Speaker 1: We have two really important things to celebrate today. We
Speaker 1: of course are celebrating Christmas. That's a pretty big holiday
Speaker 1: to celebrate. We're also celebrating the one hundredth episode of
Speaker 1: Verdict with Ted Cruze. And to celebrate, we're going to
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Speaker 1: Do it. You'll be glad you did. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Verdict with Ted Cruz, where there are so many ads.
Speaker 1: When did that happen? When did we start getting I
Speaker 1: guess it's good that we're getting these ads so that
Speaker 1: we can keep this show on the air, free available
Speaker 1: to so many people. But Liz, please tell me there
Speaker 1: is some way to avoid all of the ads. Well,
Speaker 1: there certainly is, Michael. If you just head right on
Speaker 1: over to Verdict with Ted Cruz dot com slash Plus
Speaker 1: and become a Verdict Plus subscriber, then you can watch
Speaker 1: this entire episode free, free from the terrible ads, free
Speaker 1: from these advertisements, all the way through straight through Verdict
Speaker 1: with Ted Cruise dot Com slash Plus. Well, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Grateful to you, the listener is grateful to Verdict Plus,
Speaker 1: and grateful to our advertisers as well, who allow us
Speaker 1: to remain on the air. Senator, congratulations on one hundred episodes.
Speaker 1: That is crazy. Uh, you know when when we sat
Speaker 1: down January almost two years ago, and and in the
Speaker 1: basement and did it at what one two in the
Speaker 1: morning every night every night, and and and the first
Speaker 1: time we did it, we had this shag carpet. We
Speaker 1: had we had this chair. I mean, the the the
Speaker 1: chair and the carpet are veterans of one hundred episodes,
Speaker 1: um and and listen, I've been upstage by a cactus,
Speaker 1: but but for a shag carpet to kick your ass
Speaker 1: that that is a little much, But I mean I
Speaker 1: remember that that first night there was a lot of skepticism,
Speaker 1: a skepticism from one young Michael Knowles, skepticism from our producers,
Speaker 1: skepticism from almost anyone's sentient with a discernible sense of judgment,
Speaker 1: like how is this going to work? Is this gonna work?
Speaker 1: And then we rocketed up the charts and within weeks
Speaker 1: were the number one podcast in the world. So I
Speaker 1: admit I was skeptical at the very beginning. I you know,
Speaker 1: I have great admiration for you, Senator, I have voted
Speaker 1: for you, but I was a little skeptical that you
Speaker 1: were going to beat Joe Rogan on the podcast charts.
Speaker 1: And and yet after just a week, I guess on
Speaker 1: the air, the show hit number one. Obviously, it's been
Speaker 1: going for two years, and that is now it's a
Speaker 1: very popular thing to do. A lot of politicians have podcasts.
Speaker 1: It had never been done in a popular way before,
Speaker 1: and so I am thrilled, and I'm sorry forever doubting
Speaker 1: that you would become one of the biggest broadcasters in America. Well, look,
Speaker 1: I will say this. One of the things I get
Speaker 1: great joy from is Verdict has more viewers than CNN's
Speaker 1: Morning Show. Like like, in some ways that's such an
Speaker 1: incredibly low bar that that's like saying, Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: we exceed three. But but it is really an amazing
Speaker 1: sort of commentary on the shift of media and discussion.
Speaker 1: You know, it used to be that, you know, the
Speaker 1: big three, you at ABC, CBS, NBC, back when all right, Michael,
Speaker 1: I bet you don't. Do you remember television sets that
Speaker 1: had knobs that turned or was that before your time?
Speaker 1: I do, but only because I grew up kind of poor,
Speaker 1: That's the only reason I remember it. But they were
Speaker 1: basically extinct by the time I was a kid. You know,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, we had remote control and
Speaker 1: they called it kids, as in, you yell at the kid,
Speaker 1: go change the station, and I did. Look, I wasn't
Speaker 1: growing up in you know, Ward Beaver nineteen fifties, but uh,
Speaker 1: you know, walked up hill both school, both uphill both ways,
Speaker 1: snowing both ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm thrilled that we've
Speaker 1: hit number one hundred, and I love the coincidence that
Speaker 1: we are celebrating this as we were getting ready to
Speaker 1: celebrate Christmas. Although there was a story that Liz turned
Speaker 1: me onto that. Apparently, you know, there are all these
Speaker 1: wars on Christmas, and sometimes the wars are being aged
Speaker 1: by the Liberals, and sometimes they're being waged by the Puritans,
Speaker 1: and sometimes they're people attack Christmas for a whole lot
Speaker 1: of reasons. Apparently BLM is attacking Christmas and specifically calling
Speaker 1: for a boycott of the song White Christmas because obviously
Speaker 1: that is a white supremacist anthem. Liz, do I have
Speaker 1: that right? Um? No, you do not have that right.
Speaker 1: But don't worry. I'm here. I'm here to correct the
Speaker 1: record on it. They are calling for a boycott of
Speaker 1: a white Christmas, meaning they don't want anybody to purchase
Speaker 1: any Christmas gifts from white owned businesses or to bank
Speaker 1: with any banks that are owned by white people. They
Speaker 1: only want it's even worse, worse, although it's so much worse,
Speaker 1: although the song is a beautiful song. No, they said
Speaker 1: that they're dreaming and this is a play on the song.
Speaker 1: They're dreaming of a black Christmas because they want black
Speaker 1: people in our country to only solely exclusively buy from
Speaker 1: black owned businesses. Because they say that, um, white supremacist
Speaker 1: capitalism is a thing is a problem in our nation.
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure what the tie in there. I
Speaker 1: don't know how you can tie those three things together.
Speaker 1: But that's the beauty of black lives matters. They can
Speaker 1: invent connections to try to take down the institutions of
Speaker 1: our country everywhere. So, yes, they are attacking Christmas. So
Speaker 1: it really is amazing that that that that bing Crosby
Speaker 1: is now controversial. You know, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.
Speaker 1: Bing did you enter the room? Where did I? I
Speaker 1: thought he was long gone. I can't. Oh, no, there
Speaker 1: was you, Senator. Of course, the terror of it is
Speaker 1: it's a white Christmas because friggin snow is white. It's
Speaker 1: not a racial thing. It's it's when you freeze water
Speaker 1: and it condenses in the air, it turns into snowflakes.
Speaker 1: It's not blue, it's not pink, it's not purple. That's
Speaker 1: it just happens to be white. And now that that
Speaker 1: that that is you know who knew uh that that
Speaker 1: that snow had racial overtones? By the way, I just
Speaker 1: want to say right now, it's not fair that the
Speaker 1: Grynch's green. What about green people? What do they have
Speaker 1: against green people? Fair? Enough, and it really is. Well,
Speaker 1: you are noticing this strange phenomenon now, and it's not
Speaker 1: just BLM calling for a boycott of white businesses, but
Speaker 1: you're seeing from other major retailers or aggregators black and
Speaker 1: white owned businesses being treated differently. I remember during the
Speaker 1: BLM riots, I think it was Uber Eats was treating
Speaker 1: black owned businesses whatever that means. By the way, it's
Speaker 1: not as though businesses are only owned by a single
Speaker 1: individual a lot of the time, but they were treating
Speaker 1: them differently, giving different incentives. Is that sort of thing
Speaker 1: even legal? So it's not, and it is explicitly discriminating
Speaker 1: based on race. And the sad reality is leftists have
Speaker 1: always been racist. They've always embraced racial discrimination. You know,
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter is a racist organization. And one of
Speaker 1: the ironies we did one of the earlier verdicts, we
Speaker 1: did a whole pod on the history of the organization,
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter, founded by explicit and avowed communists and
Speaker 1: supported by woke corporations. So Microsoft, I forget the stats.
Speaker 1: We went through the stats and Microsoft had given I
Speaker 1: don't know, one hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Amazon had given one hundred and fifty or two hundred
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars. I forget the amount. Of course, you
Speaker 1: know Microsoft, Bill Gates ain't a black guy. Jeff Bezos
Speaker 1: ain't a black guy. They're literally funding an organization calling
Speaker 1: on you to boycott their own business. So Jeff Bezos
Speaker 1: is cutting a check to an organization saying don't you
Speaker 1: order your Christmas presents on Amazon? Uh, do not do that?
Speaker 1: But look look, look like like the woke consciousness is
Speaker 1: really asinine? All right, guys, way to keep it light
Speaker 1: and cheery for Christmas. This is the Christmas episode we're
Speaker 1: supposed to be spreading joy all over the world. In fact,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what this episode is about. Today. We
Speaker 1: have some Christmas gifts, if you will, and honor of
Speaker 1: both you know, Christmas and of the hundredth episode of Verdict,
Speaker 1: and I want to talk about those a little right
Speaker 1: now because they're really fun. So if you if you
Speaker 1: join Verdict Plus as a member now, I want to
Speaker 1: be very clear here, If you join Verdict Plus as
Speaker 1: a member, that's completely free. You don't have to give
Speaker 1: your credit card information. That's a non paid way to
Speaker 1: join to join this insider community. It's Verdict with Ted
Speaker 1: Cruz dot com slash Plus. If you join, it's completely free,
Speaker 1: and if we reach fifteen thousand members on Verdict Plus
Speaker 1: by January twenty first, January twenty first is a very
Speaker 1: special day because that is the inaugural episode, the anniversary
Speaker 1: of the inaugural episode of Verdict. Fifteen thousand members on
Speaker 1: Verdict Plus by January twenty first, then we will randomly
Speaker 1: select one member to come to a live taping of Verdict.
Speaker 1: This is just one of many Christmas presents here on
Speaker 1: our one hundredth episode. And by the way, because today
Speaker 1: is one hundredth episode, in January twenty first, a little
Speaker 1: bit different date is the anniversary of the inaugural episode.
Speaker 1: We will be announcing the winner of that on our
Speaker 1: January twenty first episode. So go to Verdict with Ted
Speaker 1: Cruz dot com slash plus. Let's get to fifteen thousand
Speaker 1: members so one of you can come to a live
Speaker 1: taping a Verdict. Michael, this is the Christmas spirit, all right? Well, Liz,
Speaker 1: let me ask you a couple of clarifications. Number number one,
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand. How close are we now? Lives? Where? Where
Speaker 1: are we right now, we're about to we're about to
Speaker 1: hit the ten thousand mark. Well, I mean we can
Speaker 1: do it. We can definitely do this, all right, so
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand, we're in in shooting range of fifteen thousand
Speaker 1: and and and the lucky winner who gets to come
Speaker 1: to a taping of Verdict Live. Are we going to
Speaker 1: tell them? All right, you got to buy your own
Speaker 1: plane ticket, you got a pony up to cash, you
Speaker 1: got a fly to where it is? Or is this
Speaker 1: an even even? It gets more? It gets better? As
Speaker 1: they say on the Romco ads, what kind of Christmas
Speaker 1: would it be if we said you're the winner, but oh,
Speaker 1: you got to pay us for your Christmas present? No, no,
Speaker 1: this is a Christmas present in all its glory. We
Speaker 1: will bring you to a live taping at no expense
Speaker 1: to you. This, I mean, this is the real deal.
Speaker 1: This is a really fun thing. People who are part
Speaker 1: of the Verdict plus community, I mean they follow Verdict
Speaker 1: to a t These are people who are really into
Speaker 1: what we're talking about and what the goal of this
Speaker 1: podcast is. And this is just a little way of
Speaker 1: giving bath. These people are you know, true blues. These
Speaker 1: people are fans of the show, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be really exciting to meet one of y'all in person.
Speaker 1: And Michael, I got to ask a question, So, if
Speaker 1: the winner comes and happens say to want to recite
Speaker 1: Dante and the original Italian, are you able to join
Speaker 1: them in that? Well? I hope so. You know, Fortunately,
Speaker 1: the last Verdict listener who came up and just began
Speaker 1: reciting a Dante in Italian, fortunately he knew one fewer
Speaker 1: line than I did. But the next one, who knows.
Speaker 1: We have an colectic, intellectual group that listens to the show.
Speaker 1: And you know, I take Liz's correction in a proper spirit.
Speaker 1: It's true. I don't this is Christmas time. I don't
Speaker 1: want to focus on the rioters and the Pagans and
Speaker 1: all the negative stuff. This is a great time to
Speaker 1: celebrate a great one hundredth episode. So shall we get
Speaker 1: to some nailback questions from the viewers who may very
Speaker 1: well be flying out to see us live. Absolutely, we
Speaker 1: have some actually some very interesting questions. Michael, I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a question that puts you and I on
Speaker 1: the spot in front of the senator here, So let's
Speaker 1: start with that one, because that sounds fun. This is
Speaker 1: from Paul Over on Verdict Plus. Of course, these questions
Speaker 1: are all from Verdict Plus subscribers. He says, for Liz
Speaker 1: and Michael, have you decided how to approach Santa with
Speaker 1: your kids? Yes? I am very pro Santa. I'm on
Speaker 1: team Santa. I'm so pro Santa that I'm not only
Speaker 1: going to teach about the jolly old elf Saint Nicholas
Speaker 1: who comes down the chimney with toys. I'm going to
Speaker 1: teach about Saint Nicholas, the bishop who, according to legend,
Speaker 1: at the Council of Nicia punched the heretic areas in
Speaker 1: the face because he was so sick of hearing his
Speaker 1: heresy and wanted to shake the man back to his senses. Now,
Speaker 1: the story itself may not have actually occurred, but I
Speaker 1: love the legend of Santa Claus showing up to give
Speaker 1: presents to kids and punch heretics when he just ran
Speaker 1: out of presents. Yes, that won't be confusing at all
Speaker 1: to your child. The reality and the fantasy my favorite legend.
Speaker 1: By the way, before we even get into this, the
Speaker 1: real Saint Nick. Do you know the reason why we
Speaker 1: decorate our Christmas tree with like gold ball's gold ornaments.
Speaker 1: Because there was a man, an impoverished man in Saint
Speaker 1: Nicholas's town, who had three daughters. He was unable to
Speaker 1: pay for their dowry, so they were going to remain unmarried.
Speaker 1: But he was so impoverished that he couldn't pay for
Speaker 1: their food. He couldn't sustain them. Because they were going
Speaker 1: to be unmarried, he was going to have to sell
Speaker 1: them into sex slavery and a prostitution. St. Nicholas threw
Speaker 1: three bags of gold through his window, landed on their
Speaker 1: shoes and stockings on the hearth. And that's where the
Speaker 1: tradition not only of shoes and stockings on the hearth,
Speaker 1: but also why we decorate our Christmas trees with gold balls.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm going to teach Lady Baby. That is
Speaker 1: the most badass story, the coolest. I mean, that's that
Speaker 1: is cooler than a fat elf coming down the chimney. Right,
Speaker 1: So we're talking about insurrectionists and rioters and pagans and
Speaker 1: now sex slavery. Senator, what was your approach with your
Speaker 1: daughters when it comes to Santa Claus. Yeah, I gotta say,
Speaker 1: you guys are really going and keeping it light and cheery.
Speaker 1: You've got Saint Nick the brawler, like punching some heretic
Speaker 1: or something. I didn't quite follow it. And then you've
Speaker 1: got the like rescued from sex slavery by flinging bags
Speaker 1: of gold. I'm feeling very historically illiterate because I confess
Speaker 1: I know nothing about either one of those stories. Um,
Speaker 1: but but but I will, I can go a little
Speaker 1: bit lighter. So we did Santa with our girls. They're
Speaker 1: now eleven and thirteen. I'm pretty sure they they are
Speaker 1: beyond the Santa stage at this point. But but I
Speaker 1: used to. Heidi would have me, so every Christmas Eve,
Speaker 1: after the girls went to bed, she'd send me outside,
Speaker 1: and we have these bells, and I'd like go outside
Speaker 1: their windows and ring the bells to be the bells
Speaker 1: on Santa's sleigh landing on the roof. And it was
Speaker 1: just enough that they could hear it and and and
Speaker 1: and be excited. Um, it's never really worked. I did
Speaker 1: it every year, but it didn't quite have the effect
Speaker 1: uh that we envisioned. We also own a Santa suit. Um,
Speaker 1: I've never dressed in the Santa suit. We put my
Speaker 1: dad in the Santa suit. So that's a grandfatherly task,
Speaker 1: and just to give you a sense of where it goes,
Speaker 1: we're now post Santa Um. There was not some big reveal,
Speaker 1: there was no year where it's like aha, It just
Speaker 1: sort of faded as they got older. But now both
Speaker 1: girls put together a power point of what they want
Speaker 1: for Christmas. If they present to us with with with
Speaker 1: rankings and why they want it, and they stand and
Speaker 1: do a presentation, Here's why it's a good idea, here's
Speaker 1: why this makes sense, and here's a link to the
Speaker 1: specific one I want, and so they like send you
Speaker 1: the Amazon link for their presence. Both girls do do
Speaker 1: the presentation now every year before Christmas. It sounds like
Speaker 1: they're a chip off the old block. You and Heidi
Speaker 1: have taught them well, So I used to when I
Speaker 1: was when I was eight years old, Liz, So, I
Speaker 1: would type up my Christmas list on my parents IBM's
Speaker 1: electric typewriter, because I would go over to their office
Speaker 1: where they had a small business, and I would type
Speaker 1: up a Christmas list and rank things and I rank
Speaker 1: them one, two, three, and four stars just with asterix,
Speaker 1: because you know that's all you had, and you know
Speaker 1: I would have different things I wanted I want a TV, said,
Speaker 1: I wanted a stereo. I wanted a shotgun. I had
Speaker 1: all these different things that I specified, and one of
Speaker 1: the mony year things I specified, I guess this was
Speaker 1: after eight. This is probably like eleven, where I had
Speaker 1: been working for several years and my parents' small business,
Speaker 1: and my parents had a rule that I had to
Speaker 1: save fifty percent of what I earned, that I could
Speaker 1: only spend half of it, that I had to save
Speaker 1: half of it. And so I had been working. They
Speaker 1: were paying me a dollar an hour. And the first
Speaker 1: thing I bought was a York's stereo was one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty seven dollars, and what I remembered is that
Speaker 1: it had all four media. I'd had a record player,
Speaker 1: it had a radio, it had a cassette, it had
Speaker 1: an eight track, and I bought it was one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty seven hours. But it was time to two
Speaker 1: because I could only spend half of it. And as
Speaker 1: my savings added up because I started working, I mean
Speaker 1: they hired me when I was eight, and as my
Speaker 1: savings added up, I had, you know, eight nine hundred
Speaker 1: dollars in savings, and I bought gold with it. I
Speaker 1: bought a gold Kruger aand you know the South African money. Look,
Speaker 1: one of our sponsors sells gold, So there you go.
Speaker 1: I was on point with our sponsors when I was
Speaker 1: a ten year old, eleven year old kid. But that
Speaker 1: next year, on the Christmas list, like number nine on
Speaker 1: the list of what I wanted was some krueger aans.
Speaker 1: And my mother to this day still finds hysterical the
Speaker 1: adjective some just you know, throw some gold coins by way,
Speaker 1: Like like, what kind of eleven year old asked for
Speaker 1: some kruger z But I'm like, I bought one? Why
Speaker 1: I did not get some or any kruger Ns for Christmas?
Speaker 1: And even more funny, it was like two stars. It
Speaker 1: wasn't nearly as cool as like a TV or whatever
Speaker 1: else I was asking for that year. You know, this
Speaker 1: is the the left's caricature of what eleven year old
Speaker 1: Ted Cruise was doing. Little eleven year old Ted Cruise
Speaker 1: investing in gold. The conservatives conservative from age. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's hardly it's hard to even know how to respond
Speaker 1: to this story. It's such a delightful mix of hilarious
Speaker 1: and nerdy. It is it does sound like your daughters
Speaker 1: or a chip off the old block, though. I mean
Speaker 1: they're ranking their Christmas presents, arguing in front of you
Speaker 1: what could basically set them up for better present success
Speaker 1: on Christmas morning. I honestly, I honestly don't know if
Speaker 1: there is anything. However, in the spirit of Christmas, we
Speaker 1: do have more gifts for our wonderful Verdict fans this
Speaker 1: time head over to YouTube. Fifteen people picked at random
Speaker 1: who leave comments on this episode that is episode one hundred.
Speaker 1: We'll get a free box of signed merch from the
Speaker 1: Verdict Merch Store. The only thing that I regret to
Speaker 1: inform you is that it won't contain gold coins. Other
Speaker 1: than that it will contain really cool merch signed by
Speaker 1: yours truly by Michael by Senator Cruz. Fifteen random people
Speaker 1: who leave comments on this episode, episode one hundred, We'll
Speaker 1: get a free box of signed merch from the Verdict
Speaker 1: Merch Store shop that is, of course the urel. If
Speaker 1: you want to see what is in the merch shop,
Speaker 1: you can go to Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com
Speaker 1: slash shop. That's pretty cool, Michael that it's extremely cool.
Speaker 1: So so Liz, let let me ask. Let's let's go
Speaker 1: under the hood. So YouTube. We have what about two
Speaker 1: hundred and ten thousand subscribers on YouTube, um, which means
Speaker 1: I also have in my office the really cool like
Speaker 1: like silver you know album thing, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you call it, but the thing they get you when
Speaker 1: you get one hundred thousand subscribers. So we've got two
Speaker 1: hundred and ten thousand. The silver play button. That's that's
Speaker 1: a big deal for the YouTuber community, the silver play button.
Speaker 1: And and and there's what's the million one? What what
Speaker 1: is it? Gold? Gold? You get the gold? All right,
Speaker 1: so we we got to get to the gold. We're
Speaker 1: two hundred ten thousand, so we'll get there, but we're
Speaker 1: not there yet. You can put that on your Christmas
Speaker 1: list this year. There we go. Now that that's number
Speaker 1: one on on my Christmas yet, Liz. But I guess
Speaker 1: the comments like feed the algorithm. So you know, you've
Speaker 1: got a bunch of commie leftists and Silicon Valley that
Speaker 1: if they had their way, we would have zero viewers.
Speaker 1: But when you comment, somehow they're mildly obliged, like more
Speaker 1: people see it, it spreads it. And I don't understand
Speaker 1: the pixie dust from Santa's elves cause more people to
Speaker 1: watch Verdict. So make your comments and say things that
Speaker 1: are interesting and fun, and fifteen of you, well, we'll
Speaker 1: get merch signed by us exactly, So you're both fighting
Speaker 1: back against big talk, making sure that we make the
Speaker 1: most of the algorithms that we face, and you get
Speaker 1: merched from Verdict. What could make for a better Christmas
Speaker 1: than that? Again, our YouTube channel is Verdict with Ted Crews.
Speaker 1: Head on over there be one of the fifteen people.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's pretty that's a pretty good odd there. Um,
Speaker 1: All right, are you ready for the next question. The
Speaker 1: next question is about family tradition. So obviously, Senator, it's
Speaker 1: a tradition in your family to rank the Christmas presents
Speaker 1: to give them ratings. But real truth, Cactus M wants
Speaker 1: to know, and she says, this is for everyone. What
Speaker 1: is your family's favorite Christmas tradition or memory? And so, Senator,
Speaker 1: let's start with you know, to be honest, my favorite
Speaker 1: thing about Christmas is just just being with family. It's
Speaker 1: like Thanksgiving Christmas from my two favorite holidays because we
Speaker 1: get our whole extended family together. When I was a kid,
Speaker 1: we would always we'd drive up to Dallas and my grandparents,
Speaker 1: my Abuelo and Abuela. They lived up in Dallas and
Speaker 1: they lived with my Thesonia, my father's kid's sister, and
Speaker 1: my cousin Babie, who's Theisonia's daughter. She lived up there,
Speaker 1: babies five years older than I am, and we were
Speaker 1: like brother and sister and we would all get together
Speaker 1: and you got a big Cuban household, and we'd have
Speaker 1: food and there'd be lots of yelling. I've joked, if
Speaker 1: a Cuban can't yell, can they speak? And I think
Speaker 1: the answers no, like like, there's no way if you
Speaker 1: had like eight or ten Cuban men in a room,
Speaker 1: they're all screaming in Spanish at the top of their
Speaker 1: lungs because it apparently they don't they can't modulate volume.
Speaker 1: We played dominoes every Christmas. The Domino's games are vigorous,
Speaker 1: they're in your face, they're competitive. Um. My father will
Speaker 1: always get out the Bible at at at the Christmas
Speaker 1: table and read read the story of Christ's birth, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know that's um. I've done that on a couple
Speaker 1: of times. My dad hasn't been at our house. But
Speaker 1: to be honest, again, look, even though I turn turned
Speaker 1: fifty one in a week. You know, Dad is still
Speaker 1: dad and so so, so that's that that that that's
Speaker 1: his responsibility. We also go do a lot of movies.
Speaker 1: So um ours is a movie going household. You know.
Speaker 1: Verdict listeners know that I'm a movie buff. But I
Speaker 1: got it honestly, I got it from my parents. My parents.
Speaker 1: Both my parents love movies. Uh. My dad actually learned
Speaker 1: English when he came from Cuban nineteen fifty seven and
Speaker 1: he came to Austin. He was a freshman at UT
Speaker 1: and he couldn't speak English. He had gotten in but
Speaker 1: he had this enormous incentive to learn English because his
Speaker 1: classes were in English, and if he didn't learn English quickly,
Speaker 1: he would flunk out of UT. And if he flunked
Speaker 1: out of UT, they would cancel a student visa. If
Speaker 1: they canceled a student visa, they'd send him back to Cuban.
Speaker 1: If he went back to Cuba, they'd kill him. So
Speaker 1: he had this intense incentive learn English quick so you
Speaker 1: don't flunk out of school. And one of the things
Speaker 1: he used to do, so he do two things. Number one,
Speaker 1: he took Spanish one oh one and he reverse engineered it.
Speaker 1: So when the professor said milk is letche, he'd go, oh,
Speaker 1: letch's milk. And he'd just like try to do everything
Speaker 1: backwards and see if he could look learn. But the
Speaker 1: other thing he would do is he'd go to the
Speaker 1: movies and he'd see the same movie three times in
Speaker 1: a row. And the human brain is amazing. So the first,
Speaker 1: you know, a few times he did it, he didn't
Speaker 1: understand any of it. But it starts too you start
Speaker 1: seeing people interact and the context and the queues. And
Speaker 1: so he loves movies. So I'll over Christmas break, I'll
Speaker 1: see several movies. I like the theater. I like being
Speaker 1: you know in the sound and I get popcorn and
Speaker 1: candy and hot dogs and and uh take the kids,
Speaker 1: and and so movies, dominoes and and playing my nephew
Speaker 1: diego one on one hoops and we play vigorous, aggressive, brutal, fouling, bloody, bruising,
Speaker 1: taunting hoops much like our dominoes games. Our dominoes games
Speaker 1: are taunting. Our hoops games are taunting. It's it's a
Speaker 1: It is a family with a lot of fun and
Speaker 1: and and a lot of good natured grief. All around.
Speaker 1: It sounds it sounds amazing. I mean I can I
Speaker 1: can almost feel the atmosphere being there. And I think
Speaker 1: I think you said it correctly. I mean, not to
Speaker 1: sound cheesy, not to sound tried it. It is about
Speaker 1: being with family and all of the little quirks and
Speaker 1: idiosyncrasies of being with the ones that you love. Michael,
Speaker 1: what what what is? What does your family do? What
Speaker 1: is your favorite memory, either either current or past. I'll
Speaker 1: give you a great memory. I mean, we have a
Speaker 1: zillion traditions and memories around Christmas. Christmas very important, not
Speaker 1: just for the Catholics, but specifically the Italian Catholics. They
Speaker 1: make a big deal, especially by Christmas Eve. So there
Speaker 1: was one year give you a sense of how politically
Speaker 1: incorrect my family is. There was one year I really
Speaker 1: wanted for Christmas a sitar, you know, like the big
Speaker 1: Indian instrument George Harry I don't know. I heard George
Speaker 1: Harrison played it or something, So I really wanted to sittar.
Speaker 1: We found it at some hippie shop in way down
Speaker 1: in southern New Jersey. My mother knew I really wanted it.
Speaker 1: We didn't have a ton of money, but my grandmother
Speaker 1: agreed to buy it if my mother would drive down
Speaker 1: four and a half hours, pick it up, drive back
Speaker 1: four and a half hours, bring it to her. I
Speaker 1: had no clue that this was happening at all, and
Speaker 1: it's in my grandmother's house. We go there, huge meal,
Speaker 1: lots of people, all screaming Italians. As is often the
Speaker 1: case in an Italian household, younger people drink a little
Speaker 1: bit of wine at Christmas. So there's thirteen, fourteen year
Speaker 1: old Michael. I'm having, you know, a glass or two
Speaker 1: of wine. I'm just feeling great, and my grandmother emerges.
Speaker 1: My little Sicilian grandmother emerges where a full Indian sorry
Speaker 1: that she had picked up on a trip in the seventies.
Speaker 1: She's got a dot in the middle of her head.
Speaker 1: She would be canceled if there were photos of this
Speaker 1: incident and presents me with this citar. We would all
Speaker 1: be canceled if there were any evidence of this. But
Speaker 1: it did really bring together so many aspects, the wild family,
Speaker 1: everyone being together, even the gifts, that there was so
Speaker 1: much thought put into this gift. And of course I
Speaker 1: got a real kick out of the abject political correctness.
Speaker 1: That's something something about those conservative Italian families. So do
Speaker 1: you still have the star and can you play it
Speaker 1: on the podcast? I absolutely have the citar. I actually
Speaker 1: just ordered strings for it, Senator and it. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: going to be the two hundredth episode spectacular, is it?
Speaker 1: We'll just start playing some Rabbi Shan cartoon. We can
Speaker 1: have belly dancing. Who knows? Who knows? People have to
Speaker 1: subscribe to get us that far. I was going to
Speaker 1: ask the exact same question. It's hard to even know
Speaker 1: what to do with the two of you. These are
Speaker 1: so they're so nerdy, so dorky. But maybe I found
Speaker 1: my people because one of my favorite Christmas memories is
Speaker 1: when I was about eleven or twelve, I asked for
Speaker 1: a unicycle for Christmas. My parents got me a unicycle.
Speaker 1: I taught myself how to ride it. I then taught
Speaker 1: my sisters how to ride it, and we would ride
Speaker 1: in parades, ride or unicycles and parades, calling ourselves the
Speaker 1: three one wheelers, because who can resist? Who can resist
Speaker 1: a bad pun such as that? Yes, yes, I see
Speaker 1: your face, Michael, I can see that. Listen. It was
Speaker 1: it was a great time. It was a great time
Speaker 1: my childhood. Um so Liz, did you have the did
Speaker 1: you have the short short unicycles or the tall ones?
Speaker 1: Are both? Um, the short ones so it's probably about
Speaker 1: four feet three or four feet, so you're pretty much
Speaker 1: off the ground. But it wasn't the giraffe unicycles I did.
Speaker 1: I did, to be fair, I did ask for one
Speaker 1: of those, but that was a bridge too far even
Speaker 1: for my mom to, you know, put me up twenty
Speaker 1: feet on one wheel, so just the regular I could
Speaker 1: ride backwards though. That was kind of that was kind
Speaker 1: of my trick that I liked to do. The last
Speaker 1: time I went to my parents, I did think about
Speaker 1: trying it again, but being that was a little bit postpartum,
Speaker 1: I thought maybe I shouldn't get up on the top
Speaker 1: of that and try a trick. But I'd learned twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. Yeah, I'm feeling really lame. Before I was
Speaker 1: feeling like historically ignorant. Now I'm feeling untalented as well,
Speaker 1: because we're going to have a subsequient episode where Michael's
Speaker 1: playing the star, You're riding a uni cycle, and I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here threatening to sue people like I. Senator, Well,
Speaker 1: you were wasting all of that time at Harvard Law
Speaker 1: School learning constitutional law. You could have been doing something
Speaker 1: productive like learning an ancient Indian guitar, were riding the unicycle.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are the regrets that people have in
Speaker 1: their lives. Indeed, misspent youth. This question, by the way,
Speaker 1: was asked by Real Truth Cactus, and I want to
Speaker 1: give credit work credit to our next giveaway, our next
Speaker 1: Christmas gift was this was Real Truth Cactus's idea, so
Speaker 1: we can thank her for this. And this is really funny.
Speaker 1: So if we get to fifty thousand reviews on Apple
Speaker 1: podcasts by our anniversary date that inaugural the date of
Speaker 1: the inaugural episode January twenty first, fifty thousand review on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, we will let the fans pick what we
Speaker 1: do next year. Now these are the options. Are you
Speaker 1: ready for these options? Real Trius Cactus just hit the
Speaker 1: nail on the head with this one Senator. The Senator
Speaker 1: wears a Braves jersey for an entire episode. That's option
Speaker 1: number one. Option number two is the Senator and Michael
Speaker 1: arm wrestle. Option three is the Cactus makes a guest
Speaker 1: appearance on the show right here on the pod. Or
Speaker 1: four Michael roasts Princeton and the Senator roasts Yale in
Speaker 1: a throwdown episode. If we get to fifty thousand reviews
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcast by January twenty first, people, I beg
Speaker 1: of you. I mean, as you can see, this would
Speaker 1: be a very enjoyable episode for me and for you,
Speaker 1: if not for Michael and the Senator. Let's do this, please,
Speaker 1: let's do this well. I will say, on the fourth
Speaker 1: one of roasting Yale versus Princeton, I kind of feel
Speaker 1: like taking candy from a baby, that that's not really fair.
Speaker 1: It is a horribly skewed playing field. Senator. I would
Speaker 1: I would have to resist that. I would have to
Speaker 1: fight you on that question, except that a few years
Speaker 1: ago there was a case of a Yale student screaming
Speaker 1: at the top of her lungs that Yale is not
Speaker 1: an intellectual place, it is a place of comfort and home,
Speaker 1: and the university sided with her. So it's gonna I
Speaker 1: hope it's not number four. I'm gonna be It's gonna
Speaker 1: be an uphill battle. So Michael, when you say fight,
Speaker 1: did you mean arm wrestle, Well that might be an
Speaker 1: uphill battle too. I'm you know, I don't know. We'll
Speaker 1: see how that shakes out. You've you've got youth, but
Speaker 1: uh but but but you know, I may have a
Speaker 1: few pounds on you, Michael, so so so we'll see
Speaker 1: how that, how that shakes out. I will say on
Speaker 1: the first suggestion of the Braves jersey, oddly enough, bizarrely enough,
Speaker 1: I have worn a Braves jersey precisely once in my life.
Speaker 1: So fifty almost fifty one years of life, I've worn
Speaker 1: a Braves jersey once. And the day on which I
Speaker 1: or the Braves jersey was today. So in the World Series,
Speaker 1: I had a wager with John oss Off, newly elected
Speaker 1: senator from George on the World Series. I actually went
Speaker 1: and proposed it to John when the World Series started, said, look,
Speaker 1: let's have a wager. The loser has to buy food
Speaker 1: for the staff of the other and where the jersey
Speaker 1: of of of the winning team. And I pointed out
Speaker 1: that I had done the same thing with with Kamala
Speaker 1: Harris and she she had to show up at an
Speaker 1: Astro's jersey, which was awesome. And then I did the
Speaker 1: same thing with Tim Kaine when when the Nationals beat
Speaker 1: beat the Astros and I had to painfully don a
Speaker 1: National's jersey It's very funny. Ass Off was fine with
Speaker 1: the food, but he was really nervous. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: if I were an Astro's jersey, that that that could
Speaker 1: like cost me several points at the polls, right, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, that's a plus two. But I was like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, I you know, Kamala did it. You know,
Speaker 1: so I will say I did it today. Um, But
Speaker 1: but I did it under protest. That's you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: you might have been following the letter of the law, Senator,
Speaker 1: but that seems to violate the spirit of the law
Speaker 1: if you're wearing the astro's hat. So I didn't actually
Speaker 1: wear the astros had. I just wore the jersey. But
Speaker 1: I brought in Chritz's barbecue. I flew in barbecue from
Speaker 1: Texas all the way up here and fed all of
Speaker 1: the ass Off staffers and wore the jersey. So so
Speaker 1: if that that wins the thing, I might might have
Speaker 1: to wear this hat too. But but I did wear
Speaker 1: a jersey today to pay up on my wager. A
Speaker 1: man of his word, And this kind of coincidence you
Speaker 1: can't design, because I did not even come into this
Speaker 1: episode knowing that fact. Um, and nor did real truth
Speaker 1: Cactus to my knowledge. By the way, just to remind
Speaker 1: everyone how the mc panics of this work, go over
Speaker 1: to Apple Podcasts, leave a five star review, write a
Speaker 1: comment telling us, of course how glorious the show is,
Speaker 1: get us up to fifty thousand views, and then once
Speaker 1: this happens, go over to Verdict plus. That's Verdict with
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz dot com slash plus and vote in the
Speaker 1: poll to see exactly what you would like to see happen.
Speaker 1: Would you like to see the Senator in a braves jersey?
Speaker 1: Would you like to see an arm wrestling match between
Speaker 1: Michael and the Senator? Would you like the Cactus to
Speaker 1: make a guest appearance on the show. Or would you
Speaker 1: like a mutual roast Michael roasting Princeton and the Senator
Speaker 1: roasting Yale? Those are the options. This seems like a
Speaker 1: pretty good, a pretty good Christmas episode, Michael. So let
Speaker 1: me let me jump in on two things. Number one. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the goal is to get to fifty thousand reviews
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. And it's the same thing because it's
Speaker 1: part of their magical algorithm or algae rhythm, as they
Speaker 1: said in the Terrible Rebake of Space jam. But so
Speaker 1: we got to get to fifty thousand by January twenty First,
Speaker 1: where are we now? Are we close? We can do it.
Speaker 1: Let's say that it's it's doable. We can do it
Speaker 1: if we if we commit, We're at about thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand over the course of the last almost two years.
Speaker 1: But listen, with this kind of incentive, we can get
Speaker 1: this done. I for one, really really want to see
Speaker 1: an arm wrestling match. So I highly encourage everyone who's
Speaker 1: watching and listening to this episode please go rate, give
Speaker 1: us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts. Please write
Speaker 1: a comment. Please then choose, And this is my bias.
Speaker 1: I know that I'm I'm creating bias in this poll.
Speaker 1: Please choose the arm wrestling match. Oh and by the way, Liz,
Speaker 1: I will say on Verdict Plus, if you're disagreeable and
Speaker 1: contrary and you don't like any of the four choices,
Speaker 1: provide a fifth. We're spontaneous, we're flexible. If you've got
Speaker 1: an idea that you think is a better one than that,
Speaker 1: throw it out there. And if a bunch of folks
Speaker 1: on Verdict plus like it, and if it does not
Speaker 1: entail Michael and the nude, then then then we'll consider it,
Speaker 1: and thank you, sir, I appreciate that I was actually
Speaker 1: going to suggest it. I don't you know, listen, I'm
Speaker 1: a free spirit, I'm hip, I'm cool. But yes, please
Speaker 1: everyone submit your suggestions. It's funny it occurs to me
Speaker 1: that we began the show today with me complaining about
Speaker 1: how we have too many ads, and now we've had
Speaker 1: a bunch of ads, but they're not ads for anything
Speaker 1: other really than offering a bunch of free stuff. As
Speaker 1: a note of gratitude to all of you. Seriously, we're
Speaker 1: so so grateful to all of the listeners who've been
Speaker 1: with us for hundred episodes. We really really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We wish everyone a very merry Christmas from me, from Liz,
Speaker 1: from Senator Cruz, most importantly from the Cactus. So really,
Speaker 1: thank thank you all. We will see you next time.
Speaker 1: I'm Michael Knowles. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. So
Speaker 1: I tried to get them great and powerful Jay Hay
Speaker 1: to drop Cactus on the Vesta board for this little,
Speaker 1: this little bit that we're doing, but he could not produce.
Speaker 1: So let me just tell you we have a twenty
Speaker 1: percent off sale on the Verdict merch store. Right now,
Speaker 1: you can get one of those sweet sweet cactus hats.
Speaker 1: I would put one on for you to model it,
Speaker 1: but I'm a little vain of my hair today. I
Speaker 1: think I'm having a pretty good hair day, so I
Speaker 1: didn't want to mess it up. But go over to
Speaker 1: Verdict with Ted Cruise dot com slash shop and if
Speaker 1: you use the promo code Santa, then you will get
Speaker 1: twenty percent off the entire shop between now and Christmas.
Speaker 1: Twenty percent off. That's a really good deal. We have
Speaker 1: T shirts, we have cactus merch, we have hats, we
Speaker 1: have all kinds of cool stuff over there. Between now
Speaker 1: and Christmas, you get the great deal twenty percent off.
Speaker 1: If you use the promo code Santa. Then, I don't know.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, maybe the Great Powerful j he will
Speaker 1: figure out how to put a T shirt or a
Speaker 1: cactus on the Vesta board. But while he's figuring that out,
Speaker 1: I invite you join us Verdict with Ted Cruise dot
Speaker 1: com slash shop to buy really cool merch. You get
Speaker 1: twenty percent off if you use the promo code Santa
Speaker 1: at checkout. That's actually pretty good. This episode of Verdict
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