sick in the hospital, only one of us can go. We understood fewer staff, people were sick, right? Slower service. We get it, nobody wants to work right now. And again, whether or not that slogan had truth in it, It functions as an excuse that protects the business from having to improve. And we have become an excused-based country. It snowed. Don't have to go to school. Get on the computer, right? You know how many snow days my daughter has had? Zero. She still gets up and does her school, right? Moving on. Number 10, supply chain problems. And this is a big one for me. I was a loggy, I was a logistician. I understand how in 2026, still feels weird saying 2026, that just in time, JIT, logistics. So for the business, the least, I should say the less amount of time that a product is on the shelf, the more it benefits the company, right? Back in the day, the grocery stores in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, they had to stock up their supplies. But now they have logistics, you know, computers can have it. So just as that last gallon of milk is being sold at Walmart, the next batch is rolling in, right? That's called just-in-time logistics. The problem with logistics is that if there is a crack, it's very much like the airline industry, right? So I am a stewardess, a beautiful one at that. I leave Miami at six. I go to Atlanta at 730. Then I have to be on the 10 o'clock from Atlanta back. And it's, you know, they do three or four a day. If one of those flights gets delayed or canceled, then that stewardess can't get on the next flight. They don't have enough crew. And that gets, you see where I'm going with this. And that became a permanent explanation for problems, right? And for a while, we all remember in 2020 and here in Delaware, anytime there's even one to three inches of snow forecasted, people will run by milk and eggs, milk, eggs, and bread. It can be one inch. Everybody will freak out. And apparently the only thing that can keep you alive during a snowstorm is milk, bread, and eggs. But the normalization was that the supply chain became a catch-all justification for price hikes, delays, reduced selections, which we still see today, right? Even after the worst of the disruptions had passed, it created a new standard. Businesses can cite visible complexity, and customers cannot verify it. All right, moving on. App dependence, right? Even many churches now have apps. You can tithe on it. You can watch the service on it, the service replay. They have prayer walls. The pastor can send out messages during the week, right? That's one of the things we talk about, you know, double-edged swords, what is called app dependence, right? It's really become the gatekeeper of normal life, right? to get the deal, you need an app, right? Every grocery store, you have to have the app. I, again, went to that mall in Baltimore to see my grandchildren right before Christmas. All the free parking was gone. I had to pay for parking because I was a dummy and I took my truck to Baltimore and I had to pay for, it was 10 bucks for the day, but I had to download an app. I had to scan the little sign in front of the parking spot. It's just ridiculous, right? Loyalty programs are all part of the game because they are and will be a part of a digital tracking system. That all plays into your social credit score, right? QR codes have replaced menus and receipts went digital by default. This is the normalization of data extraction, right? Now, we trade it for convenience, but the price that we pay is surveillance and something called behavioral profiling. identity checks and paper culture expanded in subtle ways more verification more account creation more two-factor prompts right to prove you are you sometimes it's justified by fraud and i mean how many of y'all if you're like me i get 10 spam calls a day i get many emails a day saying my Norton antivirus is expiring, or my iCloud is expiring, or my email is expiring. Disheartening how many scammers are out there that are looking to prey on people. That in itself kind of saddens me. It's like, there's that many crooks out there? Come on, man. right? But really, that's what it's about. Again, the deeper change here isn't security, it's fragility. Anyway, let's move to 13. Public health language became a template for policy enforcement, okay? And listen, even if you took the politics out of it, the normalization is that emergency language can be used to justify rapid rule changes and i told you that anytime the word emergency is used by politicians you better be ready right no bid contracts are in place their buddies get rich and it all comes at the cost of the little guy if you do just a little research and see how many small businesses have closed over the last five years, it's devastating. And you want to talk about the greatest wealth shift in history, in history, 6,500 years happened on our watch just six years ago It sad right And again they use it to justify rule changes enforcement right Limitations that would have been questioned more aggressively before 2020 But again once people accept temporary there's no going back. You can't put the rabbit back in the hole. You just can't. Number 14, medical and mental health shifted toward tele-everything. Telehealth, telefriend is convenient. And sometimes it can be helpful, but it can also, once again, be normalized into shorter interactions, algorithmic triage. You know, we've talked about the shortage of nurses in this state, CNAs in this state. And, you know, the medical industry is very complicated because on the pharmaceutical side of it, it can be very inherently evil. We've discussed it many times. But when you depend on this telehealth, you're also risking missing something, major cancer or something like that, right? it's just normalized medication management through quick visits right and his normalized outsourcing care into apps and y'all number 15 education to me the the you know now everything is taught on tablet. Listen, I am not opposed to technology. I love technology. Everything in my office, I'm sitting here, even my old 80s arcade cabinet sitting over there with joust on it, right? That's technology. My radio is technology. I'm all about it. It's how it's executed. And you have to understand who is putting in what your children are studying. And the Rockefellers and everyone since the early 1900s, early 20th century to today, they are trying to, once again, they want to dumb down the country. They don't want your children asking questions. They want serfs. They want serfdom. They want people who obey the government without question. But it all starts with a moral compass. It starts with mom and dad raising the children correctly and understanding, hey, Johnny, hey, Jill, Susie, whoever, authority can be respected. But if it crosses that line, it is your moral, spiritual obligation to stand up against it. that's not what they teach at school. They have you pledge allegiance to a flag. They ring the bell every 50 minutes, just like, you know, back in the day, they don't have factories anymore, right? But I think that's kind of what it was all about, reacting to the bell, right? Lunch bell, break bell. And that's what it was all about. Now, obviously, they're heading towards the final system. They have everybody behind a camera, behind a tablet, and education, right? This hybrid learning. Right. Nobody went to school this week in Delaware. I'm not saying it was good or bad. I'm not right. I'm not the governor. I'm not the mayor. I'm not the superintendent of the school districts. But they have lowered expectations. schools, and even colleges have integrated remote components, digital assignments. You know, once again, just like shopping, they have made parents become the teachers during lockdowns, during bad weather. They're in charge to make sure their son and daughter gets it right. Now, that side I don't have a huge problem with because you know how I feel about education in itself. As I wrote in my sub stack, I believe it is the parent's responsibility. Right on that property tax article. It's not my responsibility to pay for your child's education, just as it's not your responsibility to pay for my child's education, right? But once again, that is the public school putting that on the parent. And the normalization is the expectation that education can be delivered like content rather than information, right? Having a conversation, critical thinking skills. And that does, I'm here to tell you, that plays into discipline, attention span, and you could argue social development. 16, we're almost there. Safety theater moved from airports, right? That happened with 9-11, and it became every day, even to this day, anytime we go to the Dover Air Force Base to use the grocery store there called the Commissary, there is a place right off base, Chinese restaurant my wife loves. So we'll grab some fried, whatever, fried rice and dumplings that she gets. And even to this day, you know, when COVID happened, they put up this plexiglass with the speaker. To this day, it's still there. So it's normalized, right? The directional arrows, the sanitation rituals, the signs, many of the signs are still there. Many grocery stores still have the arrows on the ground, right? Maybe they have faded, but you know what? The mindset has stuck. Institutions learn that visible measures can replace meaningful measures. It is not about health. It's about managing perception. Number 17, corporate moral messaging became part of branding and then faded, leaving distrust, right? Remember, all the companies became loud about values and causes, and then they went quiet when it stopped paying, right? People are starting to pick up on that, right? And if you've noticed, many of the companies have gone away from it, right? because many of those companies who took up causes that weren't inherently authentic, people turned their back on those companies. You know, we could say Target, right? They were falling into fiscal collapse, and they started stepping away from the wokeism, the Bud Light, and then they had to hire all these famous people to save them, Peyton Manning and whoever that guy with the tattoos on his face. He's a singer or something. But that's what it's about, right? We remember 2020. And it's incredible that we were alive during that year. Because you had the nation shut down. And then three months later, you had cities burning. It was quite a time. And here we are almost, next month will be six months since that happened. And we're still talking about the changes, right? Number 18, the economy has normalized. And this kind of goes hand in hand with what we talked about earlier. But high price, low stability, right? Inflation. I mean, we are closing in on Weimar conditions with, you know, your dollar goes nowhere anymore, right? Rate hikes, layoffs, the housing instability, and they're doing everything to protect, you know, it's a... they want to control, like in New York City, that dude wants to tell homeowners how much they can charge rent. That's not how it works. That's not how a free economy works, right? Grocery bills through the roof. We don't get our meat at the commissary on Dover Airport Space, but we get some produce and some canned goods and seeds for the birds. By the way, man, I feed birds, cats. I want to claim these birds and cats on my taxes this year, because I think we have two-thirds of the birds in Delaware come out every morning. We get big thing of seeds, and we have a woodpecker that'll peck on the top of my house if I'm not out there by 7 a.m. with his food. He pecks on my house. But that's really, it's incredible what's going on. And again, I think that's part of the shift, right? This deep change that we're seeing, this is all long-term planning, right? And I think people are defaulting to shorter horizons. They're acquiring much more debt than they want to. You can see the stress in people's lives. And it's just interesting. last two i gotta get going here but uh social life do you remember how we used to be social back in the day and all of you who are my age or older remember saturday nights you were at somebody's house playing pinochle or having a potluck dinner or that has just gone by the wayside now part of it is just because of the entertainment value right when i was growing up i i was in a house with a black and white TV. Now we had a color TV upstairs on the porch, but we had two TVs in the house. Now everybody has a device in their hand that they can watch whatever they want. And we didn't have Wi-Fi. We could play backgammon, we could play chess, read the newspaper, but people were more social. And the last six years, social life has shifted toward isolation and being entertained instead of us being entertaining. And I think that has drawn out a lot of personality. And I'm not picking here, right? We're all this generation. No. But you do notice that the younger children of today are more quietly, are more reserved, not as outgoing as you and I used to be. That is not across the board every single one, obviously. But I think most of you could look me in the eye and give me a little north-south. Yes, yeah, I agree, right? people go out less, people host less, socialized in more controlled environments. Even me and my family, we have made it a concerted effort over the last year to go out and interact with people more. If the local church down the street, if we don't go there, if they're having a spaghetti dinner or whatever, we go. We go and we're trying to show our children that, look, go out, interact with people. It's very good for the heart. It's good for the soul, and it's good for the mind, right? But that's not what they want. They want controlled environments, and that's what laptops and iPads and all that do. Again, they're great to have. They're great tools, but don't be consumed by them, right? Some people just feel happier. I have a community online, right? But I think that can lead to loneliness, too. It can lead to inwardness, and everybody's different. And again, I'm not telling anybody how to live their life. But there is a way you could look at it, that normalization is that isolation is not seen as a crisis or a problem, but it's seen as a lifestyle. And lastly, you know, everything is a scam, is mainstream. And I think that might be the most fact-hunter-friendly point, right? Since 2020, when this podcast began, people have watched narratives change fast, rules flip, experts disagree, and institutions care only about protecting themselves. You add in crypto, financial collapse, influencer fraud, corporate price games, grocery store prices going through the roof, property taxes going through the roof, political theater, absolutely embarrassing. Presidents tell you to get vaccinated or you're going to have a winter of death. Wake up. You're being managed. You're being compartmentalized. You're being sold a bill of goods based on lies. They are trying to manipulate you constantly, right? And that type of thing reshapes behavior. And that's probably why you're listening to this podcast right now, right? You have less trust for their government. I know some of you still hold on to hope that just maybe, just maybe Trump might be a good guy, right? Psalms 118.8, just remember that, okay? Before we go, I'm going to play a couple clips for you. The first one is Jack Hibbs. He is the senior pastor at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, and the founder of Real Life Ministry. If I remember correctly, I think this guy's life was in that movie. I think he was with Lonnie Frisbee, part of that Jesus revolution in the 70s. But this gentleman has had a, also reported, has had a long, or had, a long-standing friendship with Charlie Kirk that went, you could say, well beyond casual, right? He appeared on his podcasts, spoke publicly about praying with him, mentoring him, and if you recall what Charlie said in the last days, calling out Israel and all of that, and then listen, this is again, Pastor Jack Hibbs, who by the way has over a million subscribers. This is a two-minute clip of, you can't question Israel and be a Christian. This is good news. This is an amazing indicator of the last days. The true church of Jesus Christ, the true believers will be friends of Israel, will pray for Israel, will reach out to Israel to lead Israel to Christ because book of Romans chapter 2 beginning at verse 26 out to about verse 30, Romans chapter 2 tells us that a true Jew is someone who's been circumcised in the heart and that we are to be people who provoke the Jews to jealousy in that we know their Messiah. God came to this world as a Jew. He's coming back as a resurrected man, Jesus Christ, not only the King of kings and the Lord of lords, but he's Jesus Christ, King of the Jews. His throne will be in Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, in the nation of Israel, the Jewish state. And he will sit upon the throne of David, an amazing Jewish musician and warrior and king. all this rhetoric you're hearing, everybody, get pumped. We're in the last days. It's got to go this way. Listen, if your church is not pro-Israel, it's not a church. If your church is not pro-Israel and pro-reaching the Jewish people with the love of God, you're not in a New Testament church. You're actually attending a fraud. It's fraudulent. Get up, get out. And if you have any doubts about this, read the seven letters to the seven churches that Jesus gave us in the book of Revelation. Please do that. But by all means, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And when you find a Jew, hug them. Tell them that you praying for them and that Jesus Christ according to Proverbs 30 verse 4 is the Son of God to the Jewish people See that a very mixed message Number one New Jerusalem comes down from heaven Jesus isn't coming to the Middle East, okay? Get that right. Please read Revelation 21, verse 2, right? I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. And then it's interesting, he says, read Revelations, the seven letters. Revelation 2.9 and 3.9. End times people will claim they are Jews, but they're not. They are liars. All of these people involved in Turning Point USA will throw half-truths at you. Half-truths. By the way, George Zinn, if you remember him, who claimed to have shot Charlie Kirk, do you remember, right after the incident happened, the old guy yelling, I did it, I did it, the distraction? just two minutes after his assassination, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for obstructing justice and two counts of possession of child porn. And as you know, the joke in D.C., anytime they want to get rid of somebody, what do they do? And in a day and age where everything is electronic and there's AI, you can be framed and be considered a garbage human being and tossed away for the rest of your life. George Zinn will no doubt be, in my mind, die in jail, or he'll just be an old man, forgotten, because they control the narrative. They're not going to give a microphone to this guy in 15 years, right? Zinn, on many accounts on alternative media, was said to have told hospital staff that he was paid to cause a distraction and say that he shot Charlie, but we never found out who he was supposedly pay by. And remember, this was the same guy who was at other events, interestingly enough. Another pastor who is involved with Turning Point USA is Pastor Greg Laurie. Now, actually, Greg Laurie, I apologize. I think Greg Laurie was the guy who was involved in the Jesus Revolution. and friends with Lonnie Frisbee, which we did a podcast on, I think, two years ago, and his church, Harvest Christian Fellowship. They, towards the end of 2025, were facing several high-profile federal lawsuits that alleged negligence, child trafficking violations, and upwards of a two-decade-long cover-up, right? And again, these people are directly involved with Turning Point USA. Greg Laurie, yeah, he was the guy who was involved. He was the topic of the Jesus Revolution from that 2023 movie, Friends with Lonnie Frisbee, the whole 70s movement in Southern California. But again, in 2025, lawsuits were filed against Laurie and Harvest Christian Fellowship Church in regard to, you know, let's just say crimes against humanity to those under 18 at an orphanage in Romania. Now, this is where it gets really interesting. Where's my notes? Yeah, we already talked about Romania. Oh, here it is. So I think Erica Kirk's nonprofit was called Everyday Heroes Like You, and that played into Romania as well. They pooled, during my search, they pooled all of their tax returns off the Internet. They have been tax-exempt since 2009. 2009. So there should be, even if they haven't filed last year's, there should be 14 or 15 years worth of tax returns on ProPublica. They are missing. And I'm not the first person to say this. There are a few other people, not any big sites, but a few smaller sites like myself, who have pointed this out, that they, whoever they are, not the good guys, have pulled and hid all the evidence that has to do anything with this orphanage in Romania. More on that. I'd like to close, if you have, as this podcast comes to an end today, I'd invite you to go to Turning Point USA's homepage, and you'll see that they are selling a book called Stop in the Name of God why honoring the Sabbath will transform your life. You know, that is a work. It should honor Christ. I have not read the book, but on their homepage, you know, they're saying it's the last book Charlie wrote. This is a money machine that is ran by people who pretend And, you know, Turning Point USA, I'm sure they passed out Bibles. But if you saw them, they passed out hats more than they did Bibles. Delivered a lot of half-truths, and I'm still not convinced about Charlie's demise. Still have a lot of pondering, thinking to do, and I'm not sure that's the most important thing, because we know all the world's a stage. So I don't think anybody in this audience should or would be shocked if that were the case. Right? But we'll see. We'll continue to ponder. I did have one more piece of audio before we go. This audio was 11 days, I think, after Charlie was killed. This was like September the 20th. And Erica, again. I get we all are different. right? But I know that, you know, if my wife passed, folks, there wouldn't be a podcast for some time. I couldn't get past the first minute. Again, everybody grieves differently. But to put on a show, the show must go on. No. No. Especially not when you're asking for money. I want you to listen. This is three minutes. And this is 10 days after, you know, the person she loves the most on this earth has passed away. Hi, everybody. I still love all these emoji Zoom things. Wow. I don't even know where to begin. The fact that we were able to pull off an event of a century, like, it's just insane. We had over 275,000 people that attended. And the stadium, overflow, Westgate, insane, you guys. And then you have, was it 100 million? Over. you guys that heard the gospel and all about charlie and all about everything that you guys do and the hard work of turning point usa is insane we had thousands that were registered to vote i think we're at like over 200 000 for merch sales don't quote me on that because i think it just keeps like bumping up like crazy but i just wanted to say a huge huge huge thank you to the events team, the development team, the graphic design team, the production team, just phenomenal. Their incredible work of leading into the memorial. And honestly, a lot of the staff that worked on the memorial, they had 20-hour days for a week during the time of us grieving the loss of my husband. And honestly, I know several staff that didn't even sleep. Again, you guys are breathing angels and i'm so grateful for all of you and obviously a huge thank you to the mosaic team vi you guys are 10 out of 10 like there's we have the most incredible team we just do and you guys know that and you guys are all a part of that and i am so so thankful um and if you do have a moment and you run into any of those staff members that you know that you know had a role in this and you know that they put a lot of their time and effort into it, just say thank you. There's something really special to be seen in moments like this. And it's not easy. I'm speaking from experience. I'm right in the trenches with you guys. And so the fact that you just a simple thank you. I don't care if any of you have beef with each other from the past or have any issues with someone said something about this or that. Like, if you guys have any of that, please put it to rest. My husband's dead. Like, I'm not trying to be morbid, but he's dead. And it puts life into perspective of how short life is and relationships. And God puts people in your life for a reason. And it teaches you a lesson. It teaches them a lesson. So if you are going through a time where just lay it to rest and we are moving forward, Turning Point USA 2.0 with Charlie in our hearts, and that's what he would want. There you go. Ball's in your court. And I will tell you what, I'd love nothing more than to hear what you think. My email address is thefacthunteratmail.com and that email address is in all of the show notes. I would love nothing more than to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this? I really would, no matter which circumstance. If you saw my notes, how do you even organize something like this? The plane, just things like that. We're moving on. Turning point 2.0, where we have Ben Shapiro speak. It's just, you know, money, this. They talk about God, but again, they never mention Jesus. Did say gospel, give her that. but again half truths that's what it is all about send me an email what you think about all of this that has to do from september the 10th 2025 to today the event itself that happened that day reactions you know the money grab erica which i guess the latest thing is she doesn't have custody of her children anymore? Has that been like, is that solid? Weird, the whole thing. Anyway, I'm glad I had this little bit of downtown, down time on the Sunday afternoon because I really wanted to catch up. I did not have a chance to put that Thursday night out. Like I said, I was going to try. So there's your bonus. We'll certainly drop another episode this week. If I can get five or six, at least five or six emails regarding this by Thursday, I'll do a special Thursday night. I'll just read, you know, first name, where you're from, and read the email for listeners to hear your thoughts. I'll read those emails on the air, your thoughts about this, and, you know, we'll see what happens. Anyway, listen, have a great week. If you're being affected by this weather, take your time, be safe, right? That's the most important thing. Just take your time, keep your feet under you. I fell on Tuesday. It's not pleasant when you get, you close in it on 60 and you hit the ground. It's still, pride is the first thing. And when I hit the ground, first thing I do before the pain even registers, I'm looking around to see if anybody's watching me. And then it's like, oh, ow, I really hurt my arm trying to catch myself, cut my right hand wide open and knucklehead. But there you go God bless you Keep your head on a swivel And Christ in your heart And until we meet again, my friends We will see you I know it's been a struggle I know you've had some pain I know you're feeling tired Held down by all the weight Yeah, I know you're feeling lonely Your smile ain't the same I saw you where to go from here I feel like you've lost your way Don't give up, oh, don't give in Never lose hope, don't let go of the promise It ain't done, yeah, he's got a plan What's a brainchild, God of miracle What's a brainchild, God of miracle I can see the strength inside you Child, you're putting up a fight Oh, you're stronger than you think you are Yeah, you're gonna be alright You're accepted, loved and valued Beautiful, you're shining bright Yeah, you're living, breathing, moving You can hold your head up high Don't give up, no, don't give in Never lose hope, don't let go of the promise It ain't done yet, it's got a plan Watch them rain down, the God of miracles Don't give up, no, don't give in Never lose hope, don't let go of the promise It ain't done, life is worth living Watch a breakdown, the God of miracles Watch a breakdown, the God of miracles Watch a breakdown, the God of miracles Oh yeah Gotta be recall Oh Yeah Don't give up, no, don't give in Never lose hope, don't let go of the promise It ain't done, yeah, he's got a plan Watch him ring down God of miracles Don't give up No, don't give in Never this hope Don't let go of the promise It ain't done Life is worth living Watch it and die God of miracles Oh, the God of miracles You're listening to the Fact Hunter Radio Network.