Author: The Daily Signal

Jason Beardsley served his country in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army Special Forces before taking the helm as executive director of the Association of the United States Navy. Today, he’s speaking out to urge military leaders to focus on their primary mission of defending America—not advancing the left’s woke agenda.

Beardsley recently wrote a commentary for The Daily Signal about the challenges of readiness and morale in the U.S. Navy. “Wokeness is well on its way to poisoning our military, even as it claims the military is moving toward utopia,” Beardsley says.

He tells The Daily Signal that his own military experience taught him radical ideas like critical race theory have no place in our armed forces.

“In a firefight,” Beardsley says, “the one question that never occurred to me was, ‘Do I have enough black guys on the guns down behind me?’ Or, ‘Do I have enough Puerto Ricans on this side?’ Nobody cares. We want talented service members who honor the flag and respect the heritage of this country.”

Following his military service, Beardsley co-founded and was CEO of a patriotic clothing company called The Underground Movement. He tells The Daily Signal about his love of America and the work he’s doing at the Association of the United States Navy. Listen to the interview or read a lightly edited transcript below.

Also on today's show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a brand new patriotic song written and produced by a high school teacher. Listen to the song here.

Enjoy the show!

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Rob O’Donnell is a former New York City Police Department detective who was involved with the response to, and rescue efforts in, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, as well as the response to 9/11.

He joins "The Daily Signal Podcast” to talk about the 4th of July, patriotism, the contempt some show for the American flag, and how he would encourage Americans to embrace patriotism. 

"We promised on the 4th of July to become a more perfect union, and each American owes it to this nation to do their part to make this country a better union, to make us a better nation, to make us a better people, to make us the shining light of the world, which we are," O'Donnell says.

"There's no doubt we are. It falls on dark times lately with all the rhetoric that goes on, but it's up to the individual citizen of America, the person who lives here, the people who came here to make this their country, to pay into that philosophy that we are a more perfect union and we strive to be more perfect union."

We also cover these stories:

• The Supreme Court upholds two of Arizona’s election-integrity laws.
• The high court also rules in favor of charities against California's attempt to compel them to disclose their donors to the state's attorney general.
• President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit the site of the Miami condo collapse. 

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Loudoun County, Virginia, has become the nucleus of a growing movement of parents and educators united against teaching Critical Race Theory, a philosophy that categorizes individuals into groups of oppressors and victims based on their race, in school.

Michael Rivera, a father of two from Loudoun County, is an outspoken advocate against Critical Race Theory and other proposed leftist policies coming from the Loudoun County school board.

"As I delve more into the actual academic writings of critical race theory, it gets more and more concerning and scarier because it doesn't seem like there is any point at which there is atonement for being an oppressor," Rivera says "or if there is any way to resolve the issues that are supposed to be systematic without essentially tearing down all of the social constructs and all of the norms and government and education."

Rivera joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss how leftist policies have affected him and his children, as well as what he and other parents are doing to fight back.

We also cover these stories:

• The Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky says that fully vaccinated people are protected against the COVID-19 variants and do not need to wear a mask.
• President Joe Biden issues directives on addressing wildfires in the West announcing that the administration will have annual briefings as wildfire season starts.
• Four more bodies are found in the rubble of the Miami condo collapse.
• The Miss Nevada crown is given to a person who identifies as transgender for the first time.

Enjoy the show!

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As the media goes, so goes the nation, to borrow from the old adage. 

The cultural influence of media—including movies, TV shows, and YouTube videos—is being felt with greater significance today than arguably any other time in history. James Fitzgerald founded ColdWater Media to promote the values so many Americans hold dear. 

The political “left has done a really good job of building business models around indoctrinating our kids,” Fitzgerald says. 

Fitzgerald uses film to explore some of the biggest issues and questions facing culture today, covering topics ranging from history and philosophy to education and economics. He joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the mission of ColdWater Media and some of the company's latest projects, including a series sharing the history of all the American holidays.

Today's show also features an interview with John Papola, the CEO, creative director, and cofounder of the media company Emergent Order. Papola explains how he uses rap, humor, and storytelling to communicate American values through film.

We also cover these stories:

• California Attorney General Rob Bonta says the state will no longer fund travel to Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota, or West Virginia, arguing that these states have taken harmful actions against the LGBT community.
• Los Angeles County asks that people wear masks indoors and in public places due to the spreading of the delta variant of the coronavirus. 
• Lawmakers criticize U.S. athlete Gwen Berry for turning her back to the American flag during the singing of the National Anthem at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

Enjoy the show!

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As a teenager, Ken Williams walked into a Christian bookstore looking for resources to help him overcome his same-sex attraction. He found none. 

Now, years later, Williams has authored “The Journey Out: How I Followed Jesus Away From Gay” to help other individuals seeking to leave homosexuality or struggling with same-sex attraction. 

The “book is for those that want a way out … ,” Williams says. “I'm not speaking to the people that are content with an LGBTQ life. But there are so many that are not fulfilled with that. It doesn't scratch the itch. And so for those that it's like, ‘This feels impossible. I feel disconnected from God over it,’ I'm telling you, it does not have to be that way.” 

Today, Williams is married with four children and is passionate about helping others find the freedom they desire. 

Williams is also a pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, California, and leads the Changed Movement with Elizabeth Woning, a Christian organization that works with people who are seeking to leave a homosexual lifestyle.

Williams joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share his personal story and to explain how Christians can support those struggling with same-sex attraction. 

We also cover these stories: 

• Former President Donald Trump has harsh words for his former attorney general, William Barr.
• The Supreme Court says it won't hear a case appealing a lower court’s decision involving bathroom access for a since-graduated transgender student. 
• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says he has a plan to crack down on Big Tech companies. 

Enjoy the show!

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Growing up in Silicon Valley, Martin Avila taught himself how to be a computer programmer and started a website development company when he was in high school. Even then, his politics didn't mesh with the dominant far-left ideas of California's tech hub.

Today, he's offering customers an an alternative in the marketplace of internet services—from application development to web hosting. His company is called RightForge, and it's a much-needed alternative at a time when Americans increasingly find themselves deplatformed and censored by Big Tech.

"I've got friends who are like, 'We need to rebuild Salesforce. We need to rebuild MailChimp.' And I said, 'That's exactly right. We do.' But in order to stand up those things, we needed the hard infrastructure," Avila says. "And that's what RightForge is. It's the ability for those companies to be created on the hard assets distributed across the globe."

Avila spoke to The Daily Signal about his plans for RightForge and why he's optimistic about marketplace solutions to Big Tech behemoths.

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How can the culture of the current news cycle—never ending and never positive—be tempered?

Jonathan Grella, the founder of JAG Public Affairs and Daily Malarkey, has some ideas.

"We really think that there is a place in the market for 'snark brevity,' as we call it. Like Axios coined the phrase, 'smart brevity,' and we do 'snark brevity,'" Grella said.

"There's a lot of competition for people's attention nowadays. So, you've got to be quick and to the point and in order to get and keep people's attention, you have to be creative and clever. So, we bring those couple of things together."

"It's not terribly difficult to come up with inspirations for our daily email blast because there's just a deluge of malarkey out there that we can opine on and poke fun at," Grella adds.

We also cover these stories:

• The New York Supreme Court has suspended the law license of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, saying that the former mayor made “demonstrably false and misleading statements” when he was representing former President Donald Trump in his efforts to contest the 2020 presidential election. 
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that House Democrats will soon create a special congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6th capitol riot. 
• A judge in Florida is halting a $4 billion relief program from the Biden administration for farmers that leaves out farmers who are white. 

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It is no secret that the far left has infiltrated higher education. But Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, says his organization is doing all it can to expose the spread of woke ideology on America's college campuses.

The National Association of Scholars operates a cancel culture tracker to document each time a faculty member at a college or university is canceled by his or her employer. The group now has tracked hundreds of cases, Wood says.

"We decided once the numbers started to pile up that it would be a good thing to have one place where we can go to see how often this is happening," Wood says. "Virtually every week we get approached by another faculty member at some college or university saying, 'What can I do?'"

Wood joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to explain the biggest issues he sees in higher education and what can be done to resolve them. He also discusses why the University of North Carolina denied tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of The New York Times' controversial 1619 Project.

We also cover these stories:

• Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border as vice president on Friday. 
• The Supreme Court sides with a high school cheerleader in an important free speech case.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says the state's schools will teach children about the evils of communism. 

Enjoy the show!

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What is “wokeness” in America today? How did we get here? 

Are "woke" corporations a threat to this country? What risk do we run if we don’t push back? 

Vivek Ramaswamy, the author of the forthcoming book "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam," joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss wokeness and the dangers it poses to American society and beyond.

"If wokeism is a religion, then an employer can no longer force that religion down the throat of their employees any more than they could force down Christianity or Islam or any other religion. So, then, that raises the question of, well, 'Is wokeism a religion or not?'" Ramaswamy said.

"And I think on the facts, the answer is abundantly clear ... . There are certain words you can't say, certain clothes you can't wear, certain apologies you must recite, and an excommunication that follows, whether or not you recite it," he added.

We also cover these stories:

• The White House says it won't meet President Joe Biden’s coronavirus vaccine goal of vaccinating 70% of American adults by Independence Day on July 4. 
• In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., reaffirms her stance on retaining the Senate filibuster.
• Black Lives Matter is criticizing Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., for his membership in a reportedly all-white beach club. 

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Amy Lannom Wilhite is executive director at 2ndVote, which keeps track of major companies' positions on social issues such as the transgender agenda.

"You wouldn't support [certain positions] at the ballot box with a candidate that you vote for, so why would you spend your dollars there?" asks Wilhite, who joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to talk about how her organization helps Americans make consumer decisions based on their convictions.

"We say your first vote is at the ballot box and your second vote is with your wallet," Wilhite says. "It's the power of what you have in your pocket and with the money that you spend. And we want to educate consumers so that they can shop their values [and] so that we can make change with all the corporate activism that's going on."

We also cover these stories:

• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy calls for China to be held accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic. 
• In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court rules against the NCAA on the question of paying student athletes. 
• New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is set to be the first transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics. 

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