Happy Memorial Day to all our Vets out there and to the families whose son or daughter gave their last full measure for those of us remaining. We humbly and with great respect, wish to honor all those that have served this great country of ours and their families for their sacrifice for our freedoms.

I have a very good friend of mine joining me today to honor both the living and past vets on this Memorial Day weekend of 2025.

You are loved. You are appreciated. And we are most grateful.

May God bless you, your family and all that you set your hand to. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Honorable Quotes:

"No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation." - General Douglas MacArthur

"it's better to fight for something in life than to die for nothing." - General George S Patton

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." - Elmer Davis

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived." - George S Patton

Musical Guests:

Hewey Lewis: Walking On A Thin Line

Lee Greenwood: God Bless the USA

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Today, as a follow-on to Fridays discussion, I want to highlight a REAL and LIVING example of a confident, courageous leader, that everyone on the plant recognizes.

You’ll recall we were exploring a few questions, we all face in life as we pursue our dreams. Are we legit? Are we competent, are we authentic, are we effective in what we pursue, are we confident in ourselves to deliver and lastly, is God with us in our pursuits.

So before I introduce this individual, I want to establish that this person, is legit…they have a record of accomplishment, a string of setbacks and an enormous amount of courage, tenacity, stamina and commitment.

This person has been both admired and respected by people on the left and right.

Let me introduce you to Donald J Trump. A living and real man of action, a clear and present example of a confident man, full of courage that any rational person would have to admire…for his dedication, strength under fire, his unwavering pursuit of justice and common sense with a vision for all people of every color, class or status.

His willingness to enter the arena is reason enough to respect and admire his willingness to step up and engage. I’ll prove that statement right now. If you had Trumps money, his businesses, his freedom to do whatever he wanted, would you put your life on pause to “volunteer” to serve the nation knowing you would be persecuted at every turn. Be honest….ill bet the answer was no.

Sometimes people fear things they don’t understand. They may feel threatened. ”I’m just not sure about this guy, I don’t know his intentions, and so I don’t trust him. Period.” That’s the extent of their research.

Others feared his influence and worried that his success might rob them of power over the people or at the very least, might expose their incompetence to think outside of the box in governing this country.

They hounded him while in office and pursed him with a vengeance for four years even after he left office…knowing that he may return…and they couldn’t have that.

And return he did. Most would not have. Most would have crumbled under the weight and constant abuse sent his way.

That is in a word, remarkable! Before Trump maybe even “unimaginable.” Who could bear it? Who would want it?

What attributes of honorable qualities or character, examples if you will in the Bible, would God desire and honor.

With an eye on comparing both rhetoric and actions taken (or not taken), helped me see the cost Trump paid, the art of his style, his reasoning behind many of the things he said…simply to get a reaction. Many of them were “fire for effect” targeting…to expose the enemy…to cause them to emerge from the darkness and into the light of day…so that all of us could finally see the corruption and hypocrisy.

What is the most important skillset a leader must have to lead? Go ahead…I’ll wait.

Did you say vision? Passion? A horse maybe? I think the most important skillset is the ability to communicate. If you have a vision but can’t communicate it you have nothing. No one will follow you. Likewise if you have an awesome white stead, 14 hands high, but cannot communicate where you’re going and encourage folks to join you, you’ll be riding off into the sunset alone.

Here’s the point. Trump is communicating to anyone and everyone that will listen…and those abroad ARE LISTENING AND REACTING.

Talk about courageous, bold, confident, visionary, motivated, passionate, unwavering, opportunistic and welcoming to even our enemies. A bold foreign policy on full display…not only for today’s leaders and nations but for our youth to ponder, consider, admire and emulate.

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Mark and I both attend the same church and the past few weeks we’ve been lead in a series on Courage, that we thought was worth sharing.

According to many pundits, educators and corporate titans there is a serious Crisis of Courage in our younger generation. Apparently, there is a lack of creativity, inspiration or motivation to stand out and excel in the workplace. Which led me to ask the question - WHY?

It would be easy to blame our education system, both high schools and higher learning institutions like the universities, but that wouldn’t cover the Tradecraft industry, which is also short of wannabe apprentices.

So I dug deeper in search of the root question, or group of questions that might give us insight into how to help the next generation course correct.

1. Is it because they haven’t been given an example to follow ?
2. Is it because they haven’t found a hill worth conquering ?
3. Do they lack a vision or dream worthy of pursuing?
4. Do they lack the motivation or passion to even start? Or maybe…
5. The experience or knowledge to execute?

This introduces a deeper set of questions, which tees up the key message our pastor was sharing. In my opinion, ALL are birthed by lack of CONFIDENCE.

So the pastor tees up the message with these questions.

Am I legit?

Am I Competent?

Am I Authentic?

Am I Effective?

Is God with me or is this just me?

In an attempt to answer these questions, let’s refer to what the Bible says. The phrase “Do not fear” appears more than 365 times in the Bible. That’s a lot! And for that phrase to appear that often, implies that there must be a lack of faith or a lack of CONFIDENCE with those the message was given to.

Joshua 1:1-9: Moses is dead, that season is OVER. Time to MOVE on and out.

Step up…it’s your turn…accept the responsibility and lead.

God tells him this TWICE before we get to verse 9.

Joshua must have struggled with courage. He lived most of his early life in the shadow of Moses. Five steps to Joshua’s battle

1. Am I legit? He wasn’t Moses, he was his “assistant”.
2. Am I competent? He was promoted from supporter to leader.
3. How can I be authentic? He was the Stewart of the Promise…not the author.
4. How can I be effective? He was called to be faithful and the new leader.
5. Is God with me in this or is this “urging” or “calling” just me? Well God spoke directly to Joshua on this one. Walk in faithful presence.

Often we are confronted with doubts, questions or distracting voices and people that simply want to attack or steal our courage and faith, or download their beliefs, agendas or failures onto the next generation as a last ditch effort to “be significant.” Think higher education, anti-whatever-syndrom, protests, etc.

Here’s the Pastors Conclusion as to How to prepare to live a life of action:

1. Fuel up for the Journey / What will you need? (A car, gas for the car, a direction, a map, a time line to establish expectations, contingency plans)
2. Commit to showing up. Wrestle long and hard about your idea or calling. Define why it’s a calling and not a bad idea.
3. Do big things in small steps. You’ve heard the saying, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Define your strategy. Be realistic and be adaptable.
4. Be patient and consistent (practice everyday)
5. Don’t quit in the dip when it gets hard or you get discouraged. Anything and everything WORTH PURSUING WILL BE CHALLENGING

And don’t forget the last seven words of CONFIDENCE given to you in Joshua 1 verse 9: “GOD IS WITH YOU, WHEREVER YOU GO”

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It was Mark's turn to upload the episode today, but he got very busy with work and a special Mother's Day for someone who is not his mother. She is his wife. Mark wants to know how we get wrangled into these things.

Anyway, Mark found a couple "best of" sections from 2 shows over 2 years ago and blended them together. Hope you enjoy it.

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Sunday is Mother’s Day, and as we prepare this show, the Cardinals were preparing to select the next Pope. We had no idea they would select a Pope this quickly.

Neither Mark or I are Catholic, but we thought it might be appropriate to look at both of these events in light of this weekend.

The Catholic Church celebrates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Mary's birthday, on September 8th. This date was chosen by the Church and is not based on any definitive biblical record of her birth.

Tradition holds that she was born to Joachim and Anne, a devout and infertile older couple who prayed for a child. An angel appeared to them, promising them a daughter who would be a pivotal figure in God's plan. I thought this was interesting. An angel appeared to her parents, announcing her birth…and an angel appeared to Mary, announcing the birth of her son Jesus.

Would you follow a dream or honor a visitation from an angel that told you…a 13-16 year old that you were going to give birth to the Savior of the world!?! Who could you share that with that wouldn’t lock you up?

The earliest New Testament account of Mary is in the epistle to the Galatians, which was written before the gospels. She is referred to as "a woman" and is not named: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law" (Galatians 4:4)

According to the writer of Luke, Mary was a relative of Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah, who was herself part of the lineage of Aaron and so of the Tribe of Levi.

Jewish girls were considered marriageable at the age of twelve years and six months. The marriage was preceded by the betrothal, after which the bride legally belonged to the bridegroom, though she did not live with him till about a year later, when the marriage was celebrated.

What we do know today is that Mary, like all women, have the unique capacity and gift to bring forth life, and because of this we honor Mothers on Mother’s Day. Not because they are homemakers but because they are family makers.

A LITTLE CONCLAVE HISTORY

Voting process and the signal of smoke

The cardinals vote by secret ballot until a candidate has been selected. One ballot is held on the first day of the papal conclave and four on each subsequent day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon.

During each ballot, the cardinal electors write the name of the person they have selected on their individual ballot papers.

The ballot papers are then threaded with a needle, and, in this manner, all them are kept together for security.

Immediately after the count, the ballot papers and all related notes are burned in a stove in the chapel. The color of the smoke passing from a pipe through the roof enables the crowd assembled in St. Peter’s Square to know how the voting has gone: when no candidate has received the required majority, the smoke is black; if a new pope has been elected, the smoke is white.

Wet and dry straw were originally mixed with the ballots to produce the black or white smoke, but today chemicals are used to ensure the right color.

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Last week we covered the sickness of Trump Derangement Syndrome and ran out of time to give the other disease, Media derangement Obsession, "due process."

I wasn’t surprised that Wikipedia actually had a definition for TDS, but I was surprised to find a Wik had a definition for MDO.

We identified paranoia, hysteria, psychotic, schizophrenia, and violent hatred driven emotions with this disorder.

According to WEBSTERS Dictionary - Mental Disorder:

“any of a broad range of medical conditions (such as major depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that are marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions to impair normal psychological functioning and cause marked distress or disability and that are typically associated with a disruption in normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, interpersonal interactions, or daily functioning.”

After much discussion, we decided to offer a new name to Wikipedia. Satan Induced Derangement Disorder or SIDD for short, named after the character Sid in Toy Story that abuses and mutilated helpless toys.

To the psychiatrist that are currently seeing TDS patients we would suggest to ask your patients to consider the following:

Forget the "name" and just consider the man for a moment. ADMIRE the man’s COURAGE…accurately examine his heart, his true and proven intentions, and his actions! His actions are not driven or motivated by greed or world dominance like Hitlers pursuits! He hasn’t gased a nation of innocent people…but has stood up against corruption and greed against the people.

Remember the harlot that was to be stoned to death? Christ cooled the heated crowd by saying…”let him who has no sin be the first to throw the stone.”

Do you think today, Christ could show up at one of the pro-Palestinian/ anti-Jewish mob events and disband today’s crowds with such a simple statement?

Which begs the question…who is the ARSONIST? Who is feeding the FIRE?

According to a recent article, the main stream media slaps Trump with 92% negative coverage as his 100th day of his second term approaches.

Trump continues to face ‘relentlessly hostile coverage,’ according to Media Research Center.

The MRC analyzed ABC’s "World News Tonight," "NBC Nightly News" and "CBS Evening News" from Jan. 20 through April 9 and found 899 stories that discussed President Trump or the Trump administration. The media watchdog group found that 92.2% of the coverage was negative compared to only 7.8% positive.

"Yet despite the overwhelming negativity of their coverage, the networks found Trump irresistible as a news subject, at least compared with Biden. From January 20 through April 9, 2017, the networks saturated their newscasts with 1,900 minutes of Trump news; during the same time period this year, we tallied a massive 1,716 minutes of coverage. But in 2021, evening news viewers saw only 726 minutes of Biden coverage during these same weeks, less than half of the airtime devoted to either of the new Trump administrations," Noyes wrote.

Which begs the question…again...

Who is the ARSONIST? Who is feeding the BEAST?

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Today we will take a closer look at two serious diseases, TDS (aka Trump Derangement Syndrome) and MDO (Media Derangement Obsession).

Mark and I both have our lab jackets on as we pretend for a moment to be Chief Phycologist Profilers here in the Nut House.

According to Wikipedia, Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) is a pejorative term used to describe negative reactions to Donald Trump that are perceived to be irrational and to have little regard for Trump's actual policy positions.

The term has mainly been used by Trump supporters to discredit criticism of him, as a way of reframing the discussion by suggesting that his opponents are incapable of accurately perceiving the world.

The origin of the term is traced to Charles Krauthammer, a conservative political columnist, commentator, and psychiatrist, who coined the phrase Bush derangement syndrome in 2003. That "syndrome" was defined by Krauthammer as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies.

The first use of the term Trump derangement syndrome may have been by Esther Goldberg in an August 2015 op-ed in The American Spectator. Krauthammer, in an op-ed commented that—in addition to general hysteria about Trump—the "Trump Derangement Syndrome" was the "inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and ... signs of psychic pathology".

I wasn’t surprised that Wikipedia actually had a definition for TDS, but I was surprised to find a Wik definition for MDO.

"Media derangement obsession," is a term used to describe the idea that someone is fixated on criticizing or obsessing over a particular political figure.

According to WEBSTERS Dictionary - Mental Disorder:

“any of a broad range of medical conditions (such as major depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that are marked primarily by disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions.

In an article entitled, Think you've got Trump Derangement Syndrome, Psychiatrist reveal that "obsessive" and "violent" symptoms prevail.

Dr. Carole Lieberman, a conservative voice known as “America’s psychiatrist,” said, “Trump Derangement Syndrome isn’t just a joke—it’s a legitimate psychological phenomenon.

Lieberman said: “TDS causes otherwise logical individuals to become obsessive, paranoid, and even violent at the mere mention of Trump’s name—this level of emotional instability has real-world consequences.”

But Dr. Holly Ann Schiff, a Connecticut psychiatrist, pushed back, saying: “It is unlikely that the mere mention of Trump’s name is enough to make people violent.”

She said, “Regularly now, my current patients and new referrals are coming in really decompensated and unable to control their emotions due to their hatred and feelings towards Trump, which has a direct negative impact on their mental health and well-being.”

SO LET’S STOP RIGHT THERE. Notice what the good Doctor said: “…current patients and new referrals…unable to control their emotions due to their hatred and feelings…which has a direct negative impact on their mental health…”

An inability to control emotions due to HATRED.

So we are going to take a look at Proverbs to see what it says about HATE.

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In a show entitled Trump Tariffs E238, we had a nice pre-Passover Bible lesson in the back half of that show. If you didn’t hear it, you should go back and listen to the latter half of that show.

It talks about what was Christ doing leading up to Passover. What was he thinking about? Was he satisfied with his ministry? Did he feel he accomplished everything? Leading up to Passover and his death and resurrection, Jesus wasn’t planning his defense; he was PRESENT in the MOMENT, and not focused on the future.

I took this to heart and tried to do the same.

This led to pondering ODC and our Show entitled Flood of Emotions, episode 239, about listening to the heart for truth (the voice of the Holy Ghost).

ODC is a blessing to listeners, especially when we share biblical truth and insight. 47 countries and over 370 cities is “the” measure I’ve used to define success…and while that on the surface sounds impressive…in my marketing mind…it left me feeling as though we were UNDER PERFORMING…2.5 years and that’s all we’ve done?? See. Even I can be hard on myself.

The truth is…I know we are reaching folks…if it’s only ONE that gets help or turns to God it’s like the story of Jesus leaving the 99 to fetch the ONE lost sheep.

Pondering this further I realized that to be “happy” with our “success” I needed to use a different method of measurement. To be HAPPY and CONTENT, I needed to measure things differently.

ODC MEETS the call Jesus asks of us…go into all the world (podcast meets that requirement), and teach the word, share what we’ve learned with others, encourage the brokenhearted.

So I’m happy to report that after two weeks of pondering things leading up to Passover and post the Holy Week…I believe I’m more content and can now see that I’m in Gods perfect Will for this time. (That’s a real application of the scripture I was blind but now I see). I’ve told myself to Stop feeling as though you are doing nothing or accomplishing little…we are doing Gods work…to “make his power known.”

Just thought I would share this honest struggle and epiphany of what I’ve been wrestling with lately. A mini testimony if you will, that highlights five actions: first I had to ponder, then reflect, then surrender and then accept what God was saying (identifying the truth) and finally reject the measurement that maybe the devil was pitching me…that left me discontent.

So maybe now you know why I keep asking for you to send us a text (in our show notes). Tell us if we are being a blessing, if you’re encouraged, inspired and blessed by our show. This is the encouragement or measure we seek…not numbers…but real feedback from listeners.

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