Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's Friday on WallBuilders. So, it's Good News Friday today. Looking forward to getting some good news from David Barton and Tim Barton. I'm Rick Green. We appreciate you listening today and be sure and visit our websites. They are wallbuilders.show and wallbuilders.com. Wallbuilders.show for the radio program, wallbuilders.com for everything else. And that includes a lot of great information, great tools, great links. Go to wallbuilders.com today and be a part of the 250th and help us rebuild liberty in this country. David and Tim, looking forward to going into the weekend with some good news and there's a lot of good news to share today. 

Tim Barton [00:00:40] Well, guys, first of all, thinking of the weekend coming, that we might have snow, my first thought was, hey, how long till Christmas again? Cause I feel like we're actually, like this is kind of a Texas version of winter for like, you know, a weekend or something. So, Dad, do you have your countdown? What is our Christmas countdown? 

David Barton [00:01:02] I think it's at 337 is what it is now. I think 337, I'm gonna check it real quick. I think that's right. 

Rick Green [00:01:11] And it's gonna feel a lot more like Christmas this weekend. What did, what did we, what did you guys have on Christmas day? Like 70, we were, we were like 75, I think on Christmas day around our house. 

Tim Barton [00:01:21] Yes. It was, it was in the seventies. My wife who is from Tennessee was very unhappy with what is actually not an unusual Texas Christmas, unfortunately. But you know, guys, as a side note, obviously there'll be a lot of people praying this weekend and, you know. A lot of weather concerns, but I would also point out that I have some friends that have been praying for snow for so long. So, this is for somebody this is really good news that somebody is getting some snow this weekend. 

Rick Green [00:01:49] Amen. 

David Barton [00:01:50] Well, Texas, we do get snow every three to four years. So we, have it occasionally. And we know we get ice storms pretty regular. We just don't get stuff. And by the way, I did check in and it is 336 days guys. So only 336 days to Christmas. It's great.

Rick Green [00:02:03] I think when we go to break later, after we get some good news in, producer extraordinaire, Justin, we need to hear winter wonderland or I don't know something, some Christmas song, David will just, I mean, it'll just make his weekend. I guarantee you he's going to be sitting around a fire and enjoying looking out at all that white and he's going to want Christmas music. 

Tim Barton [00:02:24] Yeah, probably watching white Christmas or It's a Wonderful Life or Holiday and right probably this is the weekend for it 

Rick Green [00:02:30] Let's do it, let's do. All right, well, with that in mind, David, get us started. That's probably your first good news story. There's gonna be white, white in Texas, white snow, white ice, something. 

David Barton [00:02:40] I'm sorry, bro, I don't have that one for you, but it is kind of related to the winter season and Christmas was involved in this and its football season. So, we're now, for anybody that likes football, I guess we're at the conference finals this weekend and that puts us two weeks from the Super Bowl and in the middle of the semi-conference finals last week had the national playoff for college football. And so, it's really pretty amazing to see, I was just looking at a story that it's kind of a human-interest story, it’s not so much a sports story as it just involves somebody in sports, but Indiana just won the national championship, okay? And what makes that amazing is they hold the record of having the most losses in college football history. So, the team with the most college football losses just won the national title. The kid who was a quarterback Fernando Mendoza got the Heisman Trophy. He was key in that win. I mean, he, he's just awesome. Here's what I love. And this tells me everything about him. When he came out of high school, in the nation, you know, you have the one star, two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star prospects. He was ranked number 2,149 overall in the nation as a football player. So that's right down there with the janitors on the end of the bench. And this kid who was ranked so low had one scholarship offer and that one scholarship offer he took and he ended up not playing there, he transferred to Indiana. And now he's been the Heisman winner and they get to win the season for national championships. So, I think it's really cool about that kid that he did not stop even when he was ranked to where he was and sits a little prospect and he just plowed ahead and that says a whole lot about his character. I love that when you have a leader like that. And by the way, he is a very outspoken Christian. Very, you know, we've had so many stories in the last two or three years about sports now, how many leaders are there outspoken about their faith. And this kid, Fernando Mendoza, he's very outspoke about his faith, but congrats to him. Congrats to Indiana. Great story. 

Rick Green [00:04:51] David also just, I know we've got to have some listeners that, that may not realize Heisman Trophy is like, I mean, I don't know the best way to describe it, but basically the highest award in college football. Like that's the Earl Campbell got it way back in the day. I'm like, whoever gets that is usually considered and they're being acknowledged as basically the best player in the entire, in all of college football for that year. And he gave a great speech when he got it, thanking his mom and all the, it was, it was really good and definitely has been thanking the Lord. So. Really cool and and what a turnaround for them. It is it is a cool story to share. So good for good first good news Tim where are we going? Is it sports? Is? It Supreme Court? Is It Greenland? Is. It I'm trying man. I'm trying to guess 

Tim Barton [00:05:37] Well, I'm a little taken back. My dad only did one and it wasn't very long. I'm used to it being like five rolled into one and taking half the segment. So, I, I I'm little taken by, yeah. So, my good news is I'm getting to go early. This is great. My first article is actually something from the New York times. And it is a quote from Trump saying, and actually it's, it's not from the New York Times, but it's a quote from an interview with the New York Times where he says, there's no room for anti-Semitism in GOP or MAGA movement. And it's highlighting just a week or two ago. The New York Times had an interview with President Trump lasted nearly two hours. And as you can imagine, a wide-ranging variety of topics came up, but one of them was some of the antisemitism and Trump very clearly said that people that espouse anti-Semitic views are neither welcome nor needed. He said, I don't think we need them. I don't think we like them. It goes into detail. And I think this is very interesting is guys we've seen, some, some real friction inside of what would be the broader conservative movement. When there have been people like Candace Owens, who it seems like was just, you know, drinking the crazy Kool-Aid and everything was Israel's fault and then when Tucker Carlson had the interview with Nick Fuentes and a lot of Israel bashing. And I mean really Tucker's been doing that for a while. And so, some of the leading voices have really gone a strong Anti-Israel arguably for many of them antisemitic direction because and I do want to clarify, just because someone might oppose the political position of things in Israel doesn't make them antisemitic and that's not what we're saying. But certainly when, when people are blaming Jews for all the woes of the world, that's, that's absolutely anti-Semitic, not to digress on this. It's just interesting that in the midst of some people like a Tucker Carlson, who is a very influential individual who has been a key leader for some of the conservative movement for several years, the fact that Trump very explicitly says, look, we're not stopping being friends with Israel and the people are antisemitic, we don't want them. We don't need them. There's not a place for them. I do think it's interesting too, because it wasn't long after this interview that Tucker Carlson actually did meet with President Trump at the White House they had a lunch and obviously some of what we see on the outside is a little bit of media portrayal. We don't always know the inside story, what's going on, the conversations behind the scenes. But it, it would be interesting because Marco Rubio we know was also there and Marco Rubio has been instrumental in so many things with nations literally around the world, helping advance American cause and policy. And I think just earlier in the week, we talked to Rudy. One of the things that Rudy pointed out, even with Israel is America has far more influence over Israel than Israel does over America, which I'm sure Rubio or Trump could have very clearly said. So not to digress too much more on this, but I did think it was great that President Trump made it very clear there's no room for antisemitism and people that espouse those views are not welcome or needed in the MAGA movement. That is great. 

Rick Green [00:08:47] Well, and as we've said on here, you know, sometimes you just got to say, no, when it's such a poison that it could bring down the whole house, you just got to, say no. It's, you, know, we sometimes think big tent, big tent to the point that, that we allow people in that will destroy the whole movement. So yeah, you're right. Good, good news and a good move. And, and, and following a little bit of what Newt Gingrich had said, you know, basically that at some point you got to bring back the whole Greek ostracization, I never can pronounce that word right. There's a place for that. 

Tim Barton [00:09:16] Just say emus. Instead of ostriches, it's emus? 

Rick Green [00:09:19] Oh, that's good. That's good, Tim. That's one of the best dad jokes. I mean, David, he's joining us with the dad jokes now. What does that mean? 

Tim Barton [00:09:31] Yeah. I don't want to ostracize you; I'm just going to emu-ize you. 

Rick Green [00:09:33] I'm just gonna emulize you. Okay, that is much easier to say. All right, David, I think I should definitely go back to you here.

David Barton [00:09:41] Yeah. Please, as soon as you can, let's get off these dad jokes. This is not a place to be. So, and by the way, I want to point out that with what Tim said, Trump not only said there's no place for anti-Semitism in MAGA, he also specifically said, or in the Republican party. And I think that's a really important distinction to make right now. He's kind of the face of the party, but that's real, real, I think a significant and healthy point that that is not welcome even in the party side, not just his backers. But that in the Republican Party as well. And certainly, when you look at the Republican platform, the position for Israel in favor of Israel, there should not be any room for anti-Semitism there based on what the platform says. So going with that, staying with Israel. Israel in 1953 established what they call the Israel Prize. And the Israel prize they give, I guess that's kind of like the Congressional Medal of Honor, except for that Congressional Medal of Honor, that's the Congressional Medal of Honor or Congressional Gold Medal, I guess, is really what it's called. And that's kind of like the Congressional Medal of Honor. You have the Medal of Honor for military guys. You have to Congressional Gold Medal for civilians. And this Israel, this Israel award is kind of like that, that kind of level for a military person or for a civilian person. And since 1953, they, they always give it to somebody living in Israel and they want to honor somebody that's done the most to help Israel in that year. And so, it's interesting this year for the first time ever, they gave it to someone not living in Israel and that someone was president Trump. So, he gets the Israel award. And, and I was just reading some of the transcript here because the, the minister of education in Israel and, and Prime Minister Netanyahu, they called Trump to tell him that, that, hey, you just won this award. And so, in telling them that, they, they tell them that and, and Trump responded and he was, wow, this is really a great honor. It's amazing to be the first one outside of Israel. That's really something. And, and I'm just going to read some of the conversation here. So, the education minister thanked Trump for significant and consistent efforts on behalf of the Jewish people and the state of Israel, citing as many contributions. And they listed a bunch his fight against antisemitism, which we're just talking about. His efforts to return the hostages from Gaza, recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, moving the U S embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his unwavering support for Israel's right to defend itself, including a period which Israel was confronted on seven different active fronts and he helped Israel. And so, as this is going on and they're going down this list, Netanyahu chumps in and says, yeah, and don't forget the B2s, which is a great reference to Iran, you know, the fact that he sent the B2s. And took out, took out the nuclear stuff there in Iran. And so, as they were joking about it and going back and forth, they were talking about how popular Trump is in Israel. And so, Trump told Netanyahu, he says, hey, I promise I'm not going to run against you, BB, and BB kind of shrugged his shoulders and says, well, you never know. And so, you know, everybody starts laughing again, but the whole thing of being outside, and by the way, Netanyahu said, look, Trump, you've done so many non-conventional things. So, we decided to do something non- conventional, we're awarding this prize to someone who's not living in Israel. And I just think that's a great recognition for Trump and kind of piggy tails, Tim, on what you were saying about with, there's no room for anti-Semitism, which doesn't mean you agree with Israel a hundred percent of the time, but he is definitely a supporter of the nation of Israel. He is not antisemitic, just the opposite. And I think it's really great that Israel has recognized him. First time ever, someone outside of Israel gets the Israel Award who's not lived there, so great honor for him. 

Rick Green [00:13:39] Yeah good stuff guys, good stuff. We're about halfway there, so we'll take a quick break. We'll come back and get some more good news. Stay with us, folks. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:14:54] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Good news Friday of the day. Back over to Tim for his next piece of good news. 

Tim Barton [00:14:58] Well, guys, this one is a highlight going back to the Supreme Court case a couple of weeks ago, the one dealing with boys playing in girls' sports. And I think we talked about it shortly after it happened. Well, I know we talked it. I think if we talked around this program, but in the decision, there was two state laws are being considered from Idaho and West Virginia, and they had passed laws banning boys from participating in girls sports. And this was the big Title IX case that was going on. Uh, what's going to happen for female athletes? Do we protect female athletes or do boys get to come in and dominate girl sports? Was kind of the argument. And so, this is an article from the Epoch Times. It breaks down a lot of, kind of, what happened in the case with the five big takeaways for them. And I thought it was interesting,  there's some definite good news here, but also informative stuff that they point out that in the case, Justice Gorsuch and Chief Justice Roberts, both of them back in 2020 in the Bostock decision, which essentially was dealing with firing someone for being a homosexual in the workspace and they're like, oh, that's discrimination against somebody for sexual orientation, you can't do that. But in this case, they point out that both of them seemed on the other side of this issue saying, wait a second, we can't let people that identify as a boy playing girl sports. And so, they point out, not only is there a contradiction, maybe it is a good shift back for them to say, hey, we need to get back to some basic biology definitions, et cetera. Also, they point out there was a challenge with the definition of sex in the courtroom. And when Kathleen Hartnett, the attorney challenging Idaho's law, could not define what a woman was again, because she was defending a boy pretending to be a girl, the transgender idea. And so, Alito was very skeptical. Anyway, it goes to and breaks down a lot of this, the, the other three main points, deal with the reach of the decision, how far this goes. Cause that was one of the arguments. I think it was Justice Elena Kagan who said, wait a second, right,  there might be unintended consequences because if we're doing this ruling, what happens to like chess clubs and girls that want to play in the boys' chess club, which is stupid examples, but they got into concerns about biology and then Sotomayor worried athletes will live in infamy if they don't get this right and she's saying it on the wrong side. But it was an interesting breakdown and there was some good highlighting of not just where justices had some crazy decisions. That's not really the good news. That is the sad news. We already know some of those are there. The very liberal justices especially, some squishy ones in the middle, not great. But it does highlight that in the midst of this, the big takeaway from the questions that were asked is the Supreme Court seems very set to rule in favor of protecting girls in girls' sport, ia takeaway. And I think that's really where the good news is that even though this it should be a 9-0, no-brainer decision in title nine. It probably will be a 6-3, it could be a 5-4, hopefully not. But it does look like, and this is the analysis from the article, that this will finally rule the right way and protect girls in girl sports and keep boys out of it. So, a great breakdown from the Epoch Times. Gives some details and then a good final thought that it looks like this should be a win for girls and really families in America. 

Rick Green [00:18:30] Yeah. And Tim, I guess most of these decisions June, July is when we normally expect these guys and we could have a lot of good news this summer just from so many of these cases that just based on the questioning sounds like they're going to go our way. 

Tim Barton [00:18:45] Yeah, and I tell you, Rick, as you point out, Dad, you've talked about this many times, how usually the Supreme Court waits to release some of these controversial decisions till toward the end. That way they release them and then everybody gets out of town. They don't have to worry about nonsense. Many times, they go to other countries, they do their speaking routines, whatever else. Guys, I am curious what's gonna happen maybe with this immigration challenge with the natural born citizen and how long they're gonna wait before that happens. Cause obviously with ICE making a lot of moves right now, and this is probably more of a Foundation of Freedom Thursday conversation or maybe a normal week question more so than a Good News Friday, but this does bring it up. It does make me wonder. There are so many big decisions and some of them seem more pertinent now than later. So if they wait until this summer, I do wonder even for this kind of immigration challenge of natural born citizen. If they wait till later, does that maybe indicate that they're not coming out against ICE and president Trump's position of deporting or getting some of these people, and maybe that's why they're waiting to release it? I don't know. Maybe that could be a hopeful piece of good news in my mind, but it is interesting to see how this unfolds for sure. 

Rick Green [00:20:00] Yeah, Tim, it could be that they're, you know, that one especially, because, I mean, clearly the reaction to ICE is violence, right? That's what the left is going to do. So, the reaction, to a Supreme court decision about ICE, whoo boy, that could be a, that, that would be very interesting and definitely one to watch for and be prepared for, for sure. David, what's your last piece of good news for the day? 

David Barton [00:20:19] You know, it is amazing to me how that it's just hard for Republicans and Democrats to agree on anything. And Venezuela is one that seemed to have really triggered the Democrats. Man, they hated what, what Trump did and the way that, you know, he brought Maduro. But you know if you violate American laws, you can be prosecuted in American courts. We've always had that drug traffickers, anybody else will bring them in prosecute in courts. And the fact that he was a head of a foreign nation did not keep that federal court from indicting him. And he's violated a number of American laws by doing things in American turf. And so I, I mean, it makes sense, but Democrats didn't like it. So, they, they just going to shut this down. They're going to do the War Powers Resolution. And that was that, that really goes back to 1973 when Congress was trying to get Nixon to get out of Vietnam. And so they passed the War Powers Act, which allows Congress to say, okay, you got to shut the fighting down. And so that's what Democrats came up with in the Senate last week to shut down all the fighting that, that is happening right now in Venezuela. And so, they're getting ready to vote on it. And it looks like it's going to be an embarrassment for the president. There's this three Republicans going to join with the Democrats. And so, President Trump's and at that point in time, the Senator from Idaho, Senator Rich says, oh, wait a minute, point of order here, this bill allows us to shut, to shut it down fighting. It's currently going on. We don't even have any troops in Venezuela, what do you, what are you passing the war powers act for? If there's no troops, you're going to tell to stop fighting. And they thought about it. And so that point of order actually passed, J.D. Vance voted for it. So, the embarrassment that was planned for Trump on how dare you have fighting troops in Venezuela. There's no fighting troops. In Venezuela, they took the criminal out criminals back in the United States facing court charges in the U S. End of story, real embarrassment for the Democrats at that point. But I thought that was a very funny story. The way it was handled. And kudos to Senator Rich for thinking about that and bringing that point out. 

Rick Green [00:22:20] Yeah, good stuff. Hey, Tim, before you give us our last piece, I'm just going to throw out there. I love seeing the headline that Speaker Johnson is favorable to the idea of impeaching some of these local judges, these local federal judges that have been trying to do national policy by overturning Trump. I don't know if y'all saw that headline, but it was, it was... He said extreme times require extreme measures. I think you should do this all the time, you know, right? That's what the founder said. It's a bridle in the hands of the legislature. But anyway, we don't have any good news of an actual action other than Chip Roy and somebody else have filed articles of impeachment. But the fact that the speaker is open to it and even supportive of the idea for some of these radical judges out there, good stuff. Sorry, Tim, go ahead, man. 

Tim Barton [00:23:04] Well, this last one is dealing with education and specifically teachers. The headline says schools increasingly consider rewarding teachers for results, not seniority. Now, what a novel idea. 

Rick Green [00:23:17] Imagine that. 

Tim Barton [00:23:18] What a novel idea. 

David Barton [00:23:19] Wait a minute, you can't do that. That actually makes sense, and that doesn't go with education. You can't have policies that make sense in education. 

Tim Barton [00:23:27] Well, this is an article from the Epoch Times, it is a little bit of a longer article. And so it is fun toward the bottom section of the article. They do identify there are collective bargaining complications because, you know, some of these unions the union stance on merit pay, which you can imagine the unions like, well, that's terrible. You should be paid by how long you've been part of the union, not how well you do. Anyway, what's great about this is it starts off with a local area for us, Dad, at Dallas Independent School District, which is the big public schools over in Dallas. They started an ACE, which has Accelerated Campus Excellence Program back in 2016. And it's actually credited with improving the math, the reading scores, etc. Houston has decided they're going to follow some of what has happened in Dallas, and they are going to try to analyze based on their poor student performance they're going to say, we're going to start rating and paying teachers based on their effectiveness, not years of service, starting next school year. But what's interesting, and I'm going to go through a bunch of examples, but in Houston, the range of salaries is $64,000 to $100,000, depending on how long they've been there, et cetera. But what they're identifying is they'll begin rating and pain teachers based on effectiveness, no years of services, and the annual evaluation process authorizes the district to reduce pay if the teacher's performance diminishes from year to year. So currently they're kind of set up based on how long they've been there. Cause every year they get their raise and et cetera, et cetera. And this is, by the way, this is not a knock-on hardworking teachers. I have family, friends, cousins, lots of great people that are teachers. And even though I still argue the public school is a very broken system by and large. It's like arguing the band on the Titanic was really good, that's not going to stop the ship from sinking. That the public school system is very broken right now. But the fact that we are now saying, hey, let's start rewarding teachers based on how they do and not just how long they've been there. A great idea. The article goes through and points out that Arkansas is doing things like this. That Utah, Tennessee, many states are considering these measures coming up. And guys, it's just so encouraging to think that the fact we are reintroducing accountability, even for teachers, and we have seen social media, some of these woke, crazy teachers that do not need to be there, well, certainly the kids in their class are not learning where they should, and now maybe they can be fired or at least lose their pay for being terrible. It is great that we are now going to pay teachers for doing a good job, not just how long they've been there. 

Rick Green [00:26:14] Love it, love it. So much good news, guys. I'll give us one more as we're signing off. Convention of states adopted or called for in Kansas this week. So, number 20, that's 20 states out of the 34 needed to restore the Constitution through those amendments that would wipe out a lot of those federal agencies and restore the jurisdictional boundaries that we talk about here all the time. So big step, big step. Good news. We'll have more next week. Of course, don't forget to visit the websites, wallbuilders.show and wallbuilders.com. Have a fantastic weekend. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.