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In this episode of 50 Cups Hot Takes, host Bill LuMaye and his co-host Jim Baker dive into a range of topics from weather phenomena and societal reactions, to the role of the Catholic Church in western civilization. They kick off the discussion with the handling of recent storms in North Carolina, criticizing media sensationalism and the public's response. The conversation takes a turn to discuss the historical contributions of the Catholic Church and how its teachings and institutions have shaped society. The episode wraps up with a look at the ongoing impacts of political decisions, the moral fabric of society, and how individuals can find guidance and resilience in faith and community values.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:44 Surviving the Storm
02:13 Weather Forecasting and Public Reaction
05:06 Impact on Schools and Businesses
07:36 Grocery Store Rush and Public Behavior
10:32 Remote Learning and Education Challenges
16:14 Economic Impact and Price Gouging
20:33 Trust in Media and Authorities
21:18 Weather Obsession and Changing Lifestyles
22:10 Education System and Protests
23:41 Immigration Policies and Enforcement
28:24 Political Chaos and Public Fatigue
33:07 Moral and Religious Guidance
36:02 Catholic Church's Contributions to Society
45:00 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans
Creators and Guests
Host
Jim Baker
Author of "The Adventure Begins When The Plan Falls Apart" Converting a Crisis into Company Success, Jim is a husband and father of 4, Baker has spent the last 30 years in the business world as an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. He had a successful exit in 2014 after owning and managing a CRO and functional services company, Ockham, specializing in Oncology. During that time prior to exit, Baker grew ASG and then Ockham both organically and through M&A. Over time Baker has experience in acquiring and selling companies, working with investment bankers, private equity, and mezzanine debt funding. In addition, has vast experience in business branding and managing and leading people. After the sale to Chiltern International, Baker started Sumus Development Group, an advisory business focused on operational excellence, exit strategy and marketing. In addition, Baker is an active investor in the business community.
What is Hot Takes: 50Cups?
United We Sip – Dive into the fascinating world of American culture with "Hot Takes: 50Cups." Join founder Jim Baker as he shares his hot takes on everything from day to day life, business trends and societal shifts, uncovering how we are all more united than we think.
At 50Cups, we believe in the power of community and the shared goal of living a healthy, fulfilled life. Our mission is to inspire you through organic, great-tasting teas, education, and awareness, uniting us all in our quest for better living.
Each episode of "Hot Takes: 50Cups" features Jim's candid and insightful commentary on the challenges, triumphs, and everyday experiences that shape our collective journey. From entrepreneurial wisdom, cultural observations, to health topics and nutrition this podcast offers a fresh perspective that will leave you inspired and enlightened.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a business leader, or simply curious about the threads that bind us, this podcast is your gateway to understanding and connection.
Subscribe now and join the conversation!
31 - 50 Cups - Winter Storms in NC
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[00:00:00]
Bill: well ladies and gentlemen, welcome. I can't wait for this show because this man has so much in his mind. He loves to share it. It's time for 50 Cups Hot Takes with the one and only Jim Baker, who also owns a tea company, I believe. And the reason I know this is because I got this fabulous tea in front of me.
Jim, how are you? Did you survive the storm? Are you okay? Yeah. How's the family?
Jim Baker: I'm good. Everybody's great. Good. Everybody's great. I clearly you've had multiple. Ounces of caffeine on top of the tea Do you drinking?
Bill: And I've been trapped because of the storms and I, the first time I had to [00:01:00] actually meet another human being for a while.
Jim Baker: So
Bill: yeah.
Jim Baker: It's good to be back in civilization.
Bill: It is in satire. I like that. In sarcasm. So we'll get into that, but before, tell me about your tea. I did take a sip. Be, yeah. This thing was breakfast today.
Jim Baker: Yeah. Perfect. Done. Brew for the weather. Hmm. It's a little rainy outside right now. It is 38 degrees.
You got still some snow and some ice on the ground. Um, so hits a spot. I think
Bill: that's very, it's
Jim Baker: just a little caffeine
Bill: jol, but I'm not sure you need any more of that. I'm just excited to get into this because I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. In fact, I'm pretty sure you do as well. But I opened it up by asking you how you survived the storm.
And of course, for those who are watching, it may not be. Part of the North Carolina community. Anytime there's ice or snow or even rain, really, we tend to freak the heck out. Yeah,
Jim Baker: we do.
Bill: And we had a potential, we've had two storms now. One that was gonna possibly give us a bunch of ice, which is dangerous.
And then a, a [00:02:00] snow event. That was kind of fun. But we were off of school. We had a lot of things going on and a lot of things canceled. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. How do you feel that whole, that whole thing played out from the government to the forecasters, to the family and the stores?
Jim Baker: I, I don't know about you, but it seemed to me that maybe it's the advent of the internet or the advent of media just simply having to be in front of your face 24 7, but 15, 20 years ago, and I just remember growing up as a kid, um, you know, you'd hear about a storm that's coming maybe two days before it's gonna come and.
I grew up, up and down the northeast, so I was in the south for a while. I was in the north for a while. Um, but we got snow and I lived in Virginia, for example, and it wasn't a big deal. Right, right. And even then, back then, they weren't equipped to deal with it. And although in the area that we live in, in the Raleigh Durham area, they are equipped to deal with it.
We do have plows, we do have salt. They actually brine the roads a week in advance, [00:03:00] which is absolutely ridiculous. Let's, it is, let's, let's talk about that first. It's,
Bill: yes.
Jim Baker: So in our area. The forecasters will tell you 10 days in advance that Snowmageddon is coming.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: Um, it could be anywhere from zero to 500 inches.
It was true. They
Bill: did do that this time.
Jim Baker: They always did.
Bill: It was like zero to two feet that we could get.
Jim Baker: And then as we are progressing um. Probably let's say day seven before it actually hits, you know, the forecast gets a little bit narrow, so now it's maybe two inches to 500 inches. But then the brine trucks all come out.
Right. And just so everybody knows, it's usually 50 degrees and sunny around this point in time. That's true. And the, all the trucks come around and they basically put this stuff down the road. Mm-hmm. And then we have six more days after that of driving on it.
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: So basically it turns into dust and goes into the air and it goes in it.
Leaves the road 'cause it doesn't stay on the road. Right. And then inevitably what happens in North Carolina that the forecasters never tell you until maybe 24 [00:04:00] hours in advance, they're gonna tell you that. Now we've narrowed it down. Now it's gonna be anywhere from zero to four inches. And it could be ice and it could be rain and or it may not be, or it could be snowmageddon still.
Right. You know, and for us, four inches and above is Snowmageddon.
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: So the first storm two weeks ago. We had evaporated I, shall I say, dissolved all of the brine into the air. Yes. And, and then it rained. Right?
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: And it, the, although the air temperature here is 24 degrees. The atmospheric temperature where the precipitation has to fall through somehow in this storm was 45 or 50 degrees.
It happens all the time.
Bill: Sure.
Jim Baker: So it doesn't turn in into snow. It basically is rain and comes down. And then it did, thankfully in this case it turned into sleet.
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: So we basically had a pile of ice. There was no, the roads were clear. For the most part. There wasn't any power outages. Thank God it was a non-event.
But because we [00:05:00] forecast. Armageddon.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: All the schools. All the businesses, most businesses, but most of the public institutions that we need, like the Social Security Administration or the DMV or whatever, they basically. Jump for joy. Yes. Put the old, we're closed sign out front. See you later. And they're done Not for one day afterwards.
Oh no. Not for
Bill: two days afterwards.
Jim Baker: No. Gotta be safe. But close to three or four days
Bill: afterwards. And it was that way. Exactly. The schools were closed in this particular county for I think four days after the storm. Yes. I, I actually took note of this 'cause it, it just really got me that angry six days before the storm they said.
Get to the stores. Get what you need. Oh my
Jim Baker: God. Stores, I forgot
Bill: about the right. Remember that? Yep. Get what you need because this could be a catastrophic event. You must prepare. So they're outside in front of Home Depot and Walmart and already the shelves are [00:06:00] empty at this point on a, and this is six days out.
Polar bomb was used. Arctic Blast was used, not seen since 2002, which was a devastating ice storm here. So my question to you is, um, since they obviously can't forecast zero to two feet, how could they be so sure to use these kinds of descriptive words to scare the hell out of people? 'cause that's what they did.
Jim Baker: All I could possibly think of is they want eyeballs, but the bigger issue I have, it's that we are in a, in a nanny state now. We simply, yes, we are simply. The old days, the weather would come in. In my mind at least there was somebody at home that it was a decision maker in the county or in the school district that you're in, and they looked at what's going on.
Probably talked to a couple people. I. And they looked at what the forecast was gonna be, and then usually at 5:00 AM that morning, 6:00 AM
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: You know, they set out the, [00:07:00] the phone in this case or the email or whatever it was, and they said, Hey, game over, or two hour delay, or whatever. It's,
Bill: which is so convenient for the parents who would now have to find babysitters instead of the day before, you know?
But anyway, go ahead. I, I regress
Jim Baker: now.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: We get the forecast.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: And we all know there maybe got a 25% chance of it being right. And they make decisions based on forecasts. Mm-hmm. Inevitably in our area. Even with that ice, usually that's an unusual experience. Usually they'll cancel and it's a rainstorm,
Bill: right?
Jim Baker: And that's it, right? Um, so that's one of my pet peeves. The other issue hot take is yeah, do everybody in this area not have any groceries at all? So, yes, because they're going in and they're stockpiling, like they're gonna be outta power for a year and a half.
Bill: I know it. This hoarding aspect of things. I don't know.
I think that's a symptom of where we are as a society. 'cause I, I just don't recall that growing up maybe. 'cause I was young and stupid. I didn't care [00:08:00] about those things. But it's not as though we didn't have events like this in our lifetime. Right. And we didn't see this. I went to Walmart. I think it was Wednesday or Thursday just to pick up something I needed.
The shelves were, it looked like COVID era stuff. It really did. And, and then I, I thought, my goodness, what about the folks who live paycheck to paycheck and now they don't get paid till Friday and the shelves are empty? What, what do they do? Right. And what are you gonna do with all that food? Right. I mean, it's always bread and milk.
I don't know what you do with those things or that, but you
Jim Baker: And toilet paper. And toilet paper. Well, that's,
Bill: yes, that's exactly, but yeah. It just, I don't know. It was such a statement on where our society is at. I think from my perspective, the selfishness or the fear that motivates people to do things that are.
Not within the common sense meter. And there was a meme where they had all these guys bringing the generators back to Home Depot, you know, and it was this long line saying, good luck. Get a refund, right? Yeah. But but, [00:09:00] but the point is, there was a time, Jim, I used to interview. We had, when I did radio, you had a, a weather guy come on, a local station, and he took pride in being right.
Being more accurate than the other individuals. I don't get a sense that that exists anymore.
Jim Baker: No. It's now compete to
Bill: why though? What are you supposed? Is it driving ratings? Has it become
Jim Baker: indoctrinated? Why? Even during the storm, the first storm, you know you're watching a football game on Sunday and you got in the in.
You know, 25% corner, right corner. You got the weather person with the radar behind you, right? Or they'll interrupt the entire
Bill: game
Jim Baker: game that you're watching. So it's, they could tell you that there's a, a snow cyclone, you know, a hundred miles away. Um, and you got some re remote reporter. Well, it's not even snowing.
They're like, it's gonna come in 10 minutes. And it's like, who cares? It's not even, I'm in my house, it's a hundred miles away
Bill: and they're showing a dry highway. Right. Saying it looks good now, but Right. Um. I think it is, [00:10:00] sensationalism is probably directed by management because you, you want to, if you can scare an individual into believing their life and their family's life is in danger, they probably will tune in.
But I don't know what our people, I guess they are the shelves kind of. Make that statement, are they really that inclined to believe these experts any longer? I'm not. I don't believe a word that these people say. Yeah,
Jim Baker: but it doesn't matter, right?
Bill: Doesn't matter.
Jim Baker: Well, whether they believe them or not, it's an opportunity.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: You know why? Take a chance. Why risk? Why, why? You know, why? Kicking, by the way, remote learn now. Um,
Bill: oh yeah.
Jim Baker: We gotta talk about that. And I know you have a elementary school, you know, child at this point in time and the colleges, I mean, God. Tuition and the colleges are just going up like there's no tomorrow.
And even when there's no weather, some of these classes are remote. Mm-hmm. And I'm thinking to myself, thank God I'm not paying tuition anymore. But if I was. I'd probably send half the tuition check in because I wanna see a human [00:11:00] being teaching my kids every single day. And if you're not gonna do that, why am I giving you money?
Bill: Right. Think those online colleges look pretty attractive without the yet. Why not? I'm seriously, um, we, we had that too. And it's, I again, I think, see, I'm so cynical, Jim, because I think there's an ulterior motive to all of this, and I don't think it's. It's my child's best interest. I, I think it is more about funding.
I think it's more about not losing, you know, having to extend the school year and all these other things, but when you're, it's all said and done. I have this very selfish, well, isn't what I pay you for, right? Aren't you supposed to teach my child? I'm there to support, but why am I doing it? Yeah. And that was the case for three or four or five days.
Jim Baker: So the, the remote thing has been basically pushed to the parents.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: That's great. And we pay property tax every year.
Bill: Yep.
Jim Baker: And supposedly 85% of it goes to schools.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: Well, we should send in half of our property [00:12:00] tax next year because we don't need buildings anymore, if they're gonna remote learn all the time.
And if the parents are gonna actually homeschool their kids, even though they're still sending 'em to school. Why do they need all the tax dollars?
Bill: Interesting. You know, I think the Somalians may have picked up on that. Okay. Let's
Jim Baker: not go there yet.
Bill: No, no, I'm not going to, but I was,
Jim Baker: so, so, but I think the bigger, and we've talked about this in, in the past year or two.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: It, I, I call it the nanny state. If there is a benefit, granted, you know, I know there's, it's probably a lot of, it's got to do with liability and being sued, et cetera, et cetera, but I remember going to school late, waiting in the snow, getting picked up by a bus, getting to school, and I was mad 'cause I'd rather play outside.
Mm-hmm. But it was almost like you felt good about going because you, you know, you, you went under adverse conditions. It
Bill: was an adventure almost.
Jim Baker: Yeah.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: [00:13:00] And, you know, and you saw your friends and, yeah. Um, but everybody made the effort. And I think if you, when you make the effort that builds character and it builds resilience to be able to tackle everything.
But if you're automatically gonna just. Be told, you don't need to go relax, stay home remote, learn, do whatever you need to do even though it's sunny outside. Um, then how does that portend for the rest of your
Bill: I agree.
Jim Baker: Life.
Bill: I agree. Because you're basing your decisions in the future on what you've gone through.
It's a life experience.
Jim Baker: And like COVD, you know, the grocery stores have to be open, so those people have to come into work. And they gotta stock the shelves. They gotta do all this stuff.
Bill: But they didn't catch COVID, didn't you know that?
Jim Baker: Don't go there anymore.
Bill: No. Okay.
Jim Baker: Um, so
Bill: could eat at a restaurant too.
You're on fire
Jim Baker: today, by the way.
Bill: Sorry.
Jim Baker: I held a lot in last week. I'll say. I've noticed a lot of mask wearing right. Lately. Is there something I've missed out there about a, some kind of virus or something?
Bill: Are you talking about ice or you talking about the other people? [00:14:00] Yeah. No, it's, it's, I think it's almost like the nose ring and the hair.
I think it's part of the get, it's part of the, okay. The
Jim Baker: yeah, not a lot of people, but I just noticed it's been a little more consistent in the last couple weeks. Maybe it's weather, I dunno.
Bill: Maybe
Jim Baker: so then the beauty is we get another storm a week later. All right. And this one is wildly snowmageddon.
This time. There's no rain. It's gonna snow the whole time.
Bill: Oh, man.
Jim Baker: All right.
Bill: I was ready for it too. I have a tractor with a plow on the front.
Jim Baker: I
Bill: could not
Jim Baker: wait, but I did. Right. And until this time, they were accurate that it was snow.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: The issue was oh much. How much, and again, it was zero to 500 and then it was anywhere from four to, you know, 15 or whatever.
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: Then we were told it was gonna start Friday night and then we're gonna told it was gonna start Saturday midday. Mm-hmm. And then where I lived, at least it snowed for maybe an hour from two to three, then it stopped.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: And then I think we finally got some snow on Saturday night into Sunday.
Bill: Yeah. [00:15:00]
Jim Baker: Looking at the, again, taking over the TV while I'm trying to watch a game radar. We're in this giant dry pocket.
Bill: Yeah. It was
Jim Baker: like west of us. Yeah. It's snowing everything to the east of us is snowing and we're in the middle. Yeah. With this dry air. And they act like, um, it, they pretended like, oh yeah, we, we knew this might happen.
And I'm like, well, why didn't you tell us?
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: You know? And I don't
Bill: think there were more people relieved. Than the weather people were when it finally started to snow. But yeah, no, your point is well taken. I mean, their inability to forecast even when it's upon them,
Jim Baker: right,
Bill: is, is. Makes me wonder a little bit on global warming, but go ahead.
Jim Baker: You know, my daughter and her husband and baby dog they were all driving up to Baltimore for the weekend, but 'cause of Snowmageddon, they were told to stay home. 'cause the 95 corridor was gonna be a mess. Well, it ended up, that whole storm ended up going out to the ocean.
Bill: Yeah,
Jim Baker: right. So the East coast, especially the northeast, never got hit at all.
Now, [00:16:00] the good news about them is they went back to school on Monday.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: In our little dry river, where we got about three inches here.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: It's three days later. They're still outta school.
Bill: Yeah. Yes. I couldn't believe that. And the
Jim Baker: streets are dry.
Bill: Absolutely. There's no ice
Jim Baker: anywhere.
Bill: Now think of the economic loss.
Because you know, the forecast, and it was, and to be fair, it wasn't just the local forecasters, it was the national, it was even the European, they all had this highly inaccurate forecast, but you had people spend money, they probably wouldn't have spent people, especially, you know, middle to lower income that are.
You know, going paycheck to paycheck. That was a, I'm sure a big deal. People buying generators. They didn't have to buy snow shovels. There was no salt. They took all the salt they did. And they, and the propane, which leads me to this,
Jim Baker: even the kitty lit, was disappeared.
Bill: I had to go on a hunt for a propane, 'cause I forgot my, my grill was out.
It took me a good couple hours to find this little obscure blue tank thing that you can get. And, and I got it back [00:17:00] and I felt like I won the lottery, Jim.
Jim Baker: So look at you. You're gonna actually trudge out there and cook outside while it's
Bill: snow and raining out. Yes. Process. Yeah. I know. I see
Jim Baker: resilience.
I
Bill: like he grew up here, put on a flannel shirt. It was great. But the governor stepped up though and he he, he enforced the gouging laws. And I want to just throw this out at you.
Jim Baker: Go ahead.
Bill: Because I can't think of anything more counterproductive than that. It seems like you have to buy stupid to come up with a law like that, and that's what we did.
Am I wrong? It seems to me that gouging is actually a good thing in the long run because in fact, this, I read an article from Dr. Munger at Duke University who pointed this out to me 'cause I believe the two gouging was awful. I wanted to publicly whip these people, you know? But if you allow the gouging to take place.
The higher price attracts more individuals willing to supply and bring it into the area. He gave the example of the hurricane here in North Carolina where ice was normally a buck, and now they were selling it for 10 bucks. Right? Well, the, [00:18:00] the state came in and took all the ice and hauled it off, said, you can't do that.
So nobody got ice. But imagine, wait a
Jim Baker: second. Yes. The, the state bought up all the ice.
Bill: Well, they said you couldn't sell it for that.
Jim Baker: So who bought it?
Bill: Well, I don't know. They shut the doors. They, they couldn't sell it for that. You had people coming in from out of the area with U-Haul with all this ice, and they were selling it for a, a rather significant profit.
If that was allowed to continue, maybe the next guy with the U-Haul would've sold it for nine bucks a bag or, and the prices would better reduce and everybody would have an opportunity to buy ice. That's why I, I look at the gouging laws as just stupid, but I'm not a brilliant, successful businessman like you are.
Jim, so am I wrong about this? How do you view it?
Jim Baker: I mean, obvi, obviously, there's always gonna be some bad actors out there. And yeah, I, I think the bigger question is, it's probably, it's probably a law, but there's no way in the world they can ever enfor force it. So that's just political grandstanding.
That's all that is.
Bill: See, I think you [00:19:00] nailed something here. I think all of this is
Jim Baker: everybody has to have a voice, um, during Yeah. Any type of storm or any other type of, you know, event. They're don't wanna be left out, you know, because then, and sadly. They should be left out. The governor should never say anything in this case.
And I remember the governor four or five years ago when we had that outage in the pipeline, and he went on, said, you know, no gouging, um, you know, every, every. Don't get gas. Well, they did the exact opposite. Everybody went to the gas stations and drained everything. Absolutely. Within four seconds flat.
Right. If he didn't say anything, it would've been a normal business day. Right? Pipeline would've been fixed and everybody wouldn't been happy.
Bill: But why aren't we so influenced by the media and politicians and teachers?
Jim Baker: Because I think it's some cases, it's every our citizenry, and maybe it's because of what we just talked about, they all expect somebody to do something at some point in time.
Right. And sometimes there's just simply nothing to do. It's a storm. That's it. [00:20:00] Enjoy the go out in your sleigh. Hang out with your kids a snowman. Build a snowman. Next day, get in your car and go to work. What's the big deal?
Bill: See, I've been saying that, but I get dumped on because I'm from up north. Hey.
And people say, well, you don't know what it's like down here.
Jim Baker: Yeah, it goes away fast. It,
Bill: it really does. I mean, I, I shouldn't have even had to use my plow because I did, because it was fun. But I mean, it melted faster than I could plow it. So [00:21:00] I guess the bigger aspect of this is, um.
Maybe I'm too old, but I, when I grew up, I believed the weatherman, for instance, I, I believed, I believed the teachers, what they were teaching me. I, I, I believed experts who came on and said, blah, blah, blah, blah. I believe these things. I really did truly trust these individuals and I have zero trust now.
And yet it seems to, they still seem to have an awful lot of power to motivate people to do things that are really counter to their own best interests. Is that gonna change? I mean, do, I mean, did you feel the same thing? This transition from, Hey, I believe the local weather guy to these bums. That's where we are.
That's where we are right now. They,
Jim Baker: I mean, I think some of us don't believe them and some of us don't care. Like I don't truly, I. Don't really care. I mean, I, I have a couple family members that are fake weather people. Um, they love the weather and they look at it [00:22:00] all the time.
Bill: Yep.
Jim Baker: I'm like, it's, if it snows, it snows.
If it doesn't, it doesn't. I mean, it's just, I don't care.
Bill: Well, what happened to that lifestyle? Everybody used to be that way. Jim,
Jim Baker: we have too much time on our hands. We constantly are looking. We wanna see, we wanna watch. You know, maybe some people are generally excited 'cause they have kids or they remember there are 12 inch snow storms up in Wisconsin and they want to relive that.
Great. I get that. That's perfect.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: Um, but I don't know, it's just a strange dynamic right now.
Bill: Well, I don't know. It just seems as though we've lost our minds in a lot of areas or at least common sense that. And this independence we used to have like you, you don't really care about it. You're gonna survive.
It's not Armageddon or a polar blast that's gonna destroy us. We're gonna be just fine. The, um, the education system. You kind of touched on with the virtual, um, teaching, but I wanna just bring that in and, and I don't wanna get political on this, but there's obviously the protesting and things like that.
But how do you, how do you feel about the kids and the teachers [00:23:00] going out to offer their voice and be part of this, this event that seems to be taking place right now?
Jim Baker: It's, it's. It's shouldn't happen. I'll just leave it at that. I think if you're a teacher, um, and you're in a history class, for example, or you're in some type of current event class, then absolutely bring it up and absolutely reinforce the, you know, based on how you feel about it.
You know that in our country we have first amendment rights and you do have. Freedom to peacefully protest. Um, but to stage a walk out and to take your kids, you know, they're your pupils to go outside and, you know, not work or not teach, um, or, you know, if they're not in the education, just simply go out in solid area.
Um, I think that's ridiculous because first of all, you don't really know what's going on,
Bill: right?
Jim Baker: Right. So are you being influenced again, by the media? Um, or do you truly believe this stuff? And if you truly believe this stuff. Then why are you [00:24:00] here? Why aren't you in Minneapolis? Or aren't you someplace else?
Um, so I kind of looked at it both from both sides. And these are facts. I don't know if it's, these are facts, but I don't think a lot of people have understood the facts. So we elected this country, elected somebody to fix our immigration system 'cause it was wildly broken. Part of that tenant was to.
Close the borders. Mm-hmm. Which they've done. The other part of it was to round up all the illegal aliens, especially ones that are committing crimes, and give them a path to get outta here. And the path is they get paid $3,500, they get a plane, plane ticket, they're allowed to take their family, which is a myth, um, that's been perpetrated.
That they're not, they are, they're given, the mom is given the choice, um, if their kids are born in this country. She's given the choice they can stay with somebody else who's legal or you can take 'em. And most of the moms obviously [00:25:00] take their kids of Coursely. So and then they humanely get on a commercial airline flight and they're with the money and they go back to their country.
And that's how it works.
Bill: I said, should, I mean, there is a law in place
Jim Baker: and I think the bigger hot take I have is that we elected somebody. When I say we, I mean the country. The majority of the country elected somebody. To fix our immigration problem because the majority of the people in this country knew that there was a problem.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: So now that they're doing it, they're being prevented from doing it. And they're also, it's being reinforced by certain judges. Um, yes. Where suddenly we don't have to abide by laws anymore. So. I'm thinking to myself, well, why have elections then? Because if you don't have election, if, if the, if what the people want can't be carried out because nobody wants to obey the law, [00:26:00] then why have a society?
Bill: It just dawned me. Are you suggesting they're destroying democracy?
Jim Baker: Nobody seems to, I mean, so you know, if you take a smile on my face in case he didn't cut away to that, I
Bill: was, was Yeah. I think somewhat said in jest because it's that group of individuals that seem to be gravitating to that viewpoint that certain laws should not be applied
Jim Baker: Right.
Bill: Based on whatever standards they
Jim Baker: have. Right. And Congress passed laws.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: And there's a way to get into this country legally. And unfortunately we allowed illegals to come into this country. But even the people that are opposed to deportation, for example, still use the word illegal. So you're illegal because you came in unlawfully to this country, therefore you broke the law.
Therefore you have to be removed.
Bill: Right,
Jim Baker: right. Now, is there a better way to do it? I hope so, and [00:27:00] I think they need to do that. 'cause I don't think the people that are the ICE agents, for example, that are trying to get these people out. They're in a bad spot. First of all, they're not trained to deal with protesters and crowd control.
Bill: No.
Jim Baker: Secondly, they're not trained to deal with agitators that are armed. Um, and they get no protection from the local, some local min municipalities, so they're not, you know, this perfect law enforcement individual who's been trained in all these things. Nor is a policeman, for example, or a SWAT team person or somebody else,
Bill: right?
Jim Baker: Right. They're, they have specific roles, and as a law enforcement team, they need to team up with the municipalities to peacefully remove these people. And it's been done in other cities, and it's been done quietly, and it's been done effectively, and it's been done without harming those individuals that are affected by it.
Bill: So why hasn't it been done? In certain [00:28:00] cities, because we're talking just a few cities, Minneapolis being the, the one that's highlighted. They used to give him a call and say, Hey, we got this murderer, or this rapist or whatever they're gonna be releasing. He's in our jail. You got one guy who has to come and get him.
They've put a stop to that, which now has caused what we, what we're seeing unfold in the media, which is. I think, um, proven not to be totally honest about what is, what is happening and, and trying to shift public opinion one way or another. But why, why is it all politics again?
Jim Baker: That's the problem. I guess I don't,
Bill: is it all politics?
Jim Baker: I don't know why. Anybody, whether you,
Bill: who would wanna murder in their neighborhood,
Jim Baker: love our country, or dislike our country wants to protect a rapist, a convicted murderer, a convicted thief. I, I have no idea why. They would want to do that. Um, so there must be a bigger thing going on here. And the only thing I could possibly [00:29:00] think of is if you look at patterns, the people that are out of power want to get power again, and therefore they're gonna create as much chaos as possible, timed for major elections.
And that's the way to get back into power because the average American then says, you know what? I was on the side of, I'm tired. I'm tired of seeing it tired. I'm tired, I'm tired. I, I'm stressed out about it. I'm thinking about it all the time. I think whether you're for or against, you're just tired of it.
Mm-hmm. You're tired of people being killed. You're tired of judges not following the law. Would, you're tired of people being released, you know, after they've been committed crimes. You're tired of the rhetoric between the politicians. You're just tired. It's part of the profanity. You're just tired of everything.
So you give up and they know this, they know this. Sure. That's why they do it.
Bill: It it
Jim Baker: has worked. And I don't think it's the immigration piece of it. I don't think they're really that compassionate about the Somalis or the Venezuelans or whoever else is here [00:30:00] illegally. Um, it's a bigger picture here and it has everything to do with power and money.
And I think if you look at Minnesota in particular,
Bill: excuse me,
Jim Baker: you have that Medicare fraud that's going on right now. Oh,
Bill: big time.
Jim Baker: Big time. And it's, by the way, it's worse in California, but. You know, governor decides he's not gonna run again 'cause he knows he can't win with this thing. And then the gift of God happens.
And now the Minnesota Mayor, in my opinion, um, is doing what he needs to do as a young guy. So he understands media and social media, and he's elevating himself to run for governor at some point in time.
Bill: Sure.
Jim Baker: And guess what, how many times have we talked about or heard about or read about. The fraud that's going on in Minnesota since these, these riots have started.
Bill: Well, that'll be interesting as it unfolds. I, I guess, you know, it is the moral aspect of all of this where I would no longer promote the killing of the murderers, rapists, and illegal aliens. Yet it seems to be something that [00:31:00] politicians. I think Nadler came out just yesterday, but most of them are calling the law enforcement Gestapo and thugs and actually are advocating, you know, justifying the use of a weapon against them.
The, I understand
Jim Baker: people that call for gun control and wanna remove all the
Bill: guns in country. Exactly. You see, it makes no sense, but there's, there seems to be a moral. Emptiness that is in all of this. Um, and I'm not, I I just don't know where you get that back as a society, because I get the power thing, I get the money thing, but the essence of a human being, you, Jim, you're morally have to decide, I'm willing to do this compromise that say these things for power.
And that's what a lot of these people are, and those who support 'em are doing the same thing.
Jim Baker: Yeah. I don't, I don't, I, that's where I, I get frustrated, but I don't want to, you know, necessarily in my mind, just give up, but
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: Why, why are we advocating violence against law [00:32:00] enforcement?
Bill: I think it's because it's, it's good video for the internet and for the mainstream
Jim Baker: media.
The average human then gets fired up about that.
Bill: Mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: And exactly the average human truly believes that ice, in this case is the Gestapo then. They're being motivated by NGOs and other entities behind them.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: And they're getting fired up. They're getting paid and like, I don't know how much of this is actually organic.
Bill: Very little. I think.
Jim Baker: And even if it is organic, again, you're inciting, the politicians are inciting these people to go do something stupid.
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: And last time I checked the same people that are advocating for violence were the ones years and years ago. Telling us to be passive to, you know, protest peacefully.
Um, they never probably said respect law enforcement, but they were, [00:33:00] you know, that should not have guns. We gotta, every time there was a crime, let's remove all the guns, blah, blah, blah. And they're, they're going the other way now. So that's why I think at the end of the day, it's all about. Getting power back.
Bill: I, I agree with you. I do. And of course, the politicians offer up justification for doing things. I mean, listen, if you honestly believe they're Nazis in Gestapo, and of course they're not. But if you believe it, the obvious next step would be to. I mean, wouldn't you take out Hitler if you had a chance?
Jim Baker: Well, the hilarious thing is all these young people probably never were taught through the school, school.
They don't have a clue who is the legitimate American history agree in World War ii. So they have no idea what a Nazi is.
Bill: No, no, that's a great point. I I brought up the morality of things and, and I know you're, you're a good Catholic, you're a religious guy and you know, I, I try to, I, I'm a Christian. I still am a Catholic um.
Try to live my life that way. It, it's more difficult than ever, but where do you go if you're [00:34:00] just a person looking for that kind of guidance? 'cause you're not getting it in the media, you're not getting it in the schools, you're not getting it anywhere else. I think you go to the church would be my, my answer to that is that a good place to go to find moral clarity on these issues?
Jim Baker: Only. Only for.
Bill: I,
Jim Baker: I, there's two things, right? So right. One is if you believe, let's say you don't go to church, but you believe there's an afterlife,
Bill: right?
Jim Baker: The afterlife is going to last forever. This life is gonna last for zero to 80 to a hundred years. Well, now you sound
Bill: like a weatherman.
Jim Baker: So it's a blip in time.
Bill: It is, yes.
Jim Baker: Right? So then what you do here is you're. Hall pass to have eternal life.
Bill: Right,
Jim Baker: right. So I think when we get so stressed out about what's going on in our lives, [00:35:00] it's because we're not looking at the big picture. You know, if you're that motivated and upset about Minneapolis, for example, whatever side you're on, um, then my suggestion would be to figure out what is.
Is it worth it because of what you might be giving up in the next billion years, in eternal life
Bill: and beyond? Yeah. You have to. So I'm, if I'm hearing you, it's almost as though you, you're saying, listen, if you don't believe you're saying afterlife or a higher power, then it's almost impossible to have that moral clarity.
I mean, that that, isn't that what everything's based on? Right? I mean, your rights come from God. It doesn't come from the government, for instance. And yet today the churches have been so polluted with, again, ideology. And then it's probably all for the same reasons. You know, the Bible's twisted, [00:36:00] preachy preachers and, and that have different perspective on things, political in nature.
And I mean, I just don't know where the average person goes to go. Okay. This was the road map.
Jim Baker: Well, they can't go to that Christian Church in Minneapolis. 'cause they were invaded
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: By Don Lemon and other protestors. Thankfully they got arrested.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: Um, the second time. 'cause the first time the judge threw everybody out.
Right. And said you can't arrest them. But they found, you know, they obviously sharpened their case up and went back through to a grand jury and they were arrested now. So hopefully there'll be consequences for that.
Bill: I hope so.
Jim Baker: Um, but I think we also, I think this country. By design, not necessarily from the country itself, but from the people we've secularized, you know, our society, and we've forgotten how important the Catholic church has been to Western civilization.
Why are we so much more advanced than other societies in the rest of the world? And the common denominator is [00:37:00] most of our countries over the years, um, were founded on Judeo-Christian. Principles and the Catholic church was a major force. That's true in Europe. Major force over here. Um, and if I just look back, I did a little artificial intelligence searching.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: Um, Catholic Church invented a lot of stuff. It's a little trivia for you.
Bill: I did not know that.
Jim Baker: Wait. Century was gothic architecture developed.
Bill: Oh. One of my favorite subjects. I have no idea.
Jim Baker: The 12th century Catholic church. 12th
Bill: century.
Jim Baker: Right.
Bill: Wow.
Jim Baker: What. Cal, what institution developed and started the first hospital.
Bill: I'm gonna say Catholics.
Jim Baker: 16th century, correct?
Bill: No kidding. Yes. 16th, yes. Century. Wow.
Jim Baker: What century and what institution developed a Gregorian calendar that we used today?
Bill: I don't know what century.
Jim Baker: Pope Gregory.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: In the three hundreds. Wow. What [00:38:00] institution developed the first clock, mechanical clock that we basically
Bill: Catholics
Jim Baker: did do?
Yes,
Bill: they did do,
Jim Baker: yes. What institution? That's why they were so
Bill: specific to
Jim Baker: be on time. Developed irrigation and water systems for producing crops. The
Bill: Catholics?
Jim Baker: Yes, the monasteries. No kidding. In the old days, monks didn't have much to do, so they did a lot of research, obviously. What institution developed the scientific methodology that we use today?
Bill: Oh, I'm gonna go on a limb and say Catholics.
Jim Baker: Exactly. Greg or Mendel? Yes, the Catholics.
Bill: Wow.
Jim Baker: The father of genetics, by the way.
Bill: That's amazing. That really is amazing.
Jim Baker: And believe it or not, what institution came up with the theory, the Big Bang theory.
Bill: You're not talking about the TV show. You're talking, do you tell me that Catholics came up with a big band carry Yes.
The Catholics
Jim Baker: did. The Catholic scientists Yes.
Bill: To prove the existence of God,
Jim Baker: probably. Yes.
Bill: Yes.
Jim Baker: Yeah, yeah,
Bill: yeah,
Jim Baker: yeah. And now obviously they're using it to [00:39:00] disprove the existence of God. Yes. Um, Tyler, there's one more here that I missed. Oh, music notations.
Bill: Yes. Cat
Jim Baker: Catholic Church manuscripts.
Bill: Catholic church.
Jim Baker: I could go on and on.
Bill: I bet you could,
Jim Baker: but all these things that we mentioned
Bill: mm-hmm.
Jim Baker: You know, helped us revolutionize society in a humane way. When you started caring for the sick, right.
Bill: Wait, didn't they, didn't they preach that the government should take taxes away from everybody to build those hospitals?
I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, I'm talking about the Catholic church. No, they didn't. I might, in other words, they, they, they did it because of, um, their religious beliefs, their moral character. They took it upon themselves to do it. Correct. And no
Jim Baker: government back then was doing that.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: In fact, the government didn't care about you at all.
They took
Bill: the curb. Right. So they took that step and it was the individuals of that community that, that built this hospital.
Jim Baker: Right.
Bill: I remember [00:40:00] the Catholic hospitals. And they were pretty prevalent where, where I grew up and, and it was a pretty big deal to have them in the community and Catholic schools, which I went through the eighth grade in Catholic schools and in Wisconsin, they're everywhere.
It's hard to find good Catholic groups here in North Carolina. It's not as prevalent, but it, it was instrumental in the kind of education that people got and it was moral character, but it was also. It was, it was a sense of community that I don't think you get nowadays almost anywhere. And maybe it's, you know, I don't wanna get down the path of social media and everything, but you felt like you belonged.
Does that make sense?
Jim Baker: Yeah.
Bill: Yeah.
Jim Baker: It was a common denominator.
Bill: Yeah. Yeah.
Jim Baker: You had your church community, but you had Christ.
Bill: Right,
Jim Baker: right. And as one of my friends said, the beauty of the, he converted. He was Baptist, I think, and then I think he converted about 15 to 20 years ago to the Catholic religion. He said the beauty of what [00:41:00] I love about the Catholic church is that every time you go to mass, it's not about the preacher, it's not about the minister, it's not about the pastor, it's about Jesus.
And one could say, well, it's very. Mechanical and repetitious. Mm-hmm. It's 'cause you get the same thing every single week other than some different songs. Right. Um, but in, in all these other denominations you have this, if it, the church is gonna succeed. It's all about the cares, the charisma of the, the minister or the pastor to, you know, move the flock.
Mm-hmm. To. Fundraise to do all this stuff and it becomes more about him or her than it does become about Christ. And he goes, that's what I love about the Catholic church. Which I thought was, I take that for granted, but I thought that was, that was brilliant.
Bill: It is brilliant. I mean, I since that I grew up and I went to church almost every day.
'cause you were in the school and it became an altar boy. [00:42:00] Because it tended to make the mass move a little quicker for me. Yeah, of
Jim Baker: course. A lot more fun.
Bill: You know? And you, I did get caught up in the redundancy of the, the ceremony. But I've grown, I think spiritually since then and, and I've grown to appreciate a.
I mean, nothing's perfect, you know? But
Jim Baker: no, we know that and they've had their scandals and, um mm-hmm. You know, I think that's an excuse where people have been driven away from the church, you know? And my thought was, yeah, it's bad. You know, they didn't probably do the fix it the way we, we would've wanted 'em to fix it.
Bill: Right.
Jim Baker: But they've been around for 2000 years. Um, there's a reason they've done a lot of great things. Mm-hmm. They know what they're doing. And, but that's not gonna prevent me from, you know, making sure that I'm staying on the track that I need to stay on. 'cause the people that I know, my priests, you know, my parish, you know, is fine.
Um, so, but let's get rid of it. The other bad, bad guys, bad actors, and let's replace 'em with other people. And I think they've done it, they just do it on a different timeline than, [00:43:00] you know, the rest of us like it, like them to do it sometimes.
Bill: Well, right. And we're all humans, so we're all gonna make mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes.
And that's just part of life. I, I, I do sense this void. It seems to be growing wider because I don't know that society as it exists right now can continue down this road of denial of truths and, um, beliefs that we once held are, are, are, just seem to be, seem to be gone. I, I don't know if the majority of people feel that way, but.
I don't, I just don't know. I mean, it seems like the truth is now lies, lies is truth.
Jim Baker: Everything seems to be opposite of what it should be. It's almost, there's too much information out there. But I won't say to you that this is I think a fact everybody can look it up. The amount of people under 30, going back to the church.
Um, has increased significantly. And, and that's our area, at least [00:44:00] not from transplants, but just from people coming in to be converted, um, in the Catholic church, in the eastern part of North Carolina, um, I wanna say has increased by like 300% in the last couple years. I think people are coming back.
Bill: What are your guests that, you
Jim Baker: know,
Bill: we've talked with mentioned that from a parish and that's, that is exciting news.
Jim Baker: Yeah. So don't be, be totally discouraged.
Bill: No,
Jim Baker: because at the end of the day. There is a greater power and
Bill: it'll all work out.
Jim Baker: He less according to our own own devices, but yeah, it's, at the end of the day, it's gonna work out.
Bill: See, and that's good news, right? A hundred percent. That's a great, yeah. Great way to kind of wrap it up and it, you know, it is very comforting to know that. If you would believe there is a God and he is he's here with you with the Holy Spirit, he's gonna, don't worry about it. It says so very quick.
Don't worry about today. Don't worry about eating. Don't worry about that. I got you covered. Right. See, I could be a priest. I could be a hip kid. Priest.
Jim Baker: You almost were at one point
Default_2026-02-04_1: time
Bill: almost. I almost was
Jim Baker: Largest Christ institution in the world. [00:45:00] Catholics, 1.3 billion.
Bill: Wow.
Jim Baker: Oh, 1.3 billion.
Bill: He's an interesting guy in world, in every country world where he has all these facts.
No, but I mean it, that says it a lot. You know, when you don't, sometimes all you hear is the bad things about a church or a religious organization, and those are always gonna be there. But when you look at those accomplishment and just the, the period of time in which is has existed and the influence it had on, um, kings and queens and governments in general, it's pretty, pretty darn amazing.
It really is.
Jim Baker: Yeah. Yeah.
Bill: Supposed to maybe rain a little tonight and freeze, possibly freeze tonight. Jim, are you prepared? Keeping
Jim Baker: be off school tomorrow? It's remote learning day tomorrow.
Default_2026-02-04_1: They're
Bill: praying for that right now. I can tell
Jim Baker: you'll have nine days off in two, in the first two weeks in February, and then they'll get to go off for hot.
President's Day in another week and a half, that'll be great. And then colleges
Bill: 10 the quarter's over for our year round school and two weeks off or whatever they get. And
Jim Baker: yeah. [00:46:00]
Bill: Yeah, we were told not to pray for snow. Some of the, the principal didn't want any more snow days, so we'll see. All right.
I'm not gonna pray for that. I enjoy it. Anything else you'd like to add today? I mean, I thought you were incredible.
Jim Baker: Yeah. Um, enjoyed speaking with you today. Yeah, you too. And hopefully we can get our remote guests on at some point in time and
Bill: yeah,
Jim Baker: start our Wisdom Series back up again. So, yeah,
Bill: I really enjoy those.
Jim Baker: If anybody watches this, um, hit me on LinkedIn if you have any.
Bill: Well, of course there are people watching this.
Jim Baker: If you have any wisdom guests, um, please. Forward them to me recommendations, and I'm happy to reach out to them and, and get 'em on the podcast.
Bill: That would be awesome. That's the one thing we don't do in America is value those who have, you know, lived a long life.
Because with that comes a tremendous amount of wisdom. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like I bet. For somebody who's older, they, I would have to say, Jim, how do they get your tea? Because they probably already know.
Jim Baker: Well, every guest we've had on live that's over 70 years old [00:47:00] doesn't like tea. Yeah. Um, and maybe that's why they're living forever.
Um, yeah. But if you want to get the Tea Limited supplies, 50 cups tea.com.
Bill: Alright. Jim is always pleasure, man. Thank you very much.
Jim Baker: God bless.