The Dan Bongino Show - Ep. 884 The Government IS Your Problem

Episode Date: January 1, 2019

In this episode I address the specifics of the debunked anti-Trump dossier point by point. I also address our growing deficit and debt problem and what it means for your wallet. Finally, I address three current news stories which collectively show that government is awful at “solving problems.”    News Picks: The Steele dossier debunked point by point.    Three years in and the Paris climate agreement is already failing.   Facebook takes action against users for calling accused cop killer an illegal alien.    Here’s an economic outlook report for 2019.   The liberal media is now accusing Trump of lying about being at the White House.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

get ready to hear the truth about america on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host dan bongino all right welcome to the dan bongino show and a big happy new year uh joe how are you today buddy happy new year yeah there we go very nice everybody had a good time stay out late last night uh yeah i hope everybody got home safely. Last night's one of the worst nights of the year for DWIs and DUIs for obvious reasons. So I bought a new microphone. Me and Joe were just talking about it. It's my first new microphone in a long time, an RE20 mic. These things are unbelievable.

And the mail lady left it in the mailbox for a couple days in Florida. And you know that sucker, you can't beat these things, these RE20 mics. These things, Joe, as you say, you throw them against the wall, hammer nails with them. Yeah, they're great. So I didn't tell you that off the air, Joe. Yeah, it sat in my mailbox,

but it's working just fine. First new mic since we got the show. So super stoked, all new equipment, all new studio, big surprise coming. Big surprise is coming for you very soon in 2019. You'll be happy to hear about it. All right, today's show brought to you by our buddies at Lending Club. All right, today's show brought to you by our buddies

at Lending Club. For decades, credit cards have been telling us buy now, pay later with interest. And despite your best intentions, that interest can get out of control fast. With Lending Club,

you can consolidate your debt or pay off credit cards with one fixed monthly payment. Since 2007, Lending Club has helped millions of people regain control of their finances with affordable, fixed rate, personal loans. No trips to a bank, no high-interest credit cards. Just go to LendingClub.com, tell them about yourself and how much you want to borrow,

pick the terms that are right for you, and if you're approved, your loan is automatically deposited into your bank account in as little as a few days. Nice. Nice. Lending Club is the number one peer-to-peer lending platform with over $35 billion in loans issued. Here's what we do. Here's how we handle this. Go to LendingClub.com slash Dan. That's LendingClub.com slash Dan.

Check your rate in minutes and borrow up to $40,000. That's LendingClub.com slash Dan. LendingClub.com slash Dan. They're the spot for you. All loans made by WebB bank member fdic equal housing lender okay i saw a really a terrific piece excuse me in the washington times uh that just is a you know we've been talking about the entire year joe i thought about this the dossier and everything and uh we've rarely discussed what is actually in it so i just wanted to write we you know and i i'm a little

disappointed in myself because it's crap i never felt any need to really dig into some of the some of you've heard of the pp dossier and the other nonsense in there and it's so ridiculous and i never really felt the need to dig into it but you know i should have done this before i don't know why we didn't write this piece of my own website there's a piece up at the washington times it'll be in the show notes today, that addresses the specific allegations in the dossier, and basically how none of it's true at all. And I thought, you know, this would

be good to take 10-15 minutes and actually address what's in it, how it's crap, and why you should actually ignore it. So it's a really good piece. I got that and some other stories. By the way, our YouTube channel, which has just since been verified, thanks to all the counterfeiters out there stealing our stuff dude get fraudsters that were getting me upset our channel's been verified and we have a best of up there which is our most listened to

episode ever joe what do you think it was take a stab 728 6 Yes, yes, that's what you meant to say. Yes, the famous episode 628, which kicked off the Spygate saga. So if you want to go back and listen to it, it's under Best Of on our YouTube channel. My wife put it up, so go check that out. Okay, so getting to this Washington Times report. It's really great.

Let me quote the piece. Michael Isikoff, who was the Yahoo News reporter, was the first person to write about the dossier. And let's mistake this guy is no fan of donald j trump um his book was a russian roulette with david corn was basically an indictment of donald trump where he took a lot of shots at him in that book so isikoff is no fan but he gave an interview to a guy i i'm not a big fan of this guy john ziegler who's always taking shots at mark levin uh because he's jealous of mark levin but seriously but he did give an interview to him. And in that interview, this is Mike Elissacoff. This is how this whole thing starts off.

Remember, this is the first guy at Yahoo News, the first guy to write about the dossier from Yahoo News. He says, listen, when you actually get into the details of the Steele dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them. We have not seen the evidence to support them. And in fact, there's good grounds to believe that some of the more sensational allegations will never be proven and are likely false. Okay. We already knew that part. Now,

even worse, the piece goes on. Isikoff, Joe, his best friends with fusion GPS is co-founder Glenn Simpson, who hired Mr. Steele in May and June of 2016 with money funneled to a law firm by Hillary Clinton's team. Isikoff was one of a handful of mainstream journalists who met with Mr. Steele in Washington and arranged as arranged by Mr. Simpson.

I'm only setting you up this way because Isikoff, who was the first one to write about the dossier in Yahoo News, has absolutely no reason to discredit his own book and his own buddy by saying the dossier is likely false. So they go into some of these allegations in The Washington Times piece and they debunk them in the dossier. And we're going to go through them. This will just take a few minutes, but it's important we go through this. Accusation number one in the dossier, that the Trump campaign was a partner in an extensive conspiracy with the Kremlin to interfere in the 2016 election. Yeah. Yeah. Keep that buzzer. I like that. Here it says today. In other words, here's what we know today. There is no confirmed public evidence. No Trump person has been charged in such a conspiracy. Mr. Mueller's office informed President Trump that he is not a target. Accusation number two, dose. attorney michael cohen secretly traveled to

prague we already know about this one to meet with putin aides to organize payments to hush up hackers who infiltrated the democrat party computers today there is no confirmed public evidence cohen who has pled guilty to tax evasion charges and is cooperating with Mueller, still vehemently denies he ever went to Prague. No court filings indicate he has any knowledge of Trump collusion. And he has said he does not. Accusation number three, trace. Carter Page met with two Putin operatives and discussed a brokerage fee in return for pushing an end to U.S. sanctions on wealthy Russians and businesses. Today, pro-Russia energy investor Mr. Page embarked on perhaps the most suspicious course of action when he traveled to Moscow to deliver a public college speech in July of 2016.

He worked in Moscow as a Merrill Lynch banker. in July of 2016. He worked in Moscow as a Merrill Lynch banker. Yet the FBI wiretapped him for one year based largely on the dossier and no evidence has emerged publicly that he has ever met with Putin people or discussed bribes. He has told the FBI and Congress that he didn't.

He has not been charged. Accusation number four, Quattro. Mr. Page and campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked as a team to coordinate election interference with the Kremlin. No public evidence to support this scenario exists. The two say they don't know each other and have never spoken. Manafort stands convicted of tax fraud and other charges.

Mr. Mueller has made no court filing indicating he's involved in a Russian conspiracy. Accusation number five, Cinco. Mr. Trump actively supported ongoing computer hacking. Today, there is no public evidence of that. Accusation number six, SACE. The Trump team paid russian hackers there is no public evidence of that mr muller has brought indictments against the russian intelligence officers who did the hacking and stole emails released by wikileaks there is no

indication however that the funding came from the trump people. Accusation number seven. Siete. Pardon my awful Spanish. Mr. Trump maintained an eight-year relationship with Kremlin operatives in a quid pro quo intelligence sharing. Today, there is no public evidence.

Almost done. This is the dossier. Forgive me for never getting to this before. This is key stuff. Russian entrepreneur Alexei Gubarev, owner of computer server provider the dossier i forgive me for never getting to this before this is key stuff russian entrepreneur alexei guberev owner of computer server provider xbt holding hacked the democrats under pressure from moscow intelligence agencies today there is no public evidence mr guberev's attorneys say no

u.s authority has asked to interview him the The Mueller indictment against Russian hackers doesn't even mention XBT. There you go, folks. There is the dossier debunked and destroyed in a nutshell. And that took half the time I thought. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. I don't know why we haven't done that before. I mean, my guess is that I always assumed you all understood it was garbage,

but it's probably good to go through what was actually contained in it, the key accusations, and systematically buzz them like Joe just did. That was great. I didn't tell him to do that. And it was fun. Yeah, I know you like it. Joe loves the drops. By the way, you're killing it with the drops.

I was at this charity event this weekend. I'm in Naples for Operation 300. Thank you to all the people who showed up and gave me really kind words and nice things to say. I want you to know it means a lot to me. I hope you don't think for a minute that I gaff any of that off. Whenever you look me in the eye and tell me that stuff, it really impacts me deeply. I know he's

genuinely touched by it. But Joe, I was there this weekend. You have no idea how many people love your drops, man. We had a couple Chewbacca fans. We had a ton of Mother Meatloaf fans. And I can't even tell you how many Joey Bag of Donuts. Not really a drop per se, but man, people are coming up to me out of nowhere. Hey, that's Joey Bag of Donuts.

He's good. He's always good, Joey. That's the best part of Joey Bag of Donuts. All right. Thank you. Yesterday, I said I was going to talk about a um daily signal story about five ways we are worse off financially i don't mean to again start off 2019 on a bad note i i have another article about some positive economic news in the show notes today i think

we're going to do okay and growth this year um and donald trump is still the president thankfully but again folks in order to get our arms around the problem, we have to understand what the problem is. My show does not do Pollyanna let's roast s'mores and do liberalism emotional nonsense. I believe in the truth and sometimes the truth hurts. The article's a good one. I'm going to discuss four of them because I think the fifth

one is kind of just a repeat of some of the other stuff. Here are four ways, and you can read the article in yesterday's show notes. We are in really bad shape financially as a country and things we need to get our arms around quickly. Number one, Joe, the interest on our debt this year is going to be $371 billion. Now I understand by telling you that, that these numbers, relatively speaking, don't mean anything to a lot of people listening. It's not that you don't, you understand what I'm saying. It's just, you've been inundated with, with doom and gloom about the debt for so long

that if I told you it was 7,000, uh, you know, uh, uh, $7,000 per person, it, it doesn't, maybe that would make more sense. I don't, I don't know how to like categorize the numbers to make it deeply impact you. So the interest on the debt is $371 billion. That means that's 1,000, the interest on the debt, $1,100 per person you paid. And just interest, you didn't pay the debt down. Interest on the debt last year alone was $1,100 per person. It's the only way I can categorize the figures in a kind of a mental spreadsheet for you to make it make sense to you that each person, each American citizen, not each American taxpayer, each American citizen will wind up paying at some point in the interest on the debt last year alone, $1,100. That's a lot of money. Number two, the deficit last year was $779 billion.

This is an astronomical amount of money. The Republicans get no pass because they're in the Congress. And as I said, my only objection to what we've done so far in the presidency is signing that bill. We should not have signed that bill. And the government shut down now and the president should stick to it until he gets some sensible budget measure put forth. The deficit $779 billion last year, meaning last year alone you paid $1,100 in interest on the debt

and added $2,300 in additional debt per person in the United States. Now you may say, again, I struggle with the numbers, not because they don't mean anything to me, but because I'm not sure they mean anything to a lot of Americans out there. Because they just say, oh, well, you know what? I don't really owe that money. No, you do. No, you do. You owe that money.

You are a citizen of a sovereign government that has taken out debt in your name. Every single debt is repaid by the debtor or the creditor. Either the people who lend us money will pay the debt because they'll never get their money back, or the people who borrowed the money will pay it back or their kids every debt is paid there's no question about that is a tautological statement remember too you may say oh so what so it's a lot of foreign governments it is but that's not the majority of that the majority of that is the american taxpayer americans who've lent the government money people who've invested in bonds treasury bills a lot of intra-governmental debt meaning money taken out of your social security fund to pay for that you're gonna pay and i just

want you to understand that that your politicians it's not your fault a lot of you didn't vote for any of this you've been voting for republicans for years hoping that they'd get a lid on this stuff they didn't but i do want you to understand that this debt is very real and the dc swamp rats have sold you out and last year alone added another 2300 to your bill in addition to 1100 in interest there was 4.1 trillion dollars last year in total government spending obviously 779 billion dollars more than we had therefore that's why we had the deficit last year 779 billion another 2300 hit to your wallet and again you will pay and then they may say oh yeah i mean i hear some people say well what if you know so what a couple

trillion we don't give back to the chinese and the Japanese and others. Ladies and gentlemen, all debts are paid. All. You may say, what do we care if a bunch of foreign investors don't get their money back? Because folks, when they don't get their money back, for us to get money from foreigners in the future to finance this profligate government, Social Security, Medicare, whatever,

we're going to have to pay extraordinarily high interest rates because everybody's going to feel like they're not getting their money back because we didn't pay back the other foreign governments and foreigners that lent us money. All debts are paid in no way out of this. You understand that, right? No way out. They say, so what? We have to pay higher interest to attract money into the country for the risk.

What's the big deal? The big deal is those interest rates are going to filter their way through the economy and borrowing for a car or borrowing for a house or borrowing for education is going to come out of your wallet this there's no every debt is paid you will pay these politicians and swamp rodents have forced this upon you your wallet your wallet and your future will be lighter because of what they did. One way or another, it comes out of our pockets. One way or another. It doesn't matter.

One way or another, you got worked. Worked. Worked. It's like that RuPaul song. You better work. You got worked. You got worked. Big song. You better work. You got worked. You got worked. Big time.

Whereas my mother-in-law would say, big time. You got worked big time. Shout out to my mother-in-law. She's the best. She likes it when I give her shout outs on the show. My mother-in-law's the best. She's awesome. She's like the hardest working woman I know. I love her. She likes when I give her shout outs.

She's the best. Isn't she great? You met her, right? Oh, yeah. She's awesome. know. I love her. She likes when I give her shit. She's the best. Isn't she great? You met her, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's awesome. Very nice. You can't beat her, man. She refuses to stop working. She comes over to my house.

We're like, Miriam, please sit down for a minute. For two seconds. She'll cook. She'll clean everything. It's like, please sit down. Take a break. You earned it. Okay, moving on.

Our total accumulated debt is now $21.8 trillion. Not 2.18, not.218, $21.8 trillion. That is $66,000 for every American citizen. I'm not laughing. It's not funny. It's not funny. It's not. And keep in mind, we're adding about $3,000 a year in new debt and interest. What's the average American salary?

A median or mean? I don't know. Somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe $45,000 to $50,000? Yeah, something like that. Somewhere in that ballpark? That's about $16,000, 16 000 15 000 more or so than the average salary you owe that you you want you will pay as joe said one way or another you're paying this is don't i just don't want you to think that because you haven't suffered yet under high

interest rates people don't feel it we will pay now as I've said to you, I'll leave it at that because the fifth one's kind of just a reiteration of all this stuff. With solid economic growth, 3% to 5% economic growth over an extended period of time, national income grows. In order for national income to grow, personal incomes have to grow. So if personal incomes were to double over the next 10 to 15 years, and we even got a lid on spending, that $66,000, you will pay wouldn't be wouldn't be as deeply impactful on your wallet as it is in the average salary today which is probably 45 to 50 000 you get

what i'm saying and that's why economic growth and the trump deregulatory tax cut economic freedom agenda is so important because ladies and gentlemen there's no way out of this other than to grow you understand that there is no we cannot possibly pay this off if you can folks my show has done very well thanks to you joe and i have had a life-changing experience due to the loyalty and goodwill prayers and listenership of this audience. I mean it. Yeah, really have. I changed my entire life. We have done very well. I'm telling you right now, I'd have a tough time right now cutting a check flat for $66,000

on the spot to pay this debt off. And the show has done very well. I mean, I remember when I was a Secret Service agent, I started it. I have that thing somewhere around here. I think my starting salary is $27,000 when I started in the Secret Service. That was three years of work. You will pay.

Now, what's inevitably going to happen, Joe, is interest rates are going to have to rise because eventually people are going to stop lending us money. I've discussed this before, and this is when it's going to really deeply impact American consumers. You're going to have a tougher time buying a car. Folks, I've used this example, and forgive me for repeating it, but some of you are first-time listeners. It's important because I get this a lot. They go, all right, Dan, you talked about the debt, but one thing I like about your show is you usually say how it impacts me, and you didn't say that. I'm going to say that today. How is it going to impact you? Eventually, interest rates are going to rise because foreign governments and Americans are going to stop lending the government money because the government's going to have to

print its way out of that money, which is going to inflate away and basically inflate away your investment, and you're going to require a higher interest rate to compensate for the inflation. Everybody dig what I'm saying? That is a fact. You can take that to the bank, right? Eventually, those interest rates are going to grow. When you go in to buy a car, Joe, what's the first thing the car salesman tells you?

What do you want your monthly payments to be? Yes, yes, yes. And even though Joe's heard this before, I know he knows this because the first time I asked him this about three years ago, seriously, I've used this example all the time, he said the same thing. Yes, of course, the car salesman guy says, what do you want your monthly payment to be? They can make your monthly payment. You can buy a Dodge Viper and get the monthly payment for $100.

All right, I'm exaggerating a bit, but they probably could. You'll just be paying for the Viper for 7,000 years, right? 42% interest, yeah. Right, 42%. Your kids will be paying off that Viper. Yeah, when Barron Trump is president, your kids will will be paying off that Viper. Yeah. When Barron Trump is president, your kids will still be paying for that Viper, but they can get your monthly payment.

I'm being, I'm being a little facetious, of course, but within reason you can buy a really expensive car and get a monthly payment. That's reasonable. Depending on how long you're willing to extend out the loan. They do that because that's how people do their finances because people are typically paid bi-weekly, weekly, or monthly. So that's how people know their finances. They go,

oh, I get paid. Let me see. I want a car for $500 a month. I like this car. I can afford maybe 550. So I can maybe do five, 550. That's how people think. That's why car salesmen use that. It's not because car salesman, listen, I will like them or they work hard. I don't like, that's why I used to say that as a joke, like use Carson,

but I don't do it. I, cause I don't think it's funny. I'm not trying to be like captain PC guy either, but you know, I get emails and people get offended. I totally understand that. It's not fun. People work hard.

It's just because you get a couple of jokers who do dumb stuff. Um, but they're smart. They're not stupid. They know how to move a product. I say that because that interest rate is going to dictate what that monthly payment is unless you're buying a car in cash. So when you go in to buy a car that's $30,000, let's say your price band at 2.5 to 5% interest was 300 to 500. You get a nice car. At 300 to 500, at 10 to 15% interest, folks, you're not going to

get a nice car. I'm sorry. You're going to get a jalopy or a used car because most of that's going to be interest. You're not going to be able to afford the car. That's when it's going to take a deep impact on the car industry, the housing industry. Same thing happens when you go buy a house. What do you do, Joe? You look at the mortgage payment. Nobody says, I'm paying in cash. What does the house cost? Oh, here you go. Let me write a check. I mean, I'm sure super rich people do that. I don't do it. I know Joe doesn't do it. You go in, you go, okay, I want to buy this house for 300K. What's the mortgage payment going to look like? Because that's how we do our budgets. Your mortgage payment, if you can afford a thousand a month, got you say a $300,000 house

a year ago, it's going to get you about $150,000 house when interest rates go through the roof. Those interest rates will rise. This is inevitable. There is no way around it if we don't get a lid on this spending. Sooner or later, people are going to want their money back, and they're going to demand elevated rates of interest. Now, one benefit to this, and I'm in this position now. My wife

and I are savers. We are not spenders. We live in a nice house. I mean, Joe's been here. It's nice. But Joe, would you agree? Be honest. It's not extravagant. No, it's a nice house. Nice house. It costs us $500,000. You can look it up online. We put a lot of money into it. It was our second home.

We made a good investment in our first house. So we had some capital to roll over there. But it's not a McMansion. It's a decent size house, right? My wife and I, now we live a rather frugal existence. We have some money and we don't really spend it. The problem we're having now with these low interest rates, these continued low interest rates, is we save and we get nothing back. Nothing. Matter of fact, we're looking for a savings account. If you have any suggestions, email them over to us, by the way. That'll return, savings account interest ratio or a joke. It's like 1%, 1.5. I think we saw one, it was two and we got all excited. But when you have a decent amount of money you've

saved, my wife and I are savers. We've been saving our whole lives. 2% is a big deal if you're getting nothing on your money, especially if you've got a nice chunk there. We can't find it. So the benefit to this is not to tell you my personal financial situation, but there are a lot of people out there who are savers and put away a good chunk of their life savings who, when interest rates go up, that's why I think in the long run, I'm always an optimist, I think we'll be okay because what's going to happen, Joe, is as interest rates go up and money is harder and harder to get a hold of, well, why? Because interest rates are high. If I got to borrow money at 5%, it's maybe manageable.

If I got to borrow money for school at 15%, I may not be able to afford the loan. But at 15%, a whole lot of people are going to be like, you know what? Now I'm going to take that money I was going to spend on whatever, a new car or a new house, Joe. I'm going to put that money in the banking system and get a return and have my money work for me. That's how capitalism works. Interest rates are the price of money, the cost of capital. All of a sudden, when that cost goes up for people, the returns to others go up too. Supply-demand, supply, demand. Those curves intersect at some point

at a market clearing price. Eventually, a lot of wealthy people are going to start putting their money back into the system, getting that nice solid return and money will become available again. But this is going to take time. So in the long run, I'm an optimist about the US economy.

I'm just telling you that read the piece in the short term, we are going to have to deal with this debt and the situation is catastrophic right now. It is. It is really literally catastrophic. I use that word literally wrong.

I hate that figuratively. I can't stand what people say literally too much. Really? And then I just did it. All right. Today's show brought to you. Our buddies at Harry's Harry's. We love Harry's folks.

You will never, ever get a closer or cost effective, high quality shave than a Harry's razor. You won't. It's the new year. Take care of yourself. Get a good shave. Treat yourself. Go get a new year's resolution and commit yourself to the best

shave out there for the best price. I'd love it. If you ever see me on TV at night on Fox, I'm not kidding. I use the Harry's. I shave in the morning. I don't shave again at night because I can't shave before I go on TV because I cut myself all the time. And by the way, if you ever do cable news, a lot of you have to.

If you're bleeding on TV, it's the worst thing ever. It always looks a thousand times worse because people aren't used to seeing it. They're like, what is this guy? John J. Rambo? What was he? Did this guy just get his his caboose kicked in an mma fight if there's a drop of blood on your face you'll get a thousand emails when you're on tv barbara seville over here exactly right sweetie todd slashing throws

before he goes out the air you can't have that you i can't do that so i have to shave in the morning harry's is this. The razors are amazing. The quality is amazing, but it's so close that I shave in the morning. I don't even have to shave again at night when I go on Fox. It's incredible. Harry's wants you to start the new year's off right. They want you to create a trial offer. Excuse me.

Claim yours by going to Harry's. H-R-R-Y-S dot com slash Bongino. Listen, Harry's founders were tired of paying for razors that were overpriced and over-designed. 6,000 blades! Harry's was like, do we need that? We got a better way. They knew a great shave doesn't come with gimmicks like vibrating heads, flexi balls, or handles that look like spaceships. Tactics to leading brands have used to raise prices and nearly bankrupt you on razors for years.

They fixed that. They combined a simple, clean design with quality, durable blades at an unbelievable price. Harry's bought a world-class blade factory in Germany that's been making quality blades. Forget a lot of this. 95 years. They received over 20,000 five-star reviews on Trustpile and Google.

I'm telling you, I use it. You will find no finer shave out there. Replacement cartridges are just $2 each. They got rid of upcharges and they're about half the price of the other brands. They have a 100% quality guarantee. If you don't love the shave, let them know. They'll give you a full refund. Here's what you do.

Get a $13 value trial set that comes with everything you need for a close, comfortable shave. You get a weighted ergonomic handle, a five-blade razor with a lubricating script and trimmer blade, rich lathering shave gel, and a travel blade cover. Listeners of my show can redeem their trial set at harrys.com slash bongino. Make sure you go to harrys.com slash bongino. Redeem your offer. Let them know I sent you to help support the show.

It is the best razor out there. I am not kidding. I'm telling you right now, you are overpaying if you're not using Harry's. And you're overpaying for a crappier shave. You use Harry's, right, Joe? Yeah, I've been using them for a while. They're good. Hint, hint, nod, nod. Pretty soon, you'll be able to see

us on the air post-Harry's shave. Don't worry. The audio podcast is not going anywhere. I have no fear. I keep getting emails. Nothing is going to happen to your audio podcast you hear me folks nothing we are not going anywhere joe we were both a little tired before the show right can we both be honest i think we both still are yeah but i gotta tell you i'm feeling pretty good about the show you're rolling uh i was thinking to myself yeah once i get started man he's all right you know well? Every time me and Joe come on here, it's been a long weekend. I had a long weekend.

Yeah. And I'm on the air with Joe and, you know, a long night, obviously, last night and everything. And I said to Michael, man, I'm a little tired today. Joe's like, yeah, man. Me too, brother. But once we get going, it's, ah, man, bingo, every single time. Yeah, you're doing good, man. All right, cool.

So, hey, thank you, buddy. A couple new stories I have to get to. Still really important stuff, even though it is New Year's Day. Facebook is at it again. Facebook's a scam. I'm just furious with Facebook. I have severely curtailed my business with Facebook. I'll post once in a while, but nowhere near the way I used to.

I'm just getting really tired of Facebook. Here's what happened. I have a story at theblaze.com up at the show notes today. Please check it out. It's a really, really good story. Facebook, Joe, now is removing and censoring images of the alleged cop killer of Ronil Singh, the cop in California, police officer,

the American patriot who was killed by this accused, by this alleged killer. We have to, you know, everybody's a guilty, innocent to proven guilty. But if you put up this image and you put the word illegal alien, they will remove that.

By the way, the guy who's accused of killing him is in the country illegally. Yeah. But Facebook is now removing those images for what they call offensive language. I mean, it's just, it's really unbelievable. Facebook, I don't even want to stew on this because I'm so, I've just recommended before to people, just, I sold my stock in Facebook. I'm still posting there, but it's a hard pass on it. I can't recommend enough. You guys abandoned that

platform. I can't do what you want. I guess it's kind of hypocritical because I'm still up there. I have some business stuff. It's not as easy for me to make those decisions without other people. But it's a dead platform. They hate conservatives. It's clear as day. The company's a liberal propaganda machine only. They really have no interest in any kind of a you know fair display of uh of the ideological spectrum at all so uh you do what you want with facebook but it's a total train wreck over there um regarding the the partial government shutdown we're all still alive joe you doing okay uh yeah you're in maryland right joe's very close to the federal government so there's not chaos it's not raining cats and dogs what was was that ghost? The original ghostbusters. Cats and dogs in love, whatever.

None of that's happening, right? The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is not walking down your street. You're not crossing the streams. Don't cross the street. The kids who listen to this show in college have no idea what we're talking about right now. Greatest movie ever.

The original Ghostbusters. What did you dream of? I told you not to think of anything. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Remember the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man walking down the street? Don't cross the street, right? Well, the government shutdown is still going on, the partial shutdown. Everybody's okay.

The world's not collapsing. Showing you the government. And by the way, I'm going to get into a little rant in a minute here. I'm sorry. I'm in a ranty mood. And a guy asked me in the sauna the other day, a friend of mine, what I felt about the government. The government is shut down.

I'm fine. You're fine. Everybody's fine. The government is largely meaningless in your life outside the military and the court system. It is. The government is a, it's an albatross around your neck.

It is a 500 pound rucksack you got to carry around walking around in your life every day. Albuquerque. I miss that. I don't get any of you. I'm serious serious i'm like the audience emails me all day i forgot what you guys said there's an albacore around my neck oh i always have an albatross you see i never get shows jokes and then i get emails from the audience all day i gotta answer by oh

thanks hey buddy everyone else gets it was taxi there we go yeah sing or someone will email me then that's because they'll listen to that and they'll email me before you corrected it thanks so the house dems have introduced two new bills with no new wall money they're not going to go anywhere folks I just expect this thing is going to continue for a very long time I don't see it ending anytime soon

I applaud President Trump for sticking to his guns do not fold on this wall issue it matters it matters to people it's what you ran on it's why people support you and President Trump tweeted out yesterday something I said on the show earlier in the day about the wheel, the wall. It's old technology, Democrats say. You notice President Trump tweeted that out? Good for him. So is the wheel. And the wheel works pretty darn well. So cut the crap, Democrats. Walls don't work. Of course they work. That's why you put them around your houses. so cut the crap democrats walls don't work of course they work that's why you put them around your houses okay uh so the government thing so this is a quick story for us i was in the gym yesterday a good friend of mine he's a former golfer a really good guy pretty jacked uh you know he's my age but we're all falling apart i'm all sore today i had a killer workout yesterday

i just mauled it in the gym and my left shoulder is so bad it is so decaying that when i do incline presses with the dumbbells i suffer for days and days, but I can't stop. I'm addicted to the gym. I mean, physiologically, mentally, my neurotransmitters are addicted. If I don't work out in the gym, I'm depressed for days. So I crush it with upper body and then I feel at my shoulder for days. So I'm sitting in the gym and I'm chatting with this guy and he says he's not really political. I don't talk politics in the gym unless people approach me uh and he's like i'm not really a political guy but he was asking me all these kinds of questions like how do you feel about the wall and what do you think about you know taxes and this stuff he's not really uh i don't know what party i i am and i went on this just rant

of him about government he said how do you feel about you know like the role of government so i said government sucks okay listen let's just be candid government can So I said, government sucks. Okay. Listen, let's just be candid. Government can do nothing for you. Government is a, as a negative force in your life. Government typically is the problem in your life. Again, outside of our military and our court system and some basic functions of policing and law and order and basically sending a contract law, the enforcement of basic sets of rules and interstate commerce, the government has no, I'm not interested. I don't want to hear about the government anymore. Government cannot solve any of your problems. If you can't solve your problems because you believe we're flawed human beings, we're generally sinners, and we don't have the capacity to solve our own problems, why you would think other sinners who have zero interest in your life are

going to solve your problems for you despite having the same problems themselves is beyond me so i put together this little litany of stories at the end of the year uh well the beginning of this new year now three stories of where government big government advocates told us hell we were going to have hell to pay if we did not buy into the big government agenda and big government being able to fix our problems. And absolutely none of it came true, Joe. Story number one, net neutrality. Oh man, did we get emails on this? Net neutrality, the idea that government should regulate the internet, that the government should make a bit, a bit, a bit, that there should be government price controls levied on the internet, and that net neutrality was the only way forward,

and it was the only game going forward, and if we didn't engage in the net neutrality game, folks, then what was going to happen? You were going to have to pay separately for Twitter and pay for Facebook and pay for access to Google. None of that happened. Stupid dog. Darren Wright. None of that happened. Zero of that happened. Stupid dog. Darren Wright. None of that happened.

Zero of that happened. Matter of fact, I brought it up because I read a story. A young man who used to work for National Review tweeted out, despite the fact that net neutrality is now gone, thanks to the Trump administration and Ajit Pai over at the FCC, Joe, U.S. internet speeds, which we were told we were all going to be throttled, we were all going to be slowed down if net neutrality didn't pass

and the government didn't get involved, we were all going to have to pay for Twitter and Facebook. After net neutrality went away, internet speeds in the United States, we now jumped from number 12 to 7. I thought government was going to fix the problem. Ladies and gentlemen, government is the problem. The minute they got the government out of the internet business, we jumped five spots.

We jumped five spots. Because the very idea that the government was going to regulate and price control the industry led internet providers to do what? To slow down their investment in expanding their internet because they weren't going to be able to generate any revenue on it. So what did they do? They stopped investing in broadband and internet access in certain areas because there was no return on it. This is very simple and

uncomplicated if you're paying attention, which most people are not on the liberal side. Government is the issue. Government is the crutch. Government is the weight being hung around your waist. You asking you to walk with a 45 pound pizza. I call those 45 pound plates pizzas, the pizzas. You don't want to walk on a dipping-pound pizza. I call those 45-pound plates pizzas. The pizzas. You don't want to walk on a dipping belt with 45 pounds of weight around your waist. Not to mention it slaps back between and kind of crushes you down there, if you know what I mean.

That's government. Where are the liberals on net neutrality? They're all quiet now. They're going to make you pay for Twitter. They're going to make you pay for Facebook. You're not going to be able to Google anything. You're going to make you pay for Twitter. They're going to make you pay for Facebook. You're not going to be able to Google anything. You're going to have to pay every time you go. None of that happened. You're darn right.

None of that happened. None. Garbage. You were not throttled. Average US internet speeds are dramatically up all right i got a couple more of these government get out i'm calling this the government get that out of my life section please tired of hearing about government all right our final read of the day first uh policy genius hey life insurance is a uh it's not a fun topic to talk about most people

don't want to think about dying understandablyably so. And they definitely don't like thinking about insurance, but actually having life insurance feels great. And getting that peace of mind doesn't need to be complicated. This is an extremely easy product to use. They make it super simple. Do not buy life insurance without checking out our friends at Policy Genius first. Don't do it. You'll regret it. Policy Genius is the easiest way to get life insurance. In minutes, you can compare quotes from top insurers to find the coverage you need at a price you can afford. From there, you can apply online. This is so easy. It's so easy. You're doing yourself a huge disservice if you don't check this out. And the unbiased advisors

at PolicyGenius will handle all the red tape. You don't need to deal with that, leaving you free to do the things you actually enjoy. And Policy Genius doesn't just make life insurance easy. If you're shopping for disability insurance to protect your income, homeowners insurance, or auto insurance, they can help you get covered fast and really, really simple to use. They're very friendly over there too.

If you've been intimidated or frustrated by insurance in the past, give Policy Genius a try. Just go to policygenius.com to get your quotes and apply in minutes. You can do the whole thing on your phone right now. Policy Genius, the easy way to compare and buy life insurance. Go check them out. Policygenius.com.

Tell them the Dan Bongino Show sent you. We love that. All right, story number two. Government, get the mm out of my life. I have a great piece up at the show notes written by my uh resident debunker in chief and researcher matt palumbo at bongino.com yeah he does a good job matt loves debunking liberal myths about the paris climate accords remember trump pulled out of the paris climate accords. Oh, the apocalypse. The world was going to, it was going to collapse.

The Arctic and Antarctic glaciers were going to melt all at once. It was going to be like that Dennis Quaid movie where his son, Jake Gyllenhaal gets caught in a library in New York. And there's like an ice age that happens overnight and everybody's burning the books to stay alive. Everything was going to pure catastrophe. Tornadoes in downtown new york city it was gonna be a good the climate catastrophe be crazy the the hyperbolic language was outrageous when

trump pulled out of the paris climates accord the paris climate accords were non-binding by the way and essentially what they said is the countries that signed on were committing to a decrease in in in carbon emissions over a period of time, those metrics based on your economy and stage of development. But they were non-binding. So Matt wrote this piece basically debunking the fact that the apocalypse was going to happen when we pulled out of the climate accords. And he writes in the piece, and he's right,

that even after we pulled out of the Paris climate accords, we're still beating all the other countries in the Paris Climate Accords because of our economic growth in the decrease in carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Now, they have gone up in 2018 around the world. But of all the countries around the world, we are doing the best job at cleaning up our environment. By the way, carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, by the way, anyway, which that's a nonsense fairy tale told to you by the left. But the point is, carbon dioxide and carbon emissions into the atmosphere are generally improving in the United States because as economic conditions improve,

people are finding out better environmental technologies, which it turns out are better for the free market too, in many cases. Not in all, but in many cases. They're better for free market and better for company revenue. Capitalism works. Remember, some of the greatest ecological disasters in human history, as I've said often, Kevin Williamson has an interesting book out about this, happened in socialist countries. The Pemex disaster, the Aral Sea disaster, the Yangtze River in China, Chernobyl.

These were all environmental disasters that happened in socialist economies or non-economies. The U.S. is leading the world in carbon emissions. Despite the government pulling out of this international global crap deal that meant nothing to the United States and means less to everyone else. It was a garbage deal. The Chinese were going to ignore it. They don't care. So you want to bankrupt our economy

to what, forfeit the economic global stage to the Chinese? Yeah, there you go. That's a strategy for success. Good luck explaining that to middle America. Stay out of my life, government. Stay out of my life. We'll be fine. We'll figure it out. The United States consumer does not want dirty air and dirty water. They don't. They have already. Do you know what? The smokes tax of bygone eras were largely pressured out because of a lot of social pressures.

Yes, there was some acid rain legislation and things like that as well. But it was largely social pressure. It's become economical to be environmentally conscious. Capitalism works. All right, last story on this this this one's a doozy electronic vehicle subsidies no this was another government genius plan when i say genius i mean stupid beyond belief electronic vehicles you are eligible for a federal tax subsidy depending on the battery capacity of your electric vehicle. Excuse me, not electronic, electric vehicle.

You're eligible for a tax subsidy from $2,500 to $7,500. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a big benefit on your taxes. You may say, great, people are paying less taxes. Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, the problem with this is what's happening is these companies can then sell their car their cars at a discount because they know their consumers are going to be made good or or made good by by tax benefits later on can sell them at these elevated prices so essentially these companies are benefiting from a government policy but not a discount sell them at these elevated prices what i mean now these subsidies also to battery manufacturers and others sometimes flow directly.

These companies are benefiting from this. Folks, 90% of these tax credits go to the top 20% of income earners. I don't get it. I thought all you environmentally conscious social liberals and social justice warriors cared about income inequality. Now you're writing subsidies through the tax code, into the tax code to benefit rich people to buy overpriced cars that can be overpriced precisely because you get some of it back

on your tax returns. This isn't benefiting middle class earners. How are you going to sell that? Now you wonder, Joe, why the Democrats are losing voters in middle america in droves you're shutting down their internet through net neutrality you're engaging in ridiculous environmental policies with the international community doesn't give a crap about the united states driving their gas and electric bills through the roof because you think that's a good idea. You're selling a bunch of electric vehicles to rich people, giving them tax discounts you don't get.

Now you wonder why the Democrats and their big government policies, you wonder why they're losing voters in droves. Folks, give me a break, man. The Democrats have lost touch with middle america a long time ago now the reason i'm bringing these government stories up is not just because of uh my friend who i'd uh met in the gym afterwards i was chatting with it's also because as i announced yesterday on the show elizabeth warren announced she's going to run for president she's a far-left socialist and when you look at her launch video you are going to hear ladies and gentlemen more and more of this you are going to hear, ladies and gentlemen, more and more of this. You are going to hear the Bernie Sanders, the Sandinistas, and the Warrenistas out there, these new big Democratic Socialist people talking about these big government policies, how government is a net good in your life. Warren even said in her announcement, do we want a government that, what did she say,

helps people and is in it for the little guy or whatever? Ladies and gentlemen, government is never in it for the little guy. Government is in it to screw you. Government overall sucks, okay? It is a disaster. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to our military men and women, our judges, our FBI,

and our federal law enforcement. Outside of that, I'm not interested. The argument now going forward with the Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, who knows, Ocasio-Cortez types, she's not even eligible to run, she's not old enough, is going to be the argument of our lifetime. Is government a net positive or net negative in your life? It is a net negative. And these people out there arguing for democratic socialism, like Elizabeth Warren, need to be told over and over by people

like you and I, that there is simply no such thing. There is no such thing as democratic socialism. Ladies and gentlemen, socialism is the government control of the means of production. That is what socialism is. That is the definition of socialism. It is a non-market economy where government controls the factories, the food supplies. They control the means of producing the goods and services a society needs to exist. That is what socialism is. Socialism does not allow for free market pricing, does not allow for the pricing of your labor, does not allow for transactions outside of the

government control. That is what socialism is. It usually brews black black markets socialists believe in in price controls which is the very opposite of pricing a price is not cannot be controlled that's all i give a price response to supply and demand but don't let the democrats get away with this democratic socialism line now that the presidential campaign season has begun now that it's january 1st 2019 there is no such thing you cannot have a democratic country where the government controls the means of production you do not have economic freedom economic freedom and political freedom cannot be divorced from one another folks it doesn't matter who you work for if the government controls where you can work, who you work for, what you work for, and what you can spend your money on. What do you care if you work for Mikhail A. or Oleg B.?

If both of them in the former Soviet Union control everything about your life. Political and economic freedom, as Hayek said, and the road to serfdom, they can't be divorced from one another. They are the same thing. Do not let the Democrats get away with this silly argument running for president. They need to be challenged at every single turn. First, what is socialism?

Now define for me what democratic socialism is, because your definition of democratic socialism cannot possibly exist. So you're saying that we're going to control the means of production via the government, and yet we're going to be able to vote for the people who get to control our lives?

What's democratic about that? Nothing. Democratic socialism is a myth. Denmark, Norway, Scandinavian countries, they are not socialist. They are free market economies that have expansive governments. That's not good. They have generous expansive governments. That's not good.

They have generous welfare states. That's not good either. They're being bankrupted. But the government does not control the means of production. They are free market economies. Just look up Lars Rasmussen, political leader in Denmark, telling Bernie Sanders during the last election, we are not a socialist country. Stop slandering us.

Do not let them get away with this. Ask them to explain if they support socialism and the government control the means of production or not. If their answer is yes, then they're straight up socialists and they're right.

If their answer is no, tell them never to repeat democratic socialism again because there is no such thing. And it does not exist in Denmark. Oh, Denmark. Really? Maybe you should ask the political leaders in Denmark who have said that stop slandering us with this stupid label.

They're not a socialist country. Don't be an idiot. The government doesn't control the means of production there. Man, that was a spicy show today. Yes, it was. Yeah. Well, folks, listen, I want you to have a very happy new year in 2019. And I want to just thank you from the bottom of my heart for a spectacular 2018. You bumped this up to the

number two conservative podcast in the country right now. It means the world to us. So thank you so much. I'm looking forward to a big 2019. We have some big announcements. I'm sorry to keep teasing them, but I have to wait on others once they announce, I'll be able to announce it too. We do have some special projects coming soon for me and Joe and this specific program too. Stay tuned. Please subscribe to our show on iTunes and iHeart. It is free.

Please subscribe on SoundCloud, wherever you can. It helps us move up the charts. We really appreciate it, folks. It means a lot to us. Thanks so much. I will see you all tomorrow. You just heard the dan bongino show get more of dan online anytime at conservativereview.com you can also get dan's podcasts on itunes or soundcloud and follow dan on twitter 24 7 at d bongino