70K Subscribers After Ageism, Vatican Warns About Beauty Culture, Lou Holtz Tribute

Ultimize. A writer in her 50s struggles to get hired, so she launches a Substack about aging and suddenly attracts 70,000 subscribers. The Vatican is warning Catholics that cosmetic surgery may be creating a dangerous cult of the body. Legendary Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz has died at 89, leaving behind one of the most colorful voices in sports.. In California, a 3D printer is building entire homes, and one just went on sale after being built in 24 days. A New York congressman faces political backlash after controversial social media posts from his wife surface, and new polling shows most Americans oppose the military strikes on Iran, revealing a deeply divided public. All that and more today on Filtered. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Hi and welcome to Filtered. Thanks so much for joining me. Issue 1: Substack's success after ageism. According to the New York Times, writer and editor Sari Badem turned down, or turned what she describes as age discrimination, into a thriving media business. After leaving her job at the long-form journalism site Longreads in 2020, Badem assumed she would easily find another position in the industry. Instead, she struggled to get even second interviews, saying younger candidates in their 30s were often chosen instead. Rather than wait for another employer, she launched a Substack newsletter called Oldster in 2021. The newsletter explores what it means to grow older, publishing essays from contributors ranging in age from 30 to nearly 100 years old. The idea resonated quickly. Oldster now has more than 70,000 subscribers, and Batten's second newsletter, Memoirland, has over 35,000 readers. Batten says she now works more than 70 hours a week but calls this the happiest phase of her career. So, hats off to this woman for not doing what a lot of people do and just say, well, I'm old, nobody wants me, life is unfair, I guess I'll just sit at home and watch political TV news and yell at the TV. So congratulations to her. That is an outstanding success. And I think it's worth delving into at a couple of levels. So again, I applaud— sorry if I'm pronouncing— her name is spelled S-A-R-I, so I'm saying sorry if that's how I am pronouncing it or should be pronouncing it. So I congratulate her for pivoting. Learning new skills, essentially creating her own media company, being entrepreneurial, and finding something that she has a passion for, that she's fascinated with, that she can spend 70 hours a week doing. Now, I don't think that every 70-year-old person needs to work 70 hours a week. I'm not suggesting that, but apparently, she's never had more fun in her life. She launched it. In August of 2021. It's thriving. She's got speaking gigs. I believe she has books coming out. She has paid workshops. So she's got a lot going on. Now, the New York Times article doesn't showcase what her current income is, but I'd be surprised if it's not the highest it's ever been. I do want to address a couple of things here, and I'm here as a straight shooter. I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. And if I offend various groups or sensibilities, I can live with that. And I hope you can too. This woman clearly has talent. She's diving into something. She is creating content, creating newsletters. And over the course of the year, she has millions of readers. So she's really obviously got some skills. Her thesis for starting this is that there's tremendous age discrimination and that she wasn't hired because she was old. That may have been true. It might not have been true. I'm going to go into this with an open mind. And some of you may be thinking, well, teacher, how dare you question someone who says they're the victim of age discrimination? You don't question victims. Well, I'm sorry, you can, and I do. Yes, there is age discrimination in the world, no doubt about it. But does that mean this particular person or any one particular person was guilty of age discrimination? I remember one time I think I was 28, maybe 30, and being interviewed for a communications job where the founders were 23 and the head of the communications department was 25. And I was asked, are you sure you'd want to work for someone a lot younger than you? Now, they didn't hire me. Could I have read into that I was a victim at age 28 of age discrimination? I mean, I guess I could have felt sorry for myself for a little while, but you know what? It probably just wasn't a good fit. Now, this woman has demonstrated that some, not all, but some senior citizens, and I'm one of them at this point, okay, I get discounts at movies. She's demonstrated that some people, just because they're old or not because they're old, are still able to learn. She learned how to publish. She learned how to navigate Substack. She learned how to market herself. She learned how to edit and, well, I guess she was an editor before, but she learned how to do the writing and editing and packaging and marketing and website development and speaking skills. She learned a lot after the age of 60. So she's showing that you can do that. But I guess my question is, when she was going through job interviews, was she demonstrating that she had recently learned all those things, or was it only after she found herself unemployed that it motivated her to learn? I don't know. If you do feel like you are the victim of age discrimination, being too old or too young, you've always got to ask yourself, uh, Yes, it could be discrimination, or maybe it's me. Am I doing everything I can to build a network, to build real relationships with people in my industry, to build strong peer relationships so that I hear about job interviews or open job openings before it's ever posted publicly? The biggest mistake I see of everyone of any age is thinking job hunting is about going to a website, seeing there's a job opening, and sending a resume. Worst possible thing you could ever do. If you want a job, you need to be actively meeting with, having coffees, networking with, calling, texting, tweeting everyone in your industry, every peer, trying to help them, build relationships with them, commenting on their content, helping them, being a part of industry trade organizations, formal and informal, so that when there are openings, before it's ever been publicly disclosed, your colleagues, your peers, your network is reaching out to you saying, hey, here's an opportunity I thought you'd want to hear about. Because then you don't need to get a callback for a second interview. There's only one interview, it's with you. And people say, this person seems perfect, why do I want to waste thousands of dollars and 1,000 hours of time interviewing a dozen people or two dozen people? That's how you get jobs in the old world, it's also how you get jobs in the new world. So it doesn't sound like she was doing that. If, if you're thinking about just going to an interview, sending out resumes, going to an interview, hoping for a callback, that doesn't work well for people of any age. It really doesn't. So I'm glad she had a breakthrough. I hope she serves as an inspiration to you or anyone else. You know, if your career isn't going the way you want it, If all of a sudden you do find yourself unemployed or underemployed, do what Sari did, create your own business. Now, that was not very worthwhile advice for most of the history of modern industrial age until about 10 or 15 years ago. But the means of production have gone way down. You don't need a printing press. You don't have to hire a guy in a truck to deliver what you've written and drop it off on people's homes. It can all be done for free on Substack and other platforms like that. So you've got to really realize the times you're living in. These are not industrial age times when there's only one employer in town, and if the big boss man, usually a man at the plant downtown doesn't like you, you're unemployed the rest of your career because that was the only— we're not living in a world like that anymore. Am I saying it's easier? No, but unemployment rate is 4% now. That's historically very low. Maybe it's not easy to get a great job, six figures, perks, benefits, 401(k), or God forbid, a pension anymore. But it's never been easier to figure out ways of doing something with your talents, your skills, and generating money, whether it's driving Uber, and I'm not recommending you drive for Uber, whether it is doing handyman services on Thumbtack. Again, I'm not recommending that as a way to pay a mortgage or feed a family. But it beats sitting around saying, poor little old me, aren't I a victim of discrimination? Now, I'll be candid with you. I've never been laid off, nor have I ever felt like I was the victim of discrimination based on my age, my race, my sex, my gender, my, my sexual orientation. I don't feel like I've ever been the victim of that. Now, having said that, I have been fired. I've been fired many times. And I sincerely believe it wasn't because they didn't like my gender or my skin color. They just didn't think I was a good fit for the job. And you know what? They were probably right. Now, you could say, well, that's easy for you. You're a white male and a in a, a popular demographics in America, you're not likely to be discriminated. That's true. But regardless of where you are, you gotta look out for your own career and what's gonna work for you. And that's why I think this woman's newsletter is inspirational. So a few more facts on this. She's the writer, the editor, she's doing it all. She turned 60 in October. Oldster has 70+ subscribers, so she's younger than I am. Her Memoirland newsletter has 35,000 subscribers. Oldster publishes 4 times weekly, and she has contributors from people almost to 99 years of age, and she's doing really well. Here's what she told the Times. I made a joke about it on Twitter, and then I proceeded to realize, wait a minute, it's a good idea. The joke being maybe I should start a newsletter called Oldster when she was venting about her frustrations of not getting second interviews. She says, a 30-year-old interviewing me said, I'm surprised a legend like you would be interested in this job. Now she took that to mean, hey, you're really old, maybe, but it also might have been the fact that this 30-year-old interviewing her actually did respect her and heard about her and known about her for years. It couldn't simply have been a compliment. So again, I'm not saying there's not discrimination, but you got to be careful about having a knee-jerk reaction of, oh, people are, are somehow out to get me. You've also got to be aware of your industry. If you're losing your job and you're in a journalism editing job in the year 2020, Maybe it's not age discrimination. Maybe it's the fact that your entire industry is imploding. Maybe it's the fact that newspapers are shutting down every single day in 2020 as well as today. So you've got to read the room and be aware of what's going on in your industry. She correctly pivoted. Would it have been better to have maybe made the pivot in 2018 or '19? Perhaps so, but I'm glad she's ended up in good shape. So look, if you think you're a victim of ageism or any other discrimination, I'm certainly not encouraging you to just accept it or turn the other way or not speak out about it. But I do want to empower you to protect yourself and have the longest, best possible career you can. And these days it is increasingly doing what the founder of and editor of Oldster did, start your own business. Your revenues can go down, but you can't ever be fired. There's more to come, stay tuned.

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I'll see you inside. According to Reuters, the Vatican has issued a new warning about what it calls a growing global obsession with physical perfection. In a document approved by Pope Leo, the Vatican's International Theological Commission cautioned that modern cosmetic surgery and body enhancement technologies may be encouraging what is described as a cult of the body. The report argues that advances in cosmetic procedures are changing how people relate to their own bodies, fueling a relentless search for youth, beauty, and physical perfection. The Catholic Church does not prohibit cosmetic surgery; however, the document says procedures pursued purely for vanity risk promoting unrealistic expectations about appearance and aging. The text also raises concerns about emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and human enhancement, warning of a future where people may seek mechanical implants or other modifications that blur the boundary between human beings and machines. So fascinating that the Vatican feels the need to weigh in on this.. And it is a fine line. I mean, I had a front tooth of mine knocked in playing touch football of all things way back in high school. So my tooth became dead and I had to have a root canal and then they have to sort of shave it all down and then I have a cap. So yeah, I have caps. So that's a type of mechanics. That's not really a part of me, but it's built into my body. Is that, is that an odd thing? I don't think anyone really thinks we should all have to walk around with black dead teeth. So that's sort of one extreme where I think most people would feel, okay, modern dentistry is a good thing, and yeah, it could make you look better, but it's also a good thing, and it's not an obsession with vanity. On the other hand, when you look at certain Hollywood celebrities, when you look at the MAGA world, when you look at certain cabinet officials in the United States, they look like Frankenstein. And sorry to name names, but when you look at the wife of Jeff Bezos, I see Frankenstein. I mean, it's— you just— it's a certain point with enough cosmetic surgery, doesn't matter how good the surgeons are, there's a certain number. I don't know if it's 17 surgeons or 18 or 19, but there's a certain number of surgeries where all of a sudden you go from looking like a human being to looking like a Frankensteinian monster. And I don't think Jeff Bezos or his wife care what I have to say about them. They've got bigger bigger yachts to sail around on and are not worried about this show. But to me, I call her a Jocelyn Wildenstein light. If you don't know who Jocelyn Wildenstein is, look it up. Go to Google, hit images, and type it in, and you'll see the poster child for the most plastic surgeries combined with the worst plastic surgeries ever. It is a problem with society. There's no doubt about it. I do think taking care in your appearance can be a good thing if it motivates you to follow healthy habits. For most of us, a lot of what happens to our looks is the function of failing to exercise regularly, failing to eat good healthy food, failing to get proper sleep. So if you want to help your appearance right away, those are the things that are— I say easy. I'm not suggesting it's easy to do in snapping your fingers like popping a pill, but it's easy to do in the sense that you don't have to go under the knife, you don't have to go under general anesthesia, you don't have to be stitched up if you simply do what I'm doing right now. And for our podcast listening, friends, I'm holding up a glass of water. It's plain tap water. There's no sugar in it. Things like that can help your appearance. Exercising more, maintaining a normal weight can do a tremendous amount for your appearance. Eating real food and getting a good night's sleep. So those are the places to suggest. I'm not, frankly, a huge fan of the Pope's view of the world. But in this case, I give him credit for speaking out on what is becoming kind of a bizarre obsession, not just in the United States, but wow, Korea, Colombia, Venezuela. Well, not Venezuela much right now. They have bigger problems. But there are certain countries where it's really, really becoming a bizarre obsession. Other things in this Vatican document: a widespread cult of the body follows, tending toward a frantic search for a perfect figure. Advances in cosmetic surgery offer tools that significantly change the relationship with one's corporality. I guess that's a fancy way of saying your body. The ideal body is exalted while the real body is not truly loved. I mean, that is a problem. People can talk about fat shaming, but that's not the real issue. The bigger issue is so many people really fixate and obsess over something they don't like about how they look. Even people you would think are stunningly good-looking will obsess over something they don't like. I just recently saw a clip from a well-known celebrity, the star of The '70s, That '70s Show, talking about his start as a male model and how everyone else thought he was perfect looking and he just obsessed over some aspect of his face he didn't like. And he was saying everyone is like that. So at some point, it does pay to think more about other people. What are you doing to help other people? Now, if you're a movie star and your looks are central to your profession, okay, maybe you got to do it. But as Jim Carrey showed just in the last week or so, you do too much and all of a sudden people wonder if it's even you. Jim Carrey recently appeared on an award show, and before you know it, he looks so different that people were thinking, Is this a drag queen dressed to look like Jim Carrey? What's going on? 'Cause he didn't look like himself at all. And that is a problem. Global cosmetic surgery markets now exceed $60 billion, and it seems to only be growing. So am I telling you, oh, you're an awful person if you will ever have anything done? Now, I mean, I've had a mole removed, a spot removed, a couple of hairs. But this face, for those of you on the video, this is what I was born looking like, only now a lot older. I did look a lot better when I was younger, but those days are not coming back. I'm okay with that. The bigger problem, I think, is if your entire self-esteem is based on getting approval from your looks, That's a prescription for misery. You got to focus on something else. We'll be right back after this break. Want more?

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You'll never wing it again. Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz has died at the age of 89. Holtz became one of the most successful and recognizable coaches in college football history. Over a 33-year college coaching career, or 30-year, 33-year total career— he did have a year in the pros, it didn't work out well— his teams compiled a record of 249 wins, 132 losses, and 7 ties. He's best remembered for transforming the Notre Dame football program after taking over in 1986. Just 2 years later, his team completed an undefeated season in 1988 and won the national championship with a victory over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. Holtz was also famous for rebuilding struggling programs, leading 6 different colleges to bowl games during his career. That part is very unusual. After retiring from coaching, he became a television analyst and a popular motivational speaker known for his humor and simple leadership philosophy. In 2008, he was introduced into the College Football Hall of Fame. Now, confession here, I'm not a football fan, but this guy was so larger than life and so colorful, he really, his words, his ideas permeated into pop culture. Very down to earth, self-effacing. He was famous for having said, "I'm not very smart and I'm not very impressive. I ranked 234th in a class of 278," talking about his high school days. And he was also just funny. He was briefly and very unsuccessfully in the pros teaching or coaching the New York Jets. And asked what his goal was, just moving the ball every down, and then says, I hope to God we move the ball forward rather than backward. He was known as funny. I want to share with you other quips of his because he was a master communicator. Because there are plenty of successful coaches that never make the transition to being a broadcaster, to being a network analyst, to doing play-by-play, other on-camera things. He made the transition. It wasn't because he was good-looking or had a perfect voice, but he was interesting, colorful, and funny. Here are some of the things he's known for saying. Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. As a football coach, he was constantly motivating. In this world, you're either growing or you're dying. Now, other people had said that, but he was able to say it in a way that captivated people. If you burn your neighbor's house down, it doesn't make yours look better. Funny way of putting it. No one has ever drowned in sweat, really stressing that hard, hard work ethic. So colorful guy, funny guy. I'm not sharing with you his absolute best quips, but he was the kind of guy, if you didn't even follow sports carefully, you kind of glance at the sports page, you know, once every couple of weeks over the last 3 decades, you saw his name, you saw him everywhere, and he became a very famous motivational speaker, in part because he's funny. Now, not every speaker has to be funny, but if you could talk about serious issues people care about and sprinkle in humor, throughout, you're going to be infinitely more popular, infinitely more successful, and much more in demand. Because at, you know, in your late 80s or late 70s, you're probably not going to get a job as a professional football coach or even a CEO of a major company unless it's the one you started. But if you're in your 70s, 80s, and you can consistently speak in a way that's interesting and funny, you can be in demand until the day you die. Lou Holtz, rest in peace.

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Your $3.95 makes a real difference. 3D-printed homes hit the market. A new housing experiment in California may offer a glimpse into the future of construction. According to the reporting from U.S. Sun and Luxury Property News, a company called 4DIFY has begun building what it describes as the first neighborhood of 3D-printed homes. There have been 3D-printed homes before, but this Apparently, it's the first entire neighborhood using giant robotic printers that cost just $1.1 million. The company prints houses layer by layer using concrete. The first completed home, about 1,000 square feet, took only 24 days to build. That house is now listed for $280,000, roughly $50,000 less than the average home price in the surrounding area. Developers say the technology dramatically reduces labor costs and construction waste while producing durable structures that are resistant to fire, pest, mold, and even ballistic damage. That's right, you can shoot at these houses. I hope no one does, but that's an extra plus. Supporters argue the technology could help address housing shortages by dramatically speeding up home construction. So this story fascinates me for several reasons, because when you look at all the technological advances in our society, what's happened to our cars, what's happened to communication, what's happened to the distribution of media and movies, movie production, everything is completely different than when I was growing up, or for that matter, even 15 years ago. Things have changed and change radically and change quickly, except for construction. When it comes to constructing skyscrapers, or for that matter, your average home, things really aren't that much different from 100 years ago. Why is that? Part of it is the sheer complexity of zoning, environmental regulations, safety regulations, places like New York City, union rules. There are many, many, many reasons that add to the complexity of building homes and buildings. And that's part of why it's so expensive. Well, America could get away with that for many, many decades after World War II, when all of a sudden, homeownership became popular and relatively easy for a huge swath of society. You could buy a home quite often for 3 times your annual income. These days, in many parts of the country, it's more like 7 years times your average income, or sometimes 10 or more, and it's simply too expensive for most people. So in theory, when you look at how technology has made things less expensive in every other aspect of society and business, it We should do the same thing for building homes. Let's look at some of the facts. Again, these homes are $50,000 less expensive than comparable homes in the same area. Now, $280,000 for a 1,000-foot home still doesn't sound like a great bargain, but saving $50,000 could obviously make the difference between some people affording it and some people not affording it. It was built using an SQ4D robotic printer. It uses concrete. Now I've seen these being made before where it's got a computer arm or a robotic arm and it's sort of almost like dipping dots all the way around and it does it in layers and it builds it in almost like a cake with icing. So it's fascinating to watch. This has been talked about. 60 Minutes did a huge spread on this a couple of years ago, but it hasn't really taken off. Let's not kid ourselves. I live in a brand new housing development. My home is only a year old. I see people right out my window building homes every day, and it doesn't look any different than how people built homes 100 years ago. Burly guys with hard hats get out there and their hands are dirty, and it just takes months and months and months and months. This has gotta change. Here's what I think is the real opportunity for an ambitious mayor or housing commissioner in perhaps a mid-sized town somewhere in the country is to somehow get tax dollars to build an entire neighborhood, essentially subsidize it and invite people in and and sell them, sell them at something that is a little bit below market rate. So everyone's getting a good deal and to popularize this idea. And for a town to get the reputation of being forward-thinking, tech-savvy, and where average people, middle-class people can afford a home on something comparable to 3 times their annual salary would be, I think, the best publicity a city could ever get. Now, the average American family, depending on which statistic you look at, has a median income of $86,000. So if we're really going back to how houses were priced for most of this post-World War II history in America, that would mean these houses should be no more than about $250,000. And if it's a family of 4, let's say 2 kids, and they wanted, say, a 3-bedroom house, probably going to need more than 1,000 square feet. So that is what I see as the challenge, because people talk about this affordability issue, affordability. Democrats talk about it, Republicans talk about it. So much of what's driving that is You can't buy a house unless you're inheriting it, unless you're rich, or you really struck it lucky, or you're in an extraordinarily high-paying profession. And that's not the way it used to be in America. It used to be you had a job, or certainly you and your spouse or your partner, your husband or wife, both of you had a job, you could afford a house in America. Sadly, that's no longer the case. I'm hoping that these robots, these robotic construction 3D printers, can solve the problem.

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Do you think your spouse can say all sorts of offensive things on social media and you won't be called to answer for it? Well, think again, at least if you're in politics. Representative Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York, is facing political scrutiny after critics highlighted controversial social media activity by his wife. According to the New York Times, Karine Levy Goldman, who also serves as her husband's campaign treasurer, liked or shared several posts on the social platform X that critics say contained harsh language toward Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause. Some of the posts came from right-wing accounts and circulated in the days following the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, when the Goldman family happened to be in Israel and had to seek shelter. Goldman says his wife's social media activity does not represent his views. In a statement, the congressman said that like many married couples, he and his wife do not always share the same opinions. And that voters should judge him based on his record, votes, and public statements. Okay, so what are we to make of this? What's the real lesson for you and me? I think it's that whatever you post, you have to be willing to defend, not just today, but 3 years later, 5 years later. Am I suggesting you never post anything where someone could be offended? No. Plenty of what I post is at least not agreeable to some people, and yes, I'm sure some people are offended simply because it's an opinion different from theirs. Now, there's an interesting gender dynamic here because I do think if the member of Congress were a woman and the husband did this, that anyone attacking the woman member of Congress for what their husband tweets would be attacked as sexist. But since it's a man with his wife doing it, that dynamic doesn't come into play. It's a little trickier given the fact that she does have a leadership position in his campaign. She is the treasurer of his campaign. That's an official post. Now, it's not a big deal in most campaigns. Quite often it's just a volunteer who maybe is also an accountant. Someone you trust not to run away with the money. Presumably he trusts his wife not to steal the money his campaign raises. Okay, but I do think that it's not enough to say, well, I'm not an elected member of Congress, so I can say whatever I want. Do you have the right to say whatever you want? Yes, you do. But do other people have the right to see you as a quasi-public personality, a quasi-public person, and therefore feel not only the right but the need to criticize you and call you out on it. Yeah, they do. Now, right now, this member of Congress is facing opposition from another well-known political leader in New York, and the whole issue of— and I'm not going to get into it here— but the whole issue of Israel versus Palestine versus Jews versus those who follow Islamic faith, Muslim faith. That's very much part of that campaign. I'm not going to try to parse the details of that. My point here is simply to alert you that if you have any ties to someone who is in public life, and you are tweeting things, posting things that you know are wildly offensive to various constituencies and groups, don't be surprised if you're attacked by it. Again, I'm not trying to muzzle Representative Goldman's wife. She has the right to her opinion, but voters also have the right to look at your opinion, look at your connection with a candidate, and say, this, this is kind of reflective of what I'm worried about with this person. I already don't like this person's view in general, and now they are very close to someone expressing things that are 2 or 3 standard deviations further in that extremist position I don't like. And they're connecting the two and two. So I would urge you to be careful about that. If a member of your family is running for high political office, am I telling you to delete everything you've ever posted? No. But certainly if you've got an old Facebook post where you are half naked or appear to be really drunk, now might be a good time to delete it. Rather than after your family member has announced they are running for office. Okay, we're going to have a last issue here that is political. We will be talking about the war, so get ready for that. There's more to come in just a moment.

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Your direct line to everything I do. Polls show majorities of Americans oppose Iran strikes. New polling suggests that most Americans oppose the U.S. and Israeli military strikes in Iran. According to the Times, three major surveys conducted after the attacks from CNN, Reuters/Ipsos, and the Washington Post all found that roughly 60% of Americans disapprove of the military action. The polls also revealed a strong partisan divide, not surprising in the current climate. Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the strikes, while Republicans are generally more supportive. Though many Republicans also say they want the United States to avoid prolonged foreign wars. In one survey from Reuters and Ipsos, 56% of Americans said President Trump is too willing to use military force to advance US interests. Pollsters note that public opinion early in military conflicts often shifts over time, sometimes dramatically, as events unfold, And it should be noted quite often it goes from support to not support. People initially supported United States involvement with Vietnam, but it went down. It went way, way down. So here's the reason I'm talking about this, because this is not primarily a political news analysis talk show. I try to look at the personal development and the communication skills issues involved. Part of— and I'm going to offend everyone at this point— part of being a good leader is being able to communicate effectively. And while I don't agree necessarily with much of what President Trump stands for and does, I have consistently given him credit for being a good, strong, forceful, powerful communicator, not in the traditional rhetorical sense of a polished speech, but in the sense of really being able to communicate with his followers. Here's what I want to do and why you should do it. Here's what's good. Here's what's bad. He's a great communicator. And he campaigned strenuously in 2016, as well as in 2020 and 2024, on the platform of America first. America is not going to be the policeman of the world. We're going to take care of ourselves, let other people worry about problems in their own country. So he campaigned very clearly on those messages for more than a decade. That's what's been coming out of his mouth. So now he goes to war and he simply is not communicating the reasons for going to war. Now it's true, right now he has a lot of Republican support. But the more isolationist wing of the party and the more libertarian strand of the party, they're clenching their teeth. Other than Senator Rand Paul, who is probably the purest libertarian-style Republican in the Congress, all the others are kind of keeping their mouths shut, saying, yeah, I support him, and they're keeping their mouths shut and continuing. But behind the scenes, a lot of them are saying, what's going on here? This isn't what we voted for. In fact, that's exactly what prominent Republicans who are no longer running for office are saying. Someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former member of Congress from Georgia, stalwart supporter of Donald Trump, is now saying that this is not what we voted for. What's the mental state of this guy? So she's saying out loud the part of what many, many elected officials in the Republican Party are thinking, but they're afraid of criticism for fear of being attacked personally by the president. Let's look at some more of the polls. Again, 60%, that's an unusually high percentage of people to be against something the United States president has done militarily, so very, very overwhelming, and I I have to say that is a function of communication. The president has not communicated why, for example, the 6 Americans who just lost their lives in battle deserve to die. He simply hasn't explained it. Now, he said what he doesn't like about Iran's leadership, which I don't know anyone who likes Iran's leadership, but if we're going to go around and start wars and bomb every country we don't like, why stop there? I mean, there's dozens of countries that do things we don't like. It can't simply be because it was a theocracy. There's other theocracies in the world. It can't simply be because they don't give full rights to women. There's plenty of countries that don't do that. So a lot of Americans, I think, are rightfully confused as to why are we in this war. Unpopular wars can destroy presidencies and political rule. Popular ones can help them. So this president is going to have to somehow come up with a rationale, maybe after the fact. But if you listen to solid reporting, whether it's from the Wall Street Journal, CNN, or The New York Times, the president doesn't seem to have any rationale. He's kind of asking people, what should I say about this? It kind of comes from his own gut by his own admission. And it's very hard to convince people, just trust my gut, what could go wrong with starting a war where even the former president of Russia says this could be World War III. Stay tuned. Right now, the Democrats seem to have the upper hand when it comes to the communication. Surrounding the war because they are consistently saying, why are we doing this? This is crazy. What's the rationale? This could lead to World War III. This is costing a lot of money. This is going to make things less affordable because it's going to drive up inflation. This is going to drive up energy costs. These are messages, whether you believe them or not, that are clear and understandable. So again, I don't discount President Trump's communication skills. At some point, he's going to have to come up with some message and then communicate it again and again and again the way he does other issues successfully. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. Please join me again tomorrow.