Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the WallBuilders Show. This is the place where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And it's also the intersection of faith and culture, which simply means our faith applies to everything in life, including the culture. That's politics, entertainment, you name it. There's nothing that the Lord's not Lord over in our lives. And so we get a lot of great topics here on the WallBuilders Show. If you've missed any recent radio programs, you can get them at our website. WallBuilders.show WallBuilders.Show for a list of the radio programs and then wallbuilders.com is our main website. Great place to get some tools and educational materials and just some fun swag. A lot of great stuff there to be sharing the good news with folks. Check it out at wallbuilders.com. I'm Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton and it's my favorite day of the week Friday because we get some good news from these guys and we're thinking it's going to take, I don't know, 20, 30 years to catch up on the good news of just the first few weeks of the year. And so many things have been happening. Guys, what's at the top of your list for our good news Friday? 

David Barton [00:01:03] Well, I got to do a retro I got to go back to a long time ago, two weeks ago when inauguration happened. A long, long time ago. But what is it? Three weeks are three. Three. 

Tim Baton [00:01:13] That's how long ago it was. 

David Barton [00:01:15] I missed that. 

Tim Baton [00:01:16] One more than you realize. 

David Barton [00:01:18] So inauguration time, the entertainers for the balls, they were great. You had Carrie Underwood, those people, etc.. Great. The one they got mentioned that I thought was significant that I want to mention is Liberty University Praise Choir. They brought in a Christian choir as part of the entertainment and the inaugural balls. And I think that's really profound because that's the kind of stuff that often gets people beat up when they do something like that. Christian government, all those secular people. And the fact that Trump brought in the Liberty University Praise Choir as part of the entertainment for the inaugural balls I think is phenomenal. So then what that the pass I want to point that out. 

Rick Green [00:01:54] I think it really David, I don't know if they were the ones do maybe they were the ones that were doing and I think we might have talked about this the day after the inauguration. But even the hymns that were playing on the piano, you know, and the orchestra right before the inauguration, I mean, just the tone was incredible. And of course, we know I mean, the Holy Spirit is is there when those things are getting played. And it was just it was just so it was you could feel the shift coming. But I didn't know it was the Liberty Choir that was there. That's cool. 

David Barton [00:02:21] Yeah. As far as I know, that's the first overtly Christian entity been invited to be part of inaugural events. And as long as I can remember inaugurations and there may have been others, but I just can't recall one. So that was profound to me. I wanted to shout out to Liberty University and just let folks know the president really took a big risk there media wise. But he doesn't care is going to do what he thinks is right. And that's what's been cool about him. The thing that I would do for this week, I'm going to start with what he recently did and that he went to the military academies and he threw out all the people in the academies that are doing the woke ideology stuff, the academies I started fretting about this way back under Obama when he started taking military guys out of the military academies and started giving the teaching over to two professors that were not military. And that's when we saw so much anti-military stuff come in the military was back under Obama, and Trump has just ended that. 

Tim Baton [00:03:14] And yet I would actually say that he took a really good first step because he he removed some of those that were very outspoken advocates of that. But because if you go back to President Obama and some of the shift in the military, we know that now a huge percentage of officers are favorable of that. And so I would say this has not been rooted and I don't think you are trying to suggest this is that been totally ruled out of the military. But he removed the obvious people up top that were loud advocates and promoters of this to at least set a tone and a standard of what is acceptable and the direction the military is going in the future. 

David Barton [00:03:51] Yeah, and that is the problem because these kids who come to service academies, whether it be the the Coast Guard Academy or the Army or Navy or Air Force or any other, they're top kids in the nation academically, they have to be appointed, are generally appointed through Congress congressional offices. But they're coming out of these woke universities. And so you got a lot of wokeness in the academies simply because of the students that are going there and the education they receive. So it was not good to take that wokeness and reinforce it by having tests on it and by having professors require it and others. And so the fact that he went through and he threw out the board of visitors for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, all those are gone. And to try to get back to people who really love America, who really love the military, who understand constitutionally what it should do and get them teaching and instructing at the military universities. Again, I think that is such a big deal. And I you know, after after ten years or how long has been since Obama did that and it was probably back at the very start of his term. So it may be close to 15 or 16 years ago to see the military academies maybe start taking a step and a good, positive, pro-America, pro-military direction, I think is wonderful. 

Rick Green [00:05:00] You know, Dave, that probably fits in, too, with how we ended on good news Friday last week, the news about the recruitment being through the roof in December, even just after Trump's election, be in the best recruitment and then January even beyond that. So much of the I guess the frustration of people not going into the military. You just pointed out it wasn't just the jab thing and a lot of the Covid stuff, it goes all the way back to just the tone and the even even when Clinton kind of made the military this experiment for social things and and so changing all of that over all of those years, that was so bad and changes so quickly. The military academy is a key place to do that. Pete Hegseth and the things he's already doing to get rid of the DEI. I think we're going have a lot of good news story on the military side of things in the coming weeks and months and years. And that's just good for the country because I think Rabbi Lappin said it on our program once, If you when you get to the point that your men will volunteer to defend the nation, your nation, your country's done. And so having that recruitment thing change is a really good indicator of the health of the society. Tim alright man, where we're going with your first piece of good news this week. 

Tim Baton [00:06:02] Well, we're staying with Trump. I mean, we have we have a huge stack and Trump is adding to it's a daily this one is the headline says Trump Signs Executive Order Creating Iron Dome for America. Now, for those who have paid attention to the news over many years, the Iron Dome is something that was part of Israel's defense system. And it's what intercept some of the missiles are rockets coming into Israel protecting their citizens as much as possible. And in this one, Trump is actually signing an executive order called for a revamped a set of layered missile defense. And this is part of the order capability to defeat ballistic hypersonic and advanced cruise missiles, as well as other emerging aerial threats. And then this was described by the president as an iron Dome for America. Part of the fact sheet surrounding this says it also includes the development of non-kinetic missile defense capabilities, and that can include lasers, high powered microwaves for damaging incoming missiles, as well as cyber and electric tronic measures to disrupt a missile's guidance and control toward a target. Now, part of why and there's more to this, I'm going to give a few more thoughts on this before I wrap it up. But part of also why it's interesting, even this article points out is we know that China and Russia as examples, they have done a lot of technological advancements with their systems, their their military systems. And we've actually had some concerns by members of Congress when we were speaking with them in confidence about what we have done in the military really, really since President Obama and maybe even before that with some of the people that even Bush had in the Pentagon, they have prioritized a lot more ideology that was not about the military being strong and being able to take out bad guys. And so we have not done the same level of development and we have not given the same level of intentionality as places like China has. And so there is concern that they are advancing in some areas, maybe even more rapidly than we are now. There are still a lot of advantages America have. We have the first and second largest air force in the world. Our Air Force is the largest, and the Navy's Air Force is the second largest. So we still have a lot of significant advantages. But it's it's interesting that President Trump is saying, hey, let's let's speed this thing up almost like what we have seen with even the FAA, with airports. And, you know, Elon Musk in some of his 19 year old wizards that they've been coming in and being like, why are you guys using a system that's 30 years old, like using floppy disks as part of the program? I mean, this is crazy. And that's a little bit what President Trump has done looking at some of the defense system. Again, this is such good news. And dad following along. 

Rick Green [00:08:57] I feel like I'm saying floppy disk is like me saying a 8 track tape. You know, there's there's probably some listeners that don't know what a floppy disk is.that's. 

Tim Baton [00:09:07] I mean, that's fair.  I did use those in college. That was a real thing. So yeah, so for, for those listening before you were like. 

David Barton [00:09:14] Just okay, in a way. Well, if you guys are going to go to floppy disk and Rick I'm going to slide rule. So let's see what you know. 

Tim Baton [00:09:24] We, we can't do that because now we have too many things to explain. Right everybody that. 

Rick Green [00:09:29] Okay, I got it totally wrong. I thought David was going to go to as soon as he interrupted us. I thought he was going to go, What was that thing you used to do with your presentations when you first started that round? 

David Barton [00:09:38] Think what, a rotary slide projector? 

Rick Green [00:09:40] Yeah, Slide projector. You said slide rule of first. That's what I pictured. Was that thing you used to use. Yeah. Yeah. 

Tim Baton [00:09:45] Well, so, okay, so instead of explaining it all, everybody look it up, Google it real quick. No. 

Rick Green [00:09:50] That's your homework as your homework for the week. 

Tim Baton [00:09:52] We don't have time to get it all this. But, Dad, follow me along with part of what you were saying, with what President Trump said of the military. This article also points out that on his January 27th executive order, he also announced orders limiting individuals with gender dysphoria. Serving in the military, discontinuing diversity, equity and inclusion practices, reinstating U.S. troops who were in voluntarily discharged for refusing to comply with the military's Covid 19 vaccine mandates. And actually, I know I have a couple of stories about that coming up in a minute, but they're just highlighting how many positive things Trump is doing in regards to our national defense. And certainly America having an Iron Dome is part of it. And that I know that I've heard you talk about before. This is not the Iron Dome thought was not a new thing, was it President Bush that had a program called Star Wars? If I remember right. 

Rick Green [00:10:44] Reagan, President Reagan, Reagan. Yeah. 

Tim Baton [00:10:46] Man, I'm not remembering it. Right. 

David Barton [00:10:47] Tip O'Neill and Chuck Schumer left him out of the room or tried to. This crazy old man. And yeah, he was so far ahead in what he was doing that Absolutely it was. 

Rick Green [00:10:57] You know, it's the word that comes to mind is aspirational to me is like setting kind of the JFK thing. Right. And, you know, go to the moon, we're going to do this, and you're setting those goals. And I don't know if you all watch the Super Bowl or not. I don't normally watch NFL, but but some of the kids here at the Patriot Academy campus really wanted to watch it. And and so we had it on and I went up there mainly I wanted to see because I heard Elon Musk was going to have ads and it was all a joke. He didn't really have ads. But but the ads that I did see were patriotic. They were babies and and families and and and then the Secret Service ad was like, what do you tell this? Like, feels like pro I feel like Ronald Reagan morning in America. I wanted to stand up and shout. It was so good. But that's right. To your point, I was like creating that, you know, that aspirational. Just that that that rebuilding the military, rebuilding the Secret Service, bringing you know, making this something you want to serve that you want to be a part of and that you're proud to be a part of. So good. So good. I just. So many more good news. Okay, David. Sorry, man. Go ahead you're up

David Barton [00:11:59] The the thing I'd point to now is what's happening with USAID and USAID has been a cesspool of cesspools. You know, Washington, D.C., been pretty big cesspool. But this is this is maybe the deepest part of the cesspool, has the worst stuff in it. And it goes back to John F Kennedy. John F Kennedy started USAID. And at that point in time, it was diplomatic service. We were selectively spend some money and some countries, they help them, help keep them from having revolutions, help keep them pro-America, etc.. And that was what was for it was it was really let's not have to have war with them. Let's do other things so we can avoid that. And so it starts with John F Kennedy, but then it starts going off track and it goes off track pretty bad. And you may remember that perhaps 20 years ago Tom Coburn was in US Senate every year would come out with a list of all the silly, stupid stuff that was being spent by. It was through USAID. USAID is where Hillary had the Office for a Global Women's Initiative. And as you said, the purpose of that office is to promote homosexuality and abortion worldwide. And so now we're taking taxpayer dollars and we're going to nations all over the world. I remember talking the guys out of Kenya that said, look, in Kenya, we passed a constitution that prohibits abortion. That's what we want. We're pro-life. And United States came in and said, well, you won't get any more money from the United States until you become pro-abortion. And so they had to repeal or they didn't have to. But unfortunately, they did repeal their constitution. And that's the kind of stuff that was coming out of USAID. And so as as Elon Musk has been looking into where the really bad government spending has been occurring, lo and behold, he finds USAID is a real problem. And so he stated he said we're shutting it down. With regards to the USAID stuff, I went to the president in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down. Now, the president said that he hasn't shut it down yet, so we'll see what happens. But he's agreed that needs to be shut down at this point. They've changed leadership. He first said he was going to shut it down. Then he said he's going to look at it and say, but let me go through some of the things that they go with the USAID. I love what happened. After Musk made that announcement. USAID staff were instructed to avoid Washington headquarters. Over 600 employees were locked out of The Age's computer systems. The agency website also became an assessable, so they can't even get into the to the job that they're spreading across the world. And that aligns with the administration move to freeze USAID. And so Musk actually he described as a criminal organization and what the stuff that they're promoting across the world. It's illegal in so many nations and they're encouraging those nations do things that are morally legal in those nations. And and Musk said that it really is beyond repair. And I think that that's that's probably exactly true. That is beyond repair. So when you look at the kind of stuff that's there, here's some of the stuff that Congress got shocked about, because after Musk came out with this and said, look what they're spending money on, here's some of the things they were spending money on. They spent USAID federal dollars paid for by you mean everybody pays taxes? They gave $500,000 to expand atheism in the country of Nepal. Now, why is that in anybody's interest? To expand atheism in the country of Nepal. Why would we work our tails off and pay higher taxes so that we can have Nepal, have more ideas and more? Let's not stop there. Let's say $50,000 on drag shows in Ecuador. And why is that something that's an American interest to having drag shows in Ecuador? Or how about $15 million to provide contraception for the Taliban? So there's a stop on the Taliban. You don't stop them by having less kids. You stop them by turning Israel loose on them or the American military loose on Omar because Taliban is a terrorist organization and you have to give them what they want. What do you think the chances are? The 15 million you gave them for contraception actually went to contraception? You know that what? They're making bombs and everything. How stupid are you that you give 15 million to a terrorist organization, but it's okay if you use it for contraception. That is so silly and so silly if you expect that they said yes to that and we're going to keep their word. So, you know, here's one they approved. This is in Peru. They approved funds for ballroom dancing classes that aim to uplift transgender and gender diverse youth in Lima, Peru. So we're paying for ballroom dancing classes for uplifting transgender and gender diverse youth. And I mean, this is the kind of stuff that USAID is doing. And this is what we talked about even yesterday, were that Congress appropriates blocks of money. They often don't know where it goes to. They know that USAID got 50 million or 100 million or whatever it was, but they don't see where all these grants go. And so they're finding out about this now. And obviously they are not happy with what's going on. And so this is where Trump has has weighed in. And this is why Elon Musk says it's beyond redemption. You can't save this. You just need to get rid of the agency if you want to come back with a different one. But right now, this stuff is so deeply embedded. But this isn't what JFK wanted in 1961 when he did this. But this is what has become part of the swamp. And I tell you more and more, I appreciate those being able to get into this. I don't know how Elon is doing this, but he's coming up with stuff in a matter of two weeks that 20 years of Congresses have never found or never seen before. And so his ability to uncover this stuff and bring it to public knowledge and get it to Congress and get it to the president and do it so fast, I don't know how he does it. But man, is he. He's more wizard than I thought he was in a lot of ways. How you can go through that massive amount of federal information and get those kind of findings as quick as he does is just phenomenal. So hopefully we can keep cleaning out the cesspool that well, USAID is one of the cesspools. But we got so many of them. And Elon Musk right now is doing a great job of pointing them out. And Trump and the Congress are doing a great job of saying, that's it, we're shutting them down. 

Rick Green [00:18:07] It could be just the tip of the iceberg. So much more to dig into and but such a blessing that they're finding it. And David, everything you describe, it's like we're exporting evil from the from the abortion stuff to the to the drag queens to the, you know, all of that. We're literally paying with our tax dollars to export that around the world. So it's got to stop and think. We have an administration that's willing to do that. Quick break, guys. We got a lot more good news for you. Stay with us. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show 

Rick Green [00:19:36] Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us on this good news Friday. By the way, this is a great program to share. You got friends that maybe never listen to WallBuilders before, but they're looking for the answers to how to restore the culture and what they can do. Well, what a great example of the programing you can share with good news Friday. You can share from WallBuilders by simply going to WallBuilders Dot show. And there's a way to share on Facebook. You can share it on whatever your social media channel is emailed to friends, texted to friends. But that's being a force multiplier. And the more people who listen to this, the more they're going to get encouraged by good News Fridays and then go out there and be the catalyst themselves in their local communities. Okay. Back over to Tim. Tim, what's your next piece of good news? 

Tim Baton [00:20:11] Well, this one also deals with President Trump. And I actually see layers of good news in this one. The headlines As Trump says he'll reinstate troops who refuse Covid 19 vaccination. Now, this is actually going back to the inauguration that day. The inauguration. And he said, this week, I will reinstate any servicemember or members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate with full back pay. And actually looking at some of these numbers. And the article highlights, there were 16,000 more than 16,000 troops who requested religious accommodation or exemptions from the Covid 19 vaccine mandate. Nearly all of them were denied. And then more than 7000 troops whose requests were denied were then discharged from the military for not getting the Covid 19 shot. And so the first piece of good news is that President Trump says he's he's going to reinstate all of them with back pay. That is really good news. I am very curious how many of them will come back and get that back pay or if they can get the back pay without coming back. What that looks like is this is going back to 2021. And so if we're now 2025, a lot of them have moved on with their life and they have jobs and careers in other places. 

Rick Green [00:21:28] And so if he's going to offer could you could you go into the reserves maybe, and that way you're only having to do once a month, but you get your back pay. That would be a great way to reward these folks, get that back pay, but they don't like. You're saying they'd have to interrupt what ever they've been investing their time into over the last few years. 

Tim Baton [00:21:43] It would be a great way to do that. Rick, I totally agree with that. So it's interesting thought. We have not seen the way this is going to be implemented yet. I'm sure Pete Hegseth and many guys are discussing the best way to roll this out. But here's the the second underlying piece of good news for this. President Trump was the one advocating warp speed in of his presidency. We're going to have a vaccine done. Nobody's ever going to have done this fast is going to be the best. We're going to save everybody's life, etc., etc., etc.. I think he was still just a little bit drinking Dr. Fauci's Kool-Aid, and I don't think he really saw how corrupt Fauci was. It was it was a lot easier to see that once Biden was there. And you see Fauci's going crazy directions. But the reason I point this out is because had he won, I think it is very possible that President Trump might have been able to be talked into doing a vaccine mandate, thinking I'm doing this for the good of America and we're going to help people. And this is what America needs. And I see that with the kind of the background context thought of. Remember when he was running back in 2015 and he was talking about the pro-life movement and abortion and he was talking about we're going to arrest people, have abortions and put them in jail. And the pro-life community was like, no, that's a terrible idea. And then he backed up and went, I didn't know. And he had to learn the issue a little bit. I don't know that he really had thought through some of this religious exemption issue and even knew what perspective or or side really constitutionally and even morally to be on. But him being removed and we've talked about how many good things happened because he was removed. He saw how evil the deep state was, how deep the deep state was, how corrupt so much of the stuff is, Justice Department, DOJ, whatever else. But I think even he dodged a bullet, so to speak, in this situation, that he was not in the position to to force that mandate. And now he can be the good guy coming back saying we will never do that again, recognizing how bad it actually is. It was. And and I think just like we talked about God saving his life by turning his head in Pennsylvania and that boy nicked his ear, I think God helped him dodge a bullet on this one as well. And now he gets to be the good guy in this scenario, instead of being in a position where he potentially could be forcing a bad mandate, that never should have happened. And in this case, he gets to be on the hero side helping, offering, reinstating and back pay for all those members that were unjustly removed because they wouldn't take the Covid vaccine. So this is good news on multiple layers. In my mind. 

Rick Green [00:24:25] It's justice, right? It's literally restoring justice, restoring faith in the institutions. And goes back to your first piece of good news on the military side of things. You know, just getting that faith once again where people want to serve and they want to be a part of it. Just super, super good news. Dave, we just got about a minute and a half left. You got a quick when we can do before we go. 

David Barton [00:24:41] I do. And this goes back to the military again and it deals with the executive orders that Trump did. We mentioned earlier had that he's chasing out the stuff and the weirdness out of the the academies, the service academies, But also back at the beginning of his administration, this time he issued two executive orders and one of them dealt with with gender transition stuff, the gender ideology kind of stuff, the trans pronouns. And if you know much about military, they have a core set of values. There's army values and there's Navy values, and they're really pretty characteristic. There's humility and selflessness to sacrifice and honor and truth and and various character traits that you want to instill in all your warriors. And one of those traits are being truth. It's interesting that Trump and his executive order, he says, look, he says having trans in the military is inconsistent with what these basic values because it's not telling the truth because you are either male or female. You don't get to choose what you are. If you died, someone does an autopsy, they will tell you whether you are male or female because that's scientific. And so therefore, if you say I'm male when you're really female or vice versa, that's not truth. And we need truth as part of our basic character values too. So I thought is his order explaining why transgenderism is not part of the military and why it's not part of the military ethics and ethos and and the character traits you want. Truth is a big one. You're deceiving yourself and trying to deceive others. If you're saying you are something you're not, and that's incompatible with American traditional military service. I thought that was a great explanation for Trump. 

Rick Green [00:26:11] Yeah, I think it all the way back four years ago when we did our tour of of Georgia and you first did that presentation on on on Truth and Courage and how hard it was to find truths and how much we needed to restore truth. And then, of course, we put that into biblical citizenship. But everybody went through that. And it's just I have to pinch myself again, guys. I just saw all over from pitching myself, where is this real? Am I dreaming? Because the restoration of truth is happening in so many good ways right in front of us. More good news. Obviously we didn't even scratched the surface. Got a lot more for you, but please do share this program with your friends and family. WallBuilders Dot show to do that. Thanks so much for listening to The WallBuilders Show