URGENT: Democrats RUSHING to Supreme Court

Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Secular. We want to hear from you, share and post your comments, or call 1-800-684-311-0. And now, you're host, Logan.

Second, welcome to Secular for your Monday.

It is May 11, 2016, welcome to show we have in studio. Obviously, we'll hands the Jordan Secular. Later on, is to pay a packed show. Billy Hollowell's joining us in studio discuss his new special. Investigating the Supernatural, and we had him on last week.

We're going to discuss that as well. Sort of his background in the world of news commentary, editorial journalism. So it's going to be a packed hour. And, of course, you can call in as well at 1-800-684-311-0.

“Always the most important voice in the room is you.”

We'd love to hear from you. That's at 1-800-684-3110. Many of you have started to tune in. Maybe you saw the headline on YouTube or on rumble. And you saw what's going on.

We know a lot of you had interest in the redistricting plans that came across last week. And now we have, and once again, our response. So you had the Republicans, the Texas start this, then you had it go to California. And then it went to Virginia. And then it went back to the South as the South kind of redistricting everything.

And now you have a group of Democrats, not thrilled about this and trying to move their way to the Supreme Court. That's right. So on Friday, the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia put out a ruling saying that the referendum,

the way it was done in the analysis the Jordan gave, basically tracked with that,

violated the state constitution. The way it was presented, the question presented. And a lot of the mechanisms violated state law, not federal law, state law.

“And so the Commonwealth Supreme Court ruled that because of that, that the vote was not legally viable.”

That it didn't matter because what they did, the way that they got that to the ballot, was unconstitutional within the state. The leaders of the state, the newly elected attorney general, wasted no time, issued with the House of Delegate Speaker, a joint motion requesting the state Supreme Court to delay issuing its mandate, essentially the judgment saying that this does not go forward,

because they want to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. That is the normal path. Once you've exhausted your state courts, you can have that hail Mary attempt at the U.S. Supreme Court. But even in their motion that they filed to the Commonwealth Supreme Court, they did it so quickly unnecessarily.

So they had mispellings. They mispelled the state name, the state of Virginia. Verza Chasmilla. Verza Chasmilla. Out of correct.

No. How does that not pop up, right? It's right. This is who you work for to your home state. I mean, like, that doesn't pop up.

And what you said, no, no, no, I got it right. And then they also mispelled the word Senator in that same filing. They're trying to what they wrote, doesn't exist. Exactly. So quickly trying to get this before the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Jordan, it's a tall order for them to try to get this overturned, because it mostly relies on state constitutional law. Something that the Supreme Court is likely not going to weigh in on. I mean, this Supreme Court, in the case that's got everybody upset on the left about the district. I said, you know, there's a federal side to this, and there's the state side to this.

And when it's a federal side about what happened, what every state must do, I mean, they cleared the deck on that. And they went back to the states. It said the state Supreme Court's, they're really the place to go and the legislatures

“through the courts if you want to challenge it.”

So this is when I could see the Supreme Court not taking, because they've already answered the question clearly. And I don't think they need to re-hash that.

And they've already got a full, it wasn't like this was on appeal and never had to trial

or never got to this Supreme Court of Virginia, never got to finalise this. It's already had an answer. Yeah, I mean, this is your last resort. And if you're taking it seriously, maybe spell your commonwealth's name correctly. Or Senator.

But when we come down, there's more because the Democrats have other tricks up their sleeve. Just wait folks, you're going to want to hear this. Yeah, you don't want to miss it. I want to hear from you. We'll slow it down a little bit in the next segment.

I kind of give you a really what's happening where it's going to go from here. But I do want to hear from you. If you have a question or comments, it's actually the time to call in. As we have so many guests joining us in the second half as well as in the third segment here. So next segment, I'm going to take some calls if they come in.

1,800, 6, 8, 4, 3, 1, 1, 0. That's 1,800, 6, 8, 4, 31, 10. Call in right now and get your voice heard today. We'll be right back with more on Secular. If you're on YouTube right now, let me know where you're watching from.

[MUSIC]

A lot of you're just joining us right now in the break.

We're able to see when it's kind of never start spiking.

So I know a lot of you're tuning in wanting to know the big headline that we broke with, which was that Democrats rushing to Supreme Court. Maybe you saw that as the title. Let's slow it down a little bit. Laurie State, what's happening this has to do with the redistricting.

We're also going to discuss a little bit later. What's going on with the Russia Ukraine wars. There's been a very interesting development, which may lead, potentially, according to Vladimir Putin, to end to that conflict, into that war. It's been many, many years now.

I don't think a lot of us are paying that close attention to it at this point.

But for those that are, I'm sure if you're there on the ground, you are.

This could show some signs of heading towards an ending. We'll discuss that a little bit later. Maybe with Rick Renel also. And then, of course, like I said, we're going to have on Billy Hollowell from CBN. He's got a new special out, investigating the supernatural.

And it will be out. We'll be talking to him in the next segment. So it's going to be a pact.

“So if you want to call in, it's good time to do it.”

It's 1-800-6-8-4-31-10. But let's restake what we were discussing. And that is well that Virginia Democrats, like something to say right now. That's right. And what we're seeing here is that they lost at the commonwealth level Supreme Court on Friday,

where the Commonwealth Supreme Court issued a decision. Say it's a Supreme Court for those of us who are not fancy. Who aren't aristocrats. That's right. So they struck down the mechanism of which they were accepting that new redistricting map.

Remember, they had to change their state law in rules for this little anomaly to try and make things fair, as they said, to redraw their map to yield. Right, a 10-1 Democrat advantage over the current 6-5 advantage that they currently enjoy there in the state when it comes to congressional delegation. And the state Supreme Court said in a very well-reasoned opinion saying, "Hey, listen, this didn't follow state constitutional law, the way that you did this."

So therefore, the vote didn't matter. It's null and void. You saw the hysteria online of people saying, "Oh, we got to get rid of these judges. This is terrible. Can't believe it."

“And honestly, Democrat leaders, not just in the state, but are looking at ways to do that.”

But Jordan, what happened here in it? It goes back to the analysis. You gave the former Attorney General Ken Kuchanelli, who came on the show gave as well, that what they did, the mechanism didn't follow the law. So this isn't some radical right-wing court coming down and striking down the only last semblance of democracy that we have.

In this country, it's that they didn't follow the rules and the court struck it down. Yeah. I mean, they didn't follow their own rules about how you redistrict. And they tried to do this many redistricting that they would go have to pay for and do another redistricting after the next census in two years. So I mean, tons of taxpayer money wasted in Virginia.

And remember, a lot of this comes out of what California did. And now, what's the pushback? Well, Tennessee decided, you know what? Let's redraw our map and it's going to be tough for a Democrat to win. And you know what the Supreme Court says?

We don't look at politics. We look at you trying to put certain people. It doesn't matter if they're race, but you're trying to draw districts by the intent instead of race. So making minority majority districts or somehow super constitutional, they've actually said, no, that's unconstitutional.

“And I think we should take this phone call because one, we know that now the leadership, the Democrat leadership in Virginia is trying to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

This is kind of their last ditch effort to, well, not really, actually, because they have a few other tricks up their sleeve. We'll talk about in a moment, including one that was discussed with the minority leader of the House of Kim Jeffries, which is to completely fire their entire Supreme Court to get a new Supreme Court to try and undo this, what they see as injustice. But I think we should go to Bob from Florida because he has a very interesting point. And I think it's what's kind of missing in all of this discussion about redistricting Bob, you're on secular.

Yeah, guys, the thing that I wanted to discuss is obviously the Democrats are trying to do this on racial lines and that's illegal. So what the Republicans are missing out on is, look at the Northeast.

President Trump got 40 to 45 percent of the vote, and there is no representation.

That seems to be okay on the left, and that's done on political lines. And if they cannot figure out a way to win the messaging battle and make the Democrats openly admit that they believe that on a racial level, all minorities should be Democrats, because that's obviously not the case. They're allowing this messaging to say you're pulling away their right to vote. They still have the right to vote. Make them say that a white representative can't properly serve a minority district.

And yes, I agree that that's what's ridiculous of this entire discussion is that in the Northeast and Massachusetts, even in Illinois actually states that are comparable in size to Tennessee that they're attacking right now.

Yeah, saying that Tennessee is trying to do this to be a racist thing.

No, you look in Massachusetts, you look in Illinois. They have states where there is a sizable percentage of people vote for Republicans have zero representatives. You can say in Tennessee, it's not dissimilar in the fact that you have a 3540% of people that aren't Democrat voters, maybe the presidential, let's say presidential, I'm sure it's different in the midterm, it's different those kind of things, but the presidential is about 40% that are voting blue.

“Well, and I think that's the point is that as soon as they point to a state, they don't like they say that's the racism of Tennessee instead of pointing out that we're at a place.”

This is all politics, it's the political game they've been playing in their states for decades, but it's exactly, but as soon as you do it in a Republican state, you still may not like it, this maybe shouldn't be the way this happens. But the disparity here, Jordan, is that when Republicans play the game they've been playing for decades, it's racism and when they do it, it's saving democracy.

Yeah, that's right, so it's okay for them to Jerry Mander, it's just not okay for Republicans to redistrict following their decisions to make these very bold moves.

It's not like Gavin News some hit what they were trying to do, he said we're going to add more Democrat seats, we take out Republican seats, so it's purely partisan. What the Democrats didn't understand is that once you go there, that's where the Supreme Court says we don't care. The political view is not a protected class in itself. Of course, you're right to vote, things like that, that is protected, but your political party view is not. That's not a class, that's a, in many states in the Supreme Court, it's okay, you can decide that day, even in part party, when you want to vote for it.

“You have to pick one, but you can still, and then again, you go into the election booth for the general election, it doesn't matter what your party is, you can still vote for different people, different parties.”

That's why it's not a protected class, they didn't realize the care they were opening in Republican majority states like to see. Well, and I think also to that point is when they're trying to say that when it's done in the south or in a Republican state, it is racism, when it's their states, they're trying to protect democracy, they're trying to make it fair. Here's the report out of the New York Times over the weekend that leaders from Virginia were talking with the King Jeffries, and here's the idea that they were coming up with.

That would be to quickly pass a law in Virginia. That would lower the mandatory retirement age for the Virginia Supreme Court. They have that there, we don't have that in the U.S. Supreme Court, but at the state level, from mandatory retirement. What is it? 75 down to 54, which would replace, it would replace the entire state Supreme Court.

“So therefore, what they're saying is the Supreme Court of 50 and 15 under, it's 53 and under, you're all appointed by 54.”

And one governor with a Democrat with a Democrat, let's just say, they was just elected and they get to fill these suitum at court packing, instead of adding seats, they literally just reset. They figured out a way to have to everybody mandatory retire 54 years old, and they're thinking there's it's not age discrimination at that point. Yeah, you're not saying you're too old to be. Even though a lot of it do have like Virginia has a mandatory requirement. You're going to start their careers at 54, but once again, they are getting to those positions.

Yeah, we're finally going to need to 50 years old, you're just being considered for that.

They are showing their cards here. It is all about coalescing power, and they're going to do it through any means necessary. This is the party of no kings. This is a very authoritarian move when you're going to say we're going to get at rid of an entire court because of one opinion that we didn't like, an entire court. In one opinion, we didn't like this before your old retirement, even that I would have that could be challenged actually.

I mean, because it's so arbitrary, and it's directed directly at members. You can't say this is so general, they picked a number to make sure it would clear the entire court. Right. So if the 53 year old, it's about 354 has to retire. I mean, that is, that is, again, using politics to personally take out your political partisan vendetta.

And what it has done is opened up more states, red states to say, you know what, we can play this game. And we're not going to be ridiculous like you are, and we're not going to have a problem, and you're going to lose seats. And so this is what the Democrats started, and this is why there's some renewed hope about the midterms for Republicans. Look, I want you to be on the show today. If you can give me a call, we have a few lines open still at 1-800-6-8-4-31-10.

Well, he's in studio today, so this is going to be fun to chat with him, and obviously getting into some pretty heavy material here, fair warning. But then we'll continue on this discussion, also again, talk a little bit more news and updates with Rick Cornell.

“So he's going to be joining us, but if you want to be on the air, it's great time to do it 1-800-6-8-4-31-10 to get out home.”

Look, the ACLJ, we provide so much incredible work, whether that is our work in the law, or whether that's the media side.

All of it goes through ACLJ.org. If you're looking for a great resource, where you can send your friends clips, show them what's happening, read, get educated. All of it is there. No paywall needed ACLJ.org. [Music] Look at that. The second one is a set of full minds. We're opening call in at 1-800-6-8-4-3-1-1-10. Are we at a guest on last week? I said, you know what? Let's have fun again today. But also he happened to be in studio. So he said, "Came in a Nashville. I said, let's bring you back on."

Billy Hallowell's joining us. You know him last week. We discussed his new film and film series even that is on CBN. We're going to get into that as well. We probably should restate what that is. Because it is a little bit of a departure from the work that we do hear each and every day. However, especially in our conversations, it doesn't necessarily not relate. Because it feels like we are dealing with a spiritual battle that is beyond anything we may read in the news or see in the news in.

“And you can feel it. I think a lot of people are recognizing it. But aren't sure what they are recognizing.”

They're just recognizing an unsettling feeling that is coming out of what's happening in the world and you have really done a deep dive into this. Yeah, yeah. The film is investigating the supernatural angels and demons. And you're so right. I think people, you see something you say that was evil. Right? And even atheists will say this. That was evil. And it's like, "Well, what about it was evil? What does that come from? What does that mean?" And like you guys, I come from like my day job as the news world. Right? So I'm looking at the news. I'm looking at what's happening.

And the more I look at what's happening in Scripture, I'm understanding that better. So it's kind of like taking that Ephesian six lens to it. Yeah. And this special, and again, it's a film series available on CBN. It's not, it's really well done, as you said. You're background in journalism, you're background in really doing the work is there. So it's not like you're just taking the word of people and saying, "Yeah, 100% this is authentic, this is real."

“You're letting the viewer decide some of that. But also you're going in there. Not as, like, I think we discussed this.”

Not as the person who wanted to be necessarily convinced of all of this early on. Yeah. No. I mean, going into it, I'm a skeptic on every one of these stories. You know, I go in and I'm like, "Okay, you're telling me you had this encounter with a demon or an angel." You're telling me that you had this healing, prove it to me. Right? And so we take an investigative journalist approach to these topics.

Our first film was on miracles. This one's on Angels and Demons, and our next one is Heaven and Hell.

And we just fell, and that'll be near-death experiences. But we just felt really strongly that if there's evidence that these things are happening still, we should unpack it, we should uncover it, we should present it and show it. We have reenactments, and then let people make a decision for themselves. I will tell you this. I have challenged people, and I'll do it again now. If you watch the film, and you can do that at CBN.com/Supernatural. And you have another explanation for what is going on in these stories. I want people to come and tell me and ask me.

Well, and I think one, you and I have many discussions for more than a decade now. I remember talking, having you booking you on this broadcast back in the 2012 election cycle. We had you on weekly for a very long time talking about political news. But in this, as you say, almost feels like such a shift from the topics that we're used to talking about. But if you were to go back and even think, why would some of the things that are in Scripture, especially when it comes to evil forces, dark forces, and the way they manifested, why would they stop?

Why would they stop? Why, you know, if you go through that even with the critical lens of we as a modern society are so quick to say, you know, that seems like a crazy story.

Why would things like that stop? Then you start to look through this investigation. Is that kind of what you feel? Like, oh, when I read what's in Scripture, and I read these things that were very clearly happening, not some parable or story. There's a lot of parallels with things that we even see in the world now that are unexplainable through any other lens. 100% you know, it's funny. You look at what happens in Scripture. I think a lot of us, we read the Bible as though it's this book of Fables or even though we say we believe it, it's like we're reading it differently than we would the news.

And yet, if those things all happened, like you were saying, why would they have stopped? But the thing for me that was the most convicting in all of this was Ephesians 6, because I've read that a million times as a Christian, I'm 42, I've literally probably a million times, and I've just glazed past it. And if you pause and you stop at Ephesians 6, Paul is saying, we live in a world that is comprised of a spiritual battle, right? All of us are consumed with the us versus them, that's the distraction, and that's what culture wants us focused on, that's what cancel culture was, that's Democrats versus Republicans don't get me wrong.

We also see in real life, like some of that most horrendous criminal cartels, like MS 13, who embrace Satan, Satanism, and it's interesting because you don't think of cartels embracing religion or having any man, but yet, that's a big part of their indoctrination.

And what we read in the Bible is that when you start welcoming that into yourself, that is when the demons show up, you know, you're encouraging that.

That's when those guys can carry out these heinous acts as atrocities and have, it's like not even, doesn't even affect their mindset, you can see them in prison, they're dead in the eye. And they embrace, they said, we want to embrace the devil, we want to embrace evil, we're going to put 666 on everyone and are encouraging them to kind of take them over. And so that tracks to what the Bible says as well and the teachings, both in the old and New Testament.

“100%. How can you understand anything that's happening in your life, politics, the issues you just mentioned, if you don't understand scripture, right?”

So I think a lot of us, even as Christians, we're not looking through that lens of scripture to look at these events of the day. And you're not, like a lot of times, you're like, that doesn't make sense. How did we get to a place in this country where we were allowing children to be, you know, essentially castry? Like, how are we allowing these things? Well, there's a spiritual element to it. And if you're not seeing that, you're going to be very, very confused about everything. So, you know, being for me, selfishly being able to look at things through that lens, it transformed me and our hope is that people will see that evidence and start to look at everything.

Not just these issues of angels and demons, but everything through that lens. I see some comments coming in. And of course, I know it has brought up in this, which of course we did have big news last week with the UFOs.

That kind of plays into your special to your movie.

It does. And I want to say this before I get into what I think. Okay. There is a battle about over this, even in the church, even among Christians about what they think is going on with UFOs and aliens, right? Not some people believe aliens exist. They believe UFOs exist. Some people don't. But we do deal with this in the film. We felt it was important a year ago when we were working on it. We had no idea it was going to release as this was all happening.

But, you know, we have Hugh Ross, who's a brilliant astrophysicist. He's in the film. And from his perspective, he believes that, you know, most of the time, 99% of the time, there's a natural explanation for what people are seeing. Meaning it's military technology. It's something else, right? Something that we don't know about. But there's an explanation. But that 1% and someone say it's 10%. But the smaller percentage, this residual, it is something.

We are seeing something. So there's no debate. People are seeing something. But what is it that they're seeing? He would say they're seeing a spiritual manifestation. That Ephesians 6, that that battle is being visualized and seen by people. Meaning that maybe there aren't really aliens, maybe they're just demons manifesting his aliens or being seen as such.

“So that would be his position on it. And I think it's an interesting position.”

Yeah. And look, again, what I like about the work that you do is, though, you are laying out the evidence. It isn't definitive. Saying, this is 100%. This is the story. This is what happened. It's just saying, here are the stories we're hearing. And I'm sure looking to follow up, it's going to be very similar. And I think there's going to be a whole wide range of debate on near-death experiences and everything that that opens. Because that opens a whole nother theological debate that I do not want to have nor prepared to have.

And I think what's interesting to you, with you, we all got a minute left. Maybe we'll keep you on for the next segment, is in this just a minute, is that you didn't, like we talked about before, you knew opening this door was going to be tough. Yeah, it could be dark. But also, wasn't necessarily where you wanted to go. But I'm happy that you're the one doing it. Because you're telling it from a non-sensationalist kind of point of view.

Yeah, I want facts. I want you to prove it to me. And I think if you can prove it, and I know we have a few seconds here left. That's fine. If we can prove that these things are still happening. Okay, miracles are still happening. People are having these experiences. It opens up a whole new doorway. It's not new, but I guess a renewed doorway of how we reach people with the gospel.

“If you want to reach people with the truth and you can prove that these things are happening, it's in a apologetic stool.”

That's great. You can get it? Right now, it's available. Yeah, CBN.com/Supernatural. And do it. You can stream it. You can order a DVD. Still, if you'd like, there are a lot of different ways. Please been a good friend of ours. We're happy to have him on.

Stick on for the next segment. We'll let you promote it again one more time. And then we're going to pack second half of the show. Give me a call, 1806-8-431-10 to be on the air right now. And again, if you want to support the work of the ACLJ, go to ACLJ.org right now.

Or just look at all the incredible resources that we provide with it.

This show, what's all legal work of you need legal help. It's all there. Ready for you. No paywall, ACLJ.org. We'll be right back. Less than a minute. Keeping you informed and in game.

Now, more than ever. This is Secular. And now you're host, Logan Secular. Welcome back to the second half hour of Secular. Thanks for joining us. If you missed the first half hour, you can find it later on.

R-cives on ACLJ.org. Wherever you get your podcast, we are there. Just search Secular. Search ACLJ.

Phone lines like I said are open.

We're going to take some calls in the back. The final segment of the show. Right now, look, we've been talking about sort of the breaking news of the day. We started off this conversation talking about the redistricting. Then we're going to move on.

We're going to have a little discussion about even an update. We haven't had an update in the Russia Ukraine situation. But it seems like there could be an update that could signal and into that conflict. We're going to discuss that in the next few segments. But Billy Hallwell is still joining us. He was on the final segment.

I wanted to give him just another minute of our time to make sure people see your new documentary. Your new film. Supernatural. Investigating the supernatural. This one is in a series of films from CBN.

And really, if you're looking for a deeper dive into what's happening,

“I think this is an important one for people to say.”

Because like you said, it's not just about, oh, the, you want to say, almost what feels like a science fiction version of angels and demons. We were talking about the real spiritual warfare that's happening. And again, it's biblically based, but some of these stories are pretty wild. They're wild.

I mean, they're incredibly wild. And I think, you know, you've got, here's the other thing. You have doctors. And this really blew my mind, you know, psychiatrists, psychologists. You know, that came into the documentary to share their perspective.

You don't often hear from those people. But people whose perspectives were shifted when they started engaging with people who, you know, claim to be possessed or claim to be oppressed. And once they started engaging in that thinking, oh, my goodness. My skepticism has been obliterated.

Yeah, they're dealing with science. And you usually tie those two together and say, okay, well, if you're your professor, if you're dealing with, if you're a doctor, there's a lot of atheism that goes into that at this point. Or a lot of at least agnosticism that happens.

Well, we even had on astronaut a few weeks ago, a bunch Wilmore said, you know, it did nothing going to space being stuck there for you. It did nothing but reaffirm his faith because of how wild it is to experience. Even saw from the Artemis mission that one astronaut, who was saying, I am not a religious person unlike one of the other astronauts.

But when a chaplain came in, he broke down in tears. Weeping seeing the name of Jesus, weeping after being in the presence of everything they were in the presence of for that mission.

“And you have to think even with those are the positives of the spiritual world,”

manifesting and being seen as we could see over the very time of perspective. But you also see how dark some of the stories that we've had, even think of October 7th and all this war. And in the ways even some people's mindsets in both American conservatism, as well as the left, over things like the state of Israel and the Jewish people,

and that very much spiritual things and theological things that have become such a tense thing in many ways the rhetoric has gotten none other than demonic. I mean, how else do you make sense of the way that Israel is being framed among some people? There are certain podcasters and TV hosts who are saying things.

You could never imagine people, especially on the right saying.

I'm not going to name names, but there's people out there doing this and we all know who they are. And then dragging a widow through the mud endlessly over and over and over again. A lot of people are saying, what is going on here? And I think sometimes the only explanation you can have is it has to be spiritual, especially on the Israel front.

I mean, it's just so bizarre to watch. But that's why if we don't have those lenses on, we're not going to understand the headlines. We're really not, and we're going to miss the mark. We've got a packed second half here in a bill. We've got one minute left.

“I just want you to plug away because I think this is important.”

Tell people what they need to do, how they can see it. And of course, there's more coming. Yeah, I love it. So our next film is going to be investigating the supernatural heaven and hell. That'll come out next year.

But if you want to watch our angels and demons doc, you go to cvn.com/supernatural.

Our first one on miracles, you can go to cvn.com/miracles to watch that one as well.

Yeah, so check out the whole series and follow Billy on all social platforms. A great follow and someone who's been a friend of ours for at this point decades. It feels like all the time. A lot of the time. So go check out all of what he's doing.

We love him. So again, that is cvn.com/supernatural. Go watch this new film from Billy investigating the supernatural angels and demons. We got again, a lot more coverage to get through. But I want to hear from you at 1-800-6-8-4-311-0

In the last segment of the show, we will take your calls and comments. So go ahead and get on hold 1-800-6-8-4-31-10. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secular Recrenell is joining us live Rick. There's a lot happening in your world and there's a lot happening.

Obviously in the state of California, maybe we'll get to that as well. But I don't want to take things at least to start a bit more worldwide. And there isn't update here on something that we have not really had to update on.

And that is that Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the war between Russia and Ukraine in quotes is coming to an end. That the matter is coming to an end.

This is again, a first update we've had in quite some time.

I just want to get your read when you hear something like this coming out from Putin. Does this actually carry any weight to signify that maybe that this, what feels like a year's long,

“you know, has been a year's long war, could be starting to wrap up?”

Well, I know it's a priority for President Trump to try to figure out how to get peace here.

It's been very frustrating and to hear Mr. Putin say this is a very good thing.

I think the Russians have been the ones that have been defining a lot of what's happening. And so what we really need is for Putin to continue down this road of talking about peace, what is it take? How does he see it developing?

“I think that the years that I've spent at the UN working in a multilateral setting with the Russians”

that they are very clear in their mind that they've won this and that now they want to move to another phase.

Now whether or not that is true, I think that's up for debate, but the reality is is that having Mr. Putin moved to talking about even a ceasefire for a couple of days

or a vision that this is coming to an end is a diplomatic breakthrough and we need to really double down on this right now. Well, as well, when you start to think about the track record of when he would invade portions of Ukraine, whether it was under President Obama or then again under President Biden, when there was no real resistance from the United States other than don't tough talk, words telling him not to do it, but he didn't care. Now you see that this was something that President Trump said was a priority, but you already saw over the weekend when this three day ceasefire was announced.

President Trump put it out there, the Democrats who cannot help themselves, but just be political about war when anyone should be like, "Okay, great, a ceasefire, so people will not be dying for three days. This is a good thing. Had to say, well, really, he's just doing Putin's bidding. This is nothing new. He's the puppet going back to the old, you know, Russia hoax type language. But in reality, he's this is Putin saying the war could be coming to an end. He's open to discussing fresh European security arrangements, and he also he mentioned an individual and maybe get into as well that he's he prefers an negotiating partner from Germany.

“When it comes to this, the former chancellor, Gerard Schroeder. So just kind of what it, what are your takes on this?”

I know you know a lot about Germany and the politics there, but what does this mean when he's even talking about maybe negotiating with Europe as a part of this, bringing this war to a close? Look, the Russians have always been an over-ruler of the Germans, whether the Germans want to agree to that or not, Chancellor Merkel told me at multiple occasions that, you know, we Americans just don't understand the German relationship with Russia that they can control Russia that they've got. Certainly, a working relationship and a trade relationship unlike any others, and so they have really tried to have good relations with Russia that remember they had the Nordstrom to pipeline really feeding their energy there.

But it was President Obama and Chancellor Merkel from Germany, who came up with the Minsk Agreement, followed by Minsk II. And remember in that agreement, the Germans came up with this idea in Obama, President Obama approved it. Of autonomous zones, that's what they call it, autonomous regions. What that really means is is that there are regions within the Ukraine boundaries whereby Ukraine doesn't really control Russia doesn't really control, we don't really care on paper where these autonomous zones lie, but that they are going to be independent autonomous zones.

That was what Chancellor Merkel came up with. I've talked to President Trump about these autonomous zones in the past, and I do think that this is one of those diplomatic tools that we could find a way for both sides to agree to some sort of autonomous zones or autonomous regions. Now, the rest of Europe doesn't like that because that creates this precedent for autonomous zones and regions throughout Europe that the Europeans don't like.

The Germans are very weak when it comes to this, but maybe that's the solution if the Germans can bring around, bring along the Europeans, the rest of the Europeans, and they had some sort of autonomous zones that they can build out from like what Minsk and Minsk did.

“I think that there's an opening that we should look at.”

I wanted to ask you Rick about Iran, because we had dueling proposals come out from the United States, and a lot of those points were described to us. We were able to go through them with people.

We knew those were going to be difficult, so those points are difficult for Iran to accept, and they then sit back their own proposal, which was absurd, and the President, as he said, didn't like it. Do you think we are very close to going back to the combat level we were at before this short term ceasefire to see if there could be a deal, and this proposal accepted that it's not being totally rejected now? Look, the one thing that I do know is that President Trump is always serious about his diplomatic endeavors. He wants to solve this diplomatically, but unlike any other President, President Trump knows that there are boundaries, and he's willing to make sure that the diplomacy when it's stuck or comes to an end is bolstered by what the Pentagon can do, and the Pentagon does not negotiate.

So that option is always on the table, and that is very helpful to diplomats, because the threat that President Trump has is a credible threat, and other countries are allies, even, or our opponents, they all know this as a credible threat. And so let's wait and see what happens. I know President Trump is willing to do diplomacy, military action, very quickly he can change, and mixing that up is exactly what we need to stay credible and to stay nimble. I will say this, though, that the Iranians have always had a credibility problem when it comes to truthfulness, and when it comes to sticking to their agreements, and so our side is very clear-eyed that you can't just trust what they say.

Rick, I know we're going to be having you on again this week, and we'll talk more about this, but just quickly, President Trump is heading this week to China for a summit that was delayed because of the war in Iran, a quick preview of what you think could be some of the big ticket items that the President seems to want to bring forward as he meets with the leader of China.

“Well, I think the relationship that President Trump has with President Xi is really unique. It's a tough relationship, it's an honest push from President Trump. He's willing to say, look, this is what I'd like, and I'll play tough if I have to.”

I love the relationship because we don't see it as just one dimensional. It's always talking about the economy, the farmers, for instance, and President Trump really has a focus of trying to make sure that the trade deals for farming are good for American farmers. I think you're going to see the beginnings of a deal if not a full deal. President Trump likes to go and push hard, so you'll also see the media probably panic about how hard Trump is pushing, but what we do know is that he mixes it up, and there can be a reward for the Chinese if they're willing to do it President Trump's way, which is something that will benefit the American economy.

So that the Chinese have manipulated our relationship with every other President before President Trump, they've always gotten great deals, and they haven't been truthful either. So President Trump is going to hold him to account, hopefully come back with the beginning, or at least an agreement in principle. Thanks Rick for joining us today. We always appreciate it and we'll have you back on and believe tomorrow is what we'll say, and so you know, be a packed week with Rick right now, which we always appreciate all of your guidance and thoughts and we appreciate it with that.

“I do want to hear from all of you as well. We've heard from a lot of different guests today. We haven't heard so much of your voice yet. So if you want to call in, this is a great time really the last time to do it.”

There are a few lines open for you right now. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. If you've been on hold for a while, stay on hold. I will get to you in the next segment. I'm sorry. We haven't gotten you to yet. It's just been a packed show, which we always enjoy having on some of our friends. I mean, are some of our guests. If you if you liked that, also let me know in the comments and we can have any of these people on or if you have a suggestion on who you'd like to see.

Throw in their hat for doing some commentary. I'd love to see that as well. Put it in the chat if you're watching on rumble on YouTube or Facebook, whatever it may be.

So we'll be right back with more on secular, but I'm going to ask you to give me a call at one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero.

“We are live 12's a one p.m. Eastern time each and every day. We'll be right back on secular.”

Welcome back to secular. We are going to take your calls and comments. Probably the last two minutes or so to even get yourself on the air. So call in at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. We're going to talk a little more about the redistricting rule. A lot of you have had discussions about that. What it means what it looks like. Even if you don't care about the big news of the day, which is the Virginia is going to the Supreme Court start to stop. What Republicans are doing so confusing. It's just another political game that we've decided we're going to play out on both sides.

And whether you agree with the idea of this sort of jerrymandering redistricting or not like I said last week. Unfortunately. Or fortunately however you may see it. This is the way politics is going right now. And as we have learned in the past Jordan union address this.

“If you don't play with the rules that you're given right now and you take sort of this higher ground.”

It's always ends in disaster, especially for Republicans.

We see again this idea replacing entire courts replacing the entire judicial system. We want to have topped the bottom a redo of article article one of the US Constitution article article two article three. And this whole idea that we are going to disband the federal court systems because you don't like their policy. The way they interpret the constitution they were selected by a president who was elected by the American people. And then confirmed by US senators who were elected by the American people.

And so you know good and well what their policy views were. It doesn't mean you can always predict how they outcome. But it's any time they are losing. They don't want to just try and win the argument. They have to take down the system. It's the system's fault. It's the constitution's fault. It's the white in behind the constitution who set up the Supreme Court. And really it was Congress who set up the other courts. You know it was the Supreme Court's here Congress can set up and silly courts.

“And that's how we got that district and and the Court of Appeal system in the United States.”

But this idea of just first it was court packing now it's just dismantling and rewriting it.

While we still have secret courts operating that that's spy on Americans and they have no problem with that one. It's going to take a call. It's going to Johnny who is calling from Tennessee. Johnny's got some comments here. Go ahead. Good morning. Good afternoon. I have a couple of quick comments on the redistricting in Tennessee. The one district represented by Cohen is a majority black district. But yet he's a white name.

And on the Virginia thing if they retire everybody they'll be retiring the first and only black woman chief justice on the Virginia Supreme Court.

Not not only that Johnny. She is the first African American female to even serve on the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Yes, because in reality, I don't even know that the politicians believe their lines when they say it's racist. They know that it is what will get the social media people, the blue sky crowd all above and putting out reels about how this is the end of America. But at the end of the day, they know it's all a political game and you may hate it. I don't love the way that this district works. I don't. I don't like even the fact that I was actually kind of happy Tennessee had stayed out of it at this point.

But then the Supreme Court decision. You can't blame them when they're actually trying to follow the decision from the Supreme Court because that district is a legacy district. But at the end of the day, I'm tired of it being called all racism whenever it comes to this. We've seen that the the demographic shifts in voting are not favoring Democrats as it is, but they're still relying on these old these old sayings and these old labels of it being racism from the past. That's not what we're looking at here. What we are looking at is that they have been playing this game in the Northeast in the Midwest for so long.

And then they start to get a taste of their own medicine and they have to resort back to language from the 50s and 60s. Which when there was a real time when that was a concern that is not what the concern is today in 2026. It is not what is coming out of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is not what the Virginia Supreme Court was dealing with. It is just ridiculous and as Jordan is saying, you may hate it. I don't love the redistricting game, but this is where we are. So everyone should just call it what it is. It's a political game.

That's the way it is and less every state puts in an independent commission. It's going to continue to be this way.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's why I said it's the unfortunate reality is when politics gets put into this and the rules get changed or things happen and you don't go and play by the rules.

“You have to kind of adjust. You even have to take decide whether to decide whether to decide whether, yeah, exactly. Do you prefer the way it was or do you have to understand that you may prefer how it was.”

But you now have to play by the rules that are now presented in front of you and politics is treated like a game. That's what happens. Unfortunately, that is the world we live in as well said, you know, they will try to pretend there's some sort of moral high ground in these states. And like I've lived in a lot of these states, lived in Virginia, lived in Tennessee, lived throughout the Florida, Georgia, but not much everywhere it's redistricting. I somehow live in and I will tell you that even in some of the more blue areas, especially in those areas of the south in strange ways, the more blue areas is where I've actually seen some of the most

uh, a grieges racism up front where you cannot believe the words that are coming out of people's mouths in the, you know, that time would have been the 20 tens or the two early 2000s where a lot of these areas they may pretend to have this moral high ground and trust me that is the people who are voting more blue in these areas. Right. And once again, don't a paint with a broad brush. You look at what the states that tried to have this moral high ground if we have a independent voting commission like California like Virginia and

“what did they do? Honestly, Virginia's map was was pretty accurate of it being a five six six to five split Democrat Republican and their congressional delegation.”

One of the last rules. Stay true, purple states. Okay. Fine. Yeah. That was probably the appropriate representation of the state.

What did they do? They said, oh, we're going to actually throw out our moral high ground in in the name of fairness. No, worry about your own house. Keep it in order for Virginia and what did they do? No, this is the same attorney general who is appealing this. Who was saying and all of this came out and he still won his election that he wanted gun violence to happen to his political opponents children in front of him. And when was pushbacks that you don't mean this top saying this in appropriate. No, I really want this to happen. So maybe they'll change their policy positions. These are not serious people, but now they are in positions of power.

And so when you look at this and they try to throw out their own rules to try and gain an advantage.

His own words are he does not care what it takes to get his ideology and his positions across the finish line, whether it be getaway and read of their states Supreme Court, whether it be violence against his political opponents.

“That's what we're living with. So yeah, if that's what they're going to start doing, I think you have to protect the art constitution and other states play the same game.”

All right. Well, that's pretty much going to do it for the show. Well, thank you for doing that. There was a packed hour, everybody. If you want to share this show, I would encourage you to do so because you could see how far we were able to cast our net today. We were talking about everything from the war in Russia and Ukraine to the war in the spiritual realm. Back to the redistricting battles happening throughout the country, and we cover a lot of ground here in an hour. So why are show is even a little bit different than a lot of what you see throughout the country, whether it's on mainstream news or even podcasts.

We're going to give you everything you need, hopefully in that hour of time. We do it each and every day, Monday through Friday from noon to one PM Eastern time. You could find us live. You could always call in. That is an ACLJ dot org, YouTube, rumble. How have you get your podcast where there you can find an archive later on? Again, that's the full hour show. And again, if you want to support the work of the show and the work of the ACLJ or legal side or media side. All of it goes to make sure that all this provided to you at absolutely no cost, no paywalls at ACLJ dot org. Make your donation today if you can. If you have a champion, if you can, we appreciate it. Talk to you tomorrow.