The Dan Bongino Show - Revenge IS a Strategy (Ep 1587)

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

Another troubling video emerges out of Afghanistan. In this episode, I address the video and I discuss Donald Trump’s powerful interview last night where he nails it.  News Picks: Is there a civil war brewing in Afghanistan? The latest Michael Anton article addressing the disaster in Afghanistan. Were we lied to about Afghanistan? The lucrative business of “woke” education. A big loss for the Democrats in a big blue senate seat.  Copyright Dan Bongino All Rights Reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Metrolinx and Crosslinx are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert, as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals, be careful along our tracks, and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Get ready to hear the truth about America

on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino. So, you know, one of the authors we highlight in this show often is Michael Anton. He nails it again in an article on Afghanistan that hits two remarkably good points that ironically, President Trump, whether he knows it or not, I mean, I don't mean he know, I mean, whether he knows he was addressing Anton's poison address last night in his interview at Hannity. You know, the left loves to celebrate diversity, right, folks? But then when there's

actual diversity, like maybe how the people of afghanistan feel about democracy no no not that the mark not that diversity about democracy that's racist right that's racist and then the other point which i brought up often since we've been doing this show how if you're gonna go to war maybe sometimes it is just about retribution. And maybe you should make it, quote, short and big. This is a must-read piece. Today's show brought to you by ExpressVPN. Thousands of my savvy listeners have secured their internet and their activity online with a VPN. Do it today. Go to expressvpn.com slash Bongino. Welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.

Let's get right to it. I've got that. I've got a humiliating video by the Taliban actually citing Facebook as an example of censorship. Again, what did we say yesterday? We took a poll. Human waste or the liberals at social media companies screwed to it.

Human waste won six to nothing yesterday between this show and the radio show. Human waste. Human waste is an unblemished record against social media companies. All right, as I said, today's show brought to you by our friends at ExpressVPN. Going online without ExpressVPN

is like leaving your kids with the nearest stranger while using the restroom. Most of the time, it's probably fine, but you never know who you're trusting. Every time you connect to an unencrypted network in cafes hotels airports your online data is not secured any hacker on the same network can gain access to and steal your personal data passwords financial data all kinds of stuff it doesn't even take a lot of technical knowledge to hack someone just some cheap hardware a smart 12 year old could do it your data is Hackers can make up to $1,000

per person selling your personal info on the dark web. ExpressVPN, it creates a secure encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet so hackers can't steal your sensitive data. We take a hacker with a supercomputer a billion years to get past ExpressVPN's encryption. It's super easy to use. Just fire up the app, click one button, and you're protected. Works on all devices, phones, laptops, tablets, and more, so you can stay secure on the go. We love it. It's the only VPN we use.

We've used it forever. Secure your online data and activity today by visiting expressvpn.com slash Bongino. That's expressvpn.com slash Bongino, and you can get an extra. You'll get an extra three months free. Expressvpn.com slash Bongino. And you can get an extra. You'll get an extra three months free. ExpressVPN.com slash Bongino. All right, Joe.

Let's go. Yes, sir. All right. All right. Yes, sir is right. All right. So our buddy Michael Anton hits it again, nails it again about what went wrong in Afghanistan. Michael Anton is a very gifted writer.

He's been a member of the national security community for a long time. But unlike many members of the national security community, he calls out the swamp, the swamp he knows he was in and says, here's the problems with Afghanistan. He nails it in two specific ways. And I'm going to play some video audio of Donald Trump in a minute as well. And Trump basically says the same thing. And it's kind of hilarious how the left is always calling out Trump, but he always seems to get it when they don't. All of these disasters that have happened, happened the minute Trump left office. Right? All of them. Election debacles, inflation, open borders. I mean, the left, this is supposed to be the smart one, correct? I'm not crazy, right? The media I mean, the left, this is supposed to be the smart one, correct?

I'm not crazy, right? The media's told us the left, they're the benighted class. They're the smart ones. You know, tolerance, coexist, bumper stickers. This is all we've heard about these geniuses in academia, Hollywood elitists. They're so much smarter than us, the little people, the smelly Walmart crowd. You know, the smellies. That's what we've heard. Yet how is it that every time they're in charge and their leftist ideas are implemented, right?

When you get a Jimmy Carter, when you get a Michael Dukakis, whether it's in Massachusetts or elsewhere, how is it every time you implement their ideas, Joe Biden or Barack Obama, things collapse. How is that? Anton nails it in this piece. Please read this. It'll be in my newsletter today. Bongino.com slash newsletter.

I'll have them put it up at BonginoReport.com as well. Afghanistan, doomed from the start. American mind, Michael Anton. Michael Anton, again, has been a member of the national security apparatus whatever you want to call it these fancy words for a long time and he makes

a lot of points in this piece but in the interest of time I have to distill it down to two hard takeaways part number one he talks about how these liberal Americans and even centrist oh you're going to celebrate diversity alright well what about when diversity means that some people don't and even so incentrous now. Everybody, oh, you're going to celebrate diversity. All right.

Well, what about when diversity means that some people don't look at democracy the same way we do? Oh, don't say that. That's racist. Here, quote Michael Anton. Modern Americans are endlessly told to, quote, celebrate diversity, but are also hectored to treat other people as if they are interchangeable

and all behave in the same ways and want the same things this bedrock assumption of woke america is the ultimate show along which the afghan war founded amen he goes on to express any doubt that a fundamentally pre-modern people talking about afghanistan with entirely different experiences and expectations from a State Department bureaucrat or NGO do-gooder, especially to suggest that democracy might not be an easy sell in the Hindu kush, was instantly to expose oneself to the charge of racism or Islamophobia. The few who dared quickly learned not to. The rest did not dare or else were true believers from the get go. Anton talks about in the piece how he was in these national security meetings with the Bush administration and how these people, if you dared bring up the fact

that, you know, you guys talk about diversity and different cultures and all this. Maybe the culture's not ready for democracy. You can't say that that's racist. No, we can say it and we will. I'm not suggesting that we should stereotype every single Afghan civilian and say none of them wanted democracy ever. But it's clear based on the history of the region that our efforts to impart democracy on a culture that had no previous structure leading them to

believe that that would be somehow beneficial or a path to prosperity no one ever looked around and said are they ready for this and if they're not why are we making them ready for what they're not ready for did anybody ask that question? I'm sorry, I'm having a lot of disagreements with a lot of people, even on my own side, which is fine. I respect them all, but some people believe we still should have stayed there in Afghanistan. And I, again, I can't get into why. So Dan Crenshaw has an op-ed in the wall street journal today talking about how we we haven't had a a casualty or excuse me lost a soldier or military personnel in afghanistan for a long time

thank god but that does that mean then we should be there forever what until we until we get i don't understand do we get some what are you trying i don't understand what you're trying to say i respect the man's military service. I really do. And he's entitled to an opinion. But why were we trying to impart a system of democracy which took centuries to brew and develop on a culture that at least at large was not ready for it because it wasn't being demanded by overwhelming portions of the population. Why were we trying to do that? And why again, is it somehow racist to claim otherwise? I thought we were talking about cultural diversity. Folks, you know, please do not be cowed from talking about these very serious topics. It is your sons and daughters that were being sent over there.

Your sons and daughters. The way we left, again, was a disgrace and a humiliating disaster. Forfeiting Bagram Air Base will go down as probably one of the worst tactical military decisions made by a commander in chief in the history of the United States. And I'm not kidding, but it's just odd how the left, all they want to talk about is diversity. And then when you get diverse ideas, keep in mind, I'm not saying good or bad. I'm just saying diverse, meaning different. And maybe some countries aren't ready for democracy. The left says that's racist to suggest that. Yeah, you can kiss my caboose. It's time to have real conversations right now.

Because people die when you do stupid stuff. And you do a lot of stupid stuff on the left. And Tom brings up another great point. I want to play this video coming up of Trump who echoes these same sentiments. What were we doing there? Were they ready for this? And maybe sometimes, yeah, retribution is a reason to fight. Does every war have to result in a functioning democracy? Or is every war done to teach them a lesson not to attack us again? Here, from the Anton piece, this is the most powerful part of the piece,

Here, from the Anton piece, this is the most powerful part of the piece, IMHO, in my humble opinion. He cites Machiavelli. He says, the Romans, Machiavelli says, quote, made their wars short and big. We Americans have taken a make in our wars small and long. We inflict pinprick strikes over decades rather than getting the whole thing over within a matter of days or weeks. A better strategy right after 9-11 would have been to do what we did, but finish the job at Tora Bora and then leave immediately with a note on the fridge saying, if you do anything

like that again, we'll be back quickly with overwhelming force and we'll leave just as quickly. And we will do this as many times as you make us. I had an analogy for this. I used to use a while ago about a friend of mine and a UFC fighter and how these two different approaches can work. I'm not going to use it again now. It's not the appropriate time. But it is the appropriate time for this. appropriate time. But it is the appropriate time for this. Folks, it is time to fight on their terms, not ours. We are a good, decent people. The Taliban are not. And good, decent people don't

want to impart and inflict pain on others. We don't. I get that. That's what makes part of it, which makes us great. But it's also a bit of a weakness in combat because their terms, they don't understand that. They just sense it as weakness. If we aren't willing to impart on them real pain and real destruction and inflict legitimate material losses that they think about for generations. They're not going to be taught a lesson. There is nothing wrong with fighting a war for retribution or revenge. Not everything has to result in the creation of an empire with higher moral values and that turns into and evolves into a constitutional republic. Sometimes you just fight to kill the enemy. I agree with Anton's assessment, citing Machiavelli. We should have leveled that place.

And yes, a lot of people would have died, potentially some innocents. But what's the solution? To turn the country back over to the Taliban after a 20-year experiment in blood and treasure where innocents die anyway? There's no easy answers here, folks. We're not weighing answers between good and bad. Here's the good one. Here's the bad one.

That's not what this is. This is a bad answer and a worse answer. Make your wars short. Make them big. Sometimes retribution is the answer. Sometimes overwhelming pain on our enemies is the answer. This is their terms. This is all they understand.. Is the answer. This is their terms. This is all they understand.

I used the example yesterday on the radio show. I never forgot this. I didn't get to say it on the podcast. But it's important now. When I was over in a country that has a history of terrorism. Domestic strife. It was a hot zone. Wasn't a war zone.

But it was definitely a hot zone. And I was doing an advance over there. I will never forget one of the generals. He would not talk to the White House staffer. It wasn't a war zone, but it was definitely a hot zone. And I was doing an advance over there. I will never forget one of the generals. He would not talk to the White House staffer. I was the lead advance, and the White House sends a lead advance staffer. The staffer's in charge, not of the security, but of the trip. The White House staffer says what happens, where the president goes, everything.

We have very little say unless it's a security situation. I don't know if you know that. The staffer would talk to the general who was running this thing in this country, and the general wouldn't even look at him. He would only look at me. And it got uncomfortable after a while. And I asked him, why aren't you addressing the staffer when I saw him offline? And he said, you know, you got the guns. Those are the people we deal with. and he said you know you got the guns those are the people we deal with there's a part of the world that is their terms violence is king he who has the guns has the power you control the guns you control the fight it's a brute force equation and we're trying to do pinprick strikes over 20 years to do what maybe we should have just leveled the place and got out. Again, that's not faux bravado.

It's thinking strategically, maybe sometimes retribution and revenge in an overwhelming manner so that a lesson is taught is the only way. And maybe we have to do it again. We're not going to solve the world's problems in one strike, no matter how overwhelming. Yeah, he brings up a good point. How overwhelming. Yeah, he brings up a good point. This approach, then we get all the occupation there. You're occupying, we're not occupying anything.

We're the one country, probably the only empire in the history of planet Earth that could occupy, take over, and doesn't. We turn this back over to them. But it creates this animosity as left-wingers, the UN, in other words, the occupation of the United States. Why are we letting them do this? There's another great op-ed

in the Wall Street Journal today. In the interest of time, I can't get to all of them. I'm just going to cover it quick. But they make the point that how all these left-wing organizations are constantly attacking the United States military,

and now the same left-wing organizations in Afghanistan are begging the U.S. military to come back in and impose order. Make your wars short. Make them big. Do not run from the fact that we are seeking revenge. That is their language. That is their terms, not ours. I understand that. Maybe explain that to the American people, that we're a good, decent people. We don't like to see other people in pain. We don't want to see casualties.

We don't. That's a good thing. That's not a bad thing. But it can be a weakness. When you're dealing with people who only understand one thing. Blood, guts, and pain. They don't speak your language of democracy. And there is nothing wrong with you saying it.

Here's President Trump last night in an interview with Sean Hannity. Listen to him again. His political instincts for all the times he's savaged by these leftist lunatics, his political instincts are right. And he's been consistent on this topic for a long time. He said something very deliberate here he has seemingly better political instincts than the this uh these academic think tanks who've been studying war for hundreds of years and give us bad advice all the time here he says to hannity that he spoke with one of the leaders of the Taliban when they were negotiating and he made the point that you don't know what pain is. That's, you know, that was actually the guy from Silence

of the Lambs. Sorry, I was not quoting him there, but I just thought of that. You don't know what pain is. But he makes very clear, he says to the Taliban leader, I know where you live. You mess with us, your village goes first. Impose real, heavy, violent losses on your enemy. Trump gets that. I don't know if it's because of his history and with a bunch of mercenary folks and whatever and trying to. Trying to feel out people's instincts and motives and very kind of mercenary business deals. I don't know where he gets those instincts, but he has them. Listen to him discuss this last night with Hannah. It's important. We had a very strong conversation. I told him up front, I said, look, before we start, let me just tell you right now that if anything bad happens to Americans or

anybody else, or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before. A force so great that you won't even believe it. And your village, and we know where it is, and I named it, will be the first one. Mr. President, I want to interrupt. The first bomb will be dropped right there. You said this to who? Yeah.

Who did you, you said to who? To Mullah Baradar, who is probably the top person. Nobody really knows who the top person is, but I would say that's probably the top person. And it seems to be that's the way it's rolling right now. But I had a very strong conversation. I also had a good conversation with him. We talked for a while after that. That was the primary point I was making. And he understood it. And I asked him, do you understand? He said, yes, I do understand. You see how his instincts there? Absolutely correct. I asked him, do you understand? He said, yes, I do understand. You see how his instincts there?

Absolutely correct. I told him this kind of de facto leader of the Taliban at the time when he was negotiating. I know where your village is. You personally. And then he says at the end, another important point. I want you to gloss over there. I asked him, do you understand? Do you understand?

I'm coming after you and your family. I get it. These things are hard to hear. Oh my gosh, we should leave the families out of it. You say that because you're good people and you're decent people. You shouldn't be in any way embarrassed about that. But these aren't their terms. They only understand

pain. And what better way to impart pain and teach these guys not to impart pain on others than to impart pain on them that they won't forget. Trump is very specific. I will destroy your village.

I know where it is. And do you understand what I'm saying? And the left laughs at him all the time. As they lord over the destruction of Afghanistan. Wait till I play this video for you at the end of this. Girls at the airport.

They lord over this horror. I got another piece of video from trump in a second on that second point that uh michael anton makes about making wars short but big he even uses the same word we should have done a big strike i want you to listen in a second when i play it let me just uh let me get to my second sponsor here. This is going to be a heavy show, but this is all important. I appreciate your patience. Sponsors keep the show free and they want to talk to you. So thank you. Hey, according to Forbes, gyms, nail salons, hotels,

mom and pop stores, and are all set to go on an epic hiring spree in the coming months to meet the pent-up demand for all these services. Listen, I'm especially excited to get back out, go to restaurants. Florida, luckily, has been open for a while, but people want to get out. They want to go back. People want to travel. I like to travel. Matter of fact, we'll be taking a day off soon, I'll tell you about. All these businesses reopening means that millions of jobs have to be filled. So where do these businesses turn to fill these roles? Well, ZipRecruiter. And right now, you can try for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Bongino. When you post the job on ZipRecruiter, they send your job to over 100 top job sites. They give you access to their network of millions of job seekers. ZipRecruiter

is the best way to do it. Their matching technology scans resumes and they find quality candidates for your open jobs and roles and they proactively send them to you. You can easily review and recommend candidates, invite your top choices to apply for a job, and encourages them to apply faster. ZipRecruiter's technology is so effective that four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Right now, you can try ZipRecruiter for free.

Highly recommended at this exclusive web address, ziprecruiter.com slash Bongino. That's ziprecruiter.com slash Bongino, B-O-N-G-I-N-O. Go to ziprecruiter.com slash Bongino. Use ZipRecruiter. It's the smartest way to hire. Check them out. Thanks, ZipRecruiter.

So getting back to this. Again, Donald Trump part two last night on Sean Hannity show talking about what Michael Anton said that these, the bringing of violence to your enemy is a very serious decision to make, but when it's done, it should be done short and it should be done big. Remember Fox Connors rules of war. I can't emphasize you. I don't mean to oversimplify him, but Fox Connors rules of war. I can't emphasize you. I don't mean to oversimplify him, but Fox Connors rules of war. Look it up. Don't ever forget them. Never go to war alone. Never go to war for long and never go to war unless you absolutely have to.

Those three golden rules are inviolable. Inviolable. Here's Donald Trump talking again about the nest. Listen to him at the end of this, when he talks about how we should have engaged in a big strike and we shouldn't have been there forever. Check this out. We took this horrible place. I mean, a place that just,

we shouldn't have been involved. It was a horrible decision going into the middle East. And I know the Bush family will not be happy, but I believe it was the worst decision in the history of our country when we decided to go into the Middle East. It's turned out to be quicksand. We've destroyed the Middle East. Do you think it's better now than it was 20, 21 years ago? It's much worse. It was a horrible decision, cost us trillions of dollars. And and if you look at both sides, because I like to look at both sides, millions and millions of lives. And it's no different than it was. It's much worse because you have to rebuild it. It's

been blown to pieces. The worst decision ever made was going. You can do a strike as retribution and it could be a big strike as retribution for the World Trade Center, et cetera. But to get stuck in there was like quicksand. So we did a terrible thing. But think of what's happening now. It's amazing. Again, for all of the negative, I mean, he tweets all of the relentless, brutal, of relentless, brutal, savage attacks on Trump. His instincts are absolutely spot on. He's been consistent in this.

Retribution. You know, I'm not kidding. When I put that clip together, I forgot he even said that. I was more focused on the big strike portion at the end. Big strike and get out from Anton's piece. Candidly, when I said retribution in the beginning, that sometimes revenge and retribution is a strategy, I didn't even, I totally forgot he said that in that piece.

I cut it for a different reason. I pick a lot of my own sound and Joe and Guy process it. But I don't even remember that in there. I was focused on the end. Folks, listen, I get it to the media matters buffoons and the liberal bloggers like them or whatever. They're probably listening

like, oh my gosh, Roy is kissing Trump's butt or whatever. You do what you want. You do you. I'm sure that's immediately how you'll discount this. And yet you won't process a minute of what the man actually said and how, again, his instincts on the situation were correct. It'll go right over your head because you're so obsessed with the orange man,

bad conspiracy theorists. I get it. I get it. And that's why you'll never understand this movement ever because you don't want to. The man's instincts were right. Maybe he deserves a little bit of credit for it. Talk about humiliating, folks, how this has gone. This disastrous pullout.

Here's the Taliban and their press shop, whatever that is, who remarkably is allowed to continue on Twitter and our social media platforms. But Donald Trump isn't. Despite, again, Donald Trump being right and the Taliban being murdering savages who rape girls, take child brides and force women into servitude. Yeah, they're allowed to stay on Twitter because Twitter, again, human waste, Twitter, social media losers, human human waste wins every single time. Here's the Taliban citing fake book. Another bunch of losers as an example of how censorship works. And maybe you should ask fake book.

They don't a reporter. This is that you're going to hear the translator's voice. A reporter asked the Taliban, hey, you guys going to stop women and everyone from speaking out or anything like that? The Taliban cites fake book. How did if you work in fake book? I'm just asking you a question where human waste wins over you every day, right? I'm asking you a serious question. How does it make you feel that the Taliban, the Taliban cites you as a source for inspiration

for their site? You as being worse than them. How does that make you feel? You ever you wonder why you've lost the human waste battle six to nothing on this show? Just resign from your company in total disgrace. Twitter, fake books, ScrewTube, Google, resign in disgrace.

You have lorded over the downfall of free speech and civil liberties in America. You, I know that's hard to take because you're such epic pieces of human feces. I know that. But you can redeem yourself. Do the walk of shame. Put your head down outside of the headquarters buildings.

Resign your job and get away and walk away and commit to defending civil liberties and open speech for everyone for the rest of your life you won't do that because you are epic level frauds here's the taliban citing you folks at facebook as a great example check this out this question should be asked to those people who are claiming to be promoters of freedom of speech who do not allow publication of all information. I can ask Facebook company. This question should be asked to them.

That just happened. That really happened. How does that make you feel? Are you even remotely concerned? Fake books, ScrewTube, Google, and the losers at Twitter? How does that make you feel? That murderous savages cite you guys as an example?

Unreal. Folks, the forces of evil are winning right now. They are. Let's not pretend otherwise. But I don't want to depress you. He brought up something interesting yesterday, a quote from Anais. Anais who said, you know, an enemy isn't vanquished until he considers himself so. No matter how bad things get, the forces of liberty and freedom, you,

you're not vanquished or defeated until you consider yourself so. And I ask you this, do you consider yourself defeated? Because I don't. I don't and I won't. I'm not ready to give up. I'm not ever ready to give up. You've been given one life. You're going to have your resume for freedom or liberty. You're going to have to present at the pearly gates one day. I want mine full, even if we lose in the end. I'm not giving up anything. And I certainly don't consider myself vanquished. All right, I want to just switch gears.

I'm going to get back to Afghanistan in a little bit, but there's other things I want to talk about. I want to switch gears. There's video out of Australia. I can't independently confirm it, but it's been making the rounds. So I'm going to put it out there. I'm going to use my judgment here.

The video out of Australia, it's long. I cut about the most troubling 40 seconds because some of you listen exclusively on audio too. Australia has descended now into full-blown police state madness. And I bring it up after this Afghanistan conversation because the line I just used applies here too. The forces of evil are winning right now. Coming up in a second. You're not going to want to miss that. Folks, we're an Omaha Steaks household.

We love the food. The food is fantastic. Their burgers are second to none. Toast up a nice little bun. Get the Omaha Steaks seasoning. Drop it on the top. It makes it sometimes a little adobo in there on a burger with the grill lines from Omaha steaks. Throw a little steak on the side, a burger, a steak, maybe a little apple caramel tartlet when you're done. We love it.

It's delicious food. Labor Day's around the corner. Is it a, that's incredible. Can we fact check that? Joe, is Labor Day around the corner? It is? Thanks, Keith. Joe, I can't believe it. It's time to get ready for the last cookout of the summer. Go to OmahaSnakes.com and type Bongino in the search bar to shop the deluxe grill-out assortment. It includes over 30 entrees like the bacon-wrapped filet mignons,

filet mignon burgers, boneless pork chops, gourmet jumbo franks, sides, desserts, and more. Plus, you'll save over 50% and you'll get 12 free burgers. They're basically a steak between buns. They're that good. You won't eat another burger again. Omaha Steaks isn't just steak. It's the best steak of your life. Some of our favorites, the Bongino family, include the bacon-wrapped filet mignons. See my mouth waters when I talk about this. It's the only downside to this ad. The delicious filet mignon burgers and the caramel apple tartlets, big favorites of my daughters.

Visit omahasteaks.com. Enter keyword Bongino in the search bar, and you will save over 50% when you order the deluxe grill-out assortment. Plus, you'll get 12 of their incredible Omaha Steaks burgers free. And enjoy the last cookout of the summer. Don't wait. That's omahasteaks.com. Enter keyword Bongino. It's a great deal. Don't let it go by.

omahasteaks.com. Enter keyword Bongino. B-O-N-G-I-N-O. Thanks, Omaha Steaks. What's that? I know. I told you. He said the same thing.

I get hungry then. That's the only downside to that, especially when it's like 10 o'clock or so. You know, Joe always hears it. I'm always like, hold on. I got to take a break. Now it starts watering. It's a roll bucket.

All right. So the forces of evil, right? They are winning. They are winning right now. And it's, again, I don't consider myself vanquished and you shouldn't either it's all we've got you know once they impart that prison of the mind on you that we referenced in c.s lewis's quote yesterday at the end of the show then it's over i you know just quick i'm sorry i don't mean to get off topic here, but I, uh, again, I, one of my favorite books, it's on my reading list when we get it together

is man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl. It's his story of the Nazi concentration camps being moved around and his story of being inside them. And the book is obviously titled Man's Search for Meaning. And one of the central tenets of the book and the takeaways is that no matter how harsh and brutal the conditions are, you won't like it, but you can get used to it. He talks about all the things they did to them, you know, shoes with no soles or laces while working in the freezing cold weather and in rags, sleeping on wooden planks with six and seven, you know, other, you know, Jews who were put in these concentration camps, watching the death and your friends right in front of you, the torture, the beatings, how men would kill themselves and they'd call run into the wire. They would

deliberately run into the electric fence. And he says there was always that moment. Frankel talks about in the book, such an amazing piece of work, how he said there was that moment when you saw they lost hope. And he said, once they lost hope, there was no saving them ever. You couldn't get them off the plank to work. It didn't matter what you beat them with, what you did. It was over. They would rather be dead. They knew it and it was over. The eyes, everything, they just lost hope. And he said, the one thing that gets them through all this, the people that survived was a little sliver of hope. Hope they'd see their wives again, their kids again. He mentions, I think at one point,

looking out of a train as he was being transported from one concentration camp to the next and seeing a village of people who were free and thinking that could be him again. That no matter how bad it gets, if you still have hope, you still have something. Amazing book. Well, I have hope that we can fix a lot of this stuff. But we can't fix it unless we recognize what's going on.

Here's video out of Australia. I want you to listen to it if you're listening simply on audio. This is outside of a store in Australia where a couple of young girls don't have masks on. So the police up there who, I don't know what they're thinking. You know, I was a police officer myself. I've been very supportive of the blue, but I mean, this is third world stuff. The police show up to arrest them and then proceed to pepper spray a 12 year old girl who doesn't have the mask on. This goes on, by the way, for about two minutes or so. It's a disturbing video you're watching on my Rumble account.

If you're listening, it's just as disturbing. Check this out. Look at this. Look at this. My brother on the phone for nothing. Paper sprayed at 12 year olds. Get on me. Paper sprayed at 12 year olds. Paper sprayed at 12 year olds now for not wearing masks. You know, I say to her, we have a weighty, heavy audience in Australia. I say to my friends in Australia, I'm with you.

But there's not not one of the people involved in this electorally should be reelected. Not one. If you're not ready to get out and organize, and I know many of you are, I get your emails all the way from across the world. If you're not ready to get out and organize and you're not ready to save your country, most of you are. I get your emails. Not one of these people should have another term in office. Not one. Whether they're your local commissioners,

NSW people who were appointed, Sydney locals, nationals, whatever they are, they should never see elected office ever again. All of these videos should be played on loop in every future campaign to remind people what happened when they get vanquished because they considered themselves so and they lost all hope.

Don't lose hope. We have a bunch of unserious evil people in charge right now, folks. It's the biggest crisis of our time, the crisis in leadership. Whether it's Australia, New Zealand, which I'll talk about New Zealand in a second too, back to that area of the world. New Zealand decided it'd be a good idea to close the country down for one COVID case. Again, we've hired imbeciles, but they're evil imbeciles, which is even worse. But there's an article in Red State for three days now I've been tryingbeciles, but they're evil imbeciles, which is even worse. But there's an article in

Red State for three days now I've been trying to get to, but we've been so busy with the total disaster unfolding in Afghanistan. We have entirely unserious people, evil people in charge right now who are looking to fabricate and create out of a play-doh political narratives rather than dealing with the crisis in front of us. Back to COVID for a second. Red State, the great banshee. Media's COVID narrative crumbles under the weight of the latest data. Well, what's the media's narrative? Instead of, because it's always about a narrative.

The media hates Republicans. They're not interested in the truth. They're not interested in helping you get to the truth. They're not interested in exposing fascist, totalitarian, evil tactics. That's not what they're interested in. The media and sadly large swaths of corporate America, I'll get to that in a minute too, are not interested in any of that. They are interested simply in targeting conservatism and advancing socialism and liberalism.

So their narrative with the COVID and the Delta variant was what? Let's pick two Republican governors we hate. Let's see. Oh, Abbott and DeSantis. And let's blame the Delta variant was what? Let's pick two Republican governors we hate. Let's see. Oh, Abbott and DeSantis. And let's blame the Delta variant on them. Do you have any evidence they had anything to do with this? No, none at all, but let's just do it. Now, if you're down in Florida,

I'll get to the piece in a second, what they say. If you're down in Florida and you live down here like I do, you would know that a lot of infectious diseases, especially with coronavirus given last year, tend to trend the opposite way they do up in the north. Think about that. Why is that? Think it through for a second. Sometimes a question is better than an assertion. Why would a respiratory infectious virus spread seasonally in a different season in Florida than it would up in the northeast? Well, where do respiratory viruses fester best indoors right but air circulation is is obviously

going to be poorer than it would be outdoors and people because of the constraints of the walls indoors are forced closer together so when are people indoors in the northeast joe pop quiz for you yes you're up in in the Northeast. Maryland has very cold winters. I know. I live there. Are you outdoors more in the summer or in the winter in the Northeast? It's not a trick. No, no trick. I'm outdoors more in the summer, Daddy-O. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

All right, Joe. Very good. Joe answers correctly. Genius, of course. Joe always gets it right. And if we don't, we cut it out and recut it later. But Joe is very smart. I'm messing with you. I'm messing. I'm just messing with you.

No, you're not lying. I'm kidding. No, no. Well, once, but I messed you up. That was the question was worded poorly. We did do that once. So, yeah, you go indoors more in the winter. Now, if you're in Florida, where in the winter it's about 78 to 85 degrees,

where in the winter it's about 78 to 85 degrees. But in the summer it's 90, 95, sometimes close to 100 with back-breaking humidity in the summer down here. People find themselves more indoors in Florida in the summer. So Ron DeSantis said last year where we had Florida had a spike in the summer, we will probably get another spike of a respiratory virus like coronavirus in the summer. will probably get another spike of a respiratory virus like coronavirus in the summer and that's exactly what happened but the media wasn't okay with that so now that this delta variant is spiking in liberal states all of a sudden the media started to say they're in a panic oh my gosh what are we going to do we can't blame desantis for hawaii check this

out from bonshi's red state piece she says note that note that Hawaii is nearly 5,000 miles away from Florida, including a massive expanse of ocean in between. So any assertion that Floridians are somehow causing the current spike in the Pacific is laughable on its face. Rather Hawaii, which has had a very restrictive mask mandate, both indoors and outdoors is getting hit hard by Delta at exactly the time you would expect if you were looking at past trends. The proof?

Hawaii's largest previous spike happened in August of 2020, the exact month they are seeing a spike this year. It's not just Hawaii, though. Many Midwestern states are now seeing the same trend play out. You see how leftist goons, evil people in the media, you see how these leftist anti-liberty, anti-truth advocates

were so eager to destroy a conservative and not tell you the truth that it was seasonal that now that it's happening in blue states, you notice the governor of Hawaii is not the target of the ire of Joe Biden. Why is that? That's right, because it's a Democrat state.

And tragically, I never wish ill on anyone, not like these sick leftists. Tragically, you're going to see another spike of this Delta variant as the weather cools down in the Northeast and people go indoors. And I'm wondering what Joe Biden's going to say about Phil Murphy and Kathy Hochul, the new governor of New York, when that happens up there.

Are they going to suffer the same withering criticism that Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott did? No, of course not. Because the people we're being led by again are unserious, evil people. But I still have hope we'll clean this up in the end. And again, I don't consider myself vanquished and you shouldn't either. As I referenced about New Zealand, we're being led not just by incompetent, unserious people, but being led by evil imbeciles. New Zealand, New Zealand, Bloomberg, one virus case puts New Zealand into a nationwide lockdown. A friend of mine communicated a message to me.

She got from a friend in New Zealand as well, happens to be a conservative, who thinks this is a good idea. That's not the emails I'm getting, just to be clear. Emails I'm getting from New Zealand and friends, they're furious about this. but that some alleged conservatives are playing along with this insanity is mind boggling to me. All right.

So here's what we got going on. Let me get to my last sponsor, my friends at Blue Blocks for a second. That's our last sponsor. But please, please don't go anywhere. Please don't go anywhere. I've got a must-read Substack article by Michael Tracy. Interviewed a soldier serving in Afghanistan, one of our soldiers, not an Afghan soldier. In the interview, this was months ago.

You're going to ask yourself after you hear this quote from the interview, what we lied to the whole time was the Afghanistan operation, a money-making operation for this military-industrial complex? Oh my gosh, you can't say that. That's a talking point. But what if it's true? What if it's true? That's coming up. And a story about corporate America selling us out,

which is gross. Hey, if you're a listener of my show, you know I suffer from poor quality sleep. I did for a long time. I'm laughing because he doesn't have his buddy, Justin, to make fun of me and my sleeping issues. It's a big deal for me when I sleep good. I come in this Reiki, I like celebrate, dude, you'll never believe it. I had two hours of deep sleep last night. One of the things that's helped me, not a joke, man, I would have bought them anyway, is these blue blocks glasses. I wear them at night. I wear them before I go on TV too. I got the blue blocks sleep plus blue light blocking glasses. My sleep quality's gone

through the roof. You don't understand how much a blue light from screens keeps you up at night until you put the blue blocks plus sleep plus blue light glasses on, you start getting drowsy the minute you put them on. Just trust me on this one. Blue Blocks offers three options, blue light computer glasses and the Summer Glow Blue Light glasses to wear during the day when you're working behind screens or artificial light. And like I just said, the Sleep Plus glasses, I put them on about two, three hours before bedtime. It creates more sleep hormones. You'll start getting drowsy within, but me, maybe like a half an hour putting them on.

Glasses come in non-prescription, prescription, and reading options. Blue Blocks is made in optics laboratories in Australia, not mass produced in factories in Asia. They have stylus frames with science-backed technology. Blue Blocks analyzes light and only filters the damaging wavelengths so you can be your healthiest self. Filter 100% of UV light. Don't settle for any cheapos. These are worth

the money. Since wearing the Sleep Plus Blue Light glasses, my sleep's been through the roof. Sleeping longer, deeper, and I feel better when I get up. It's important. My head has to be in the right spot, especially with everything going on. They have styles for everyone, and you can virtually try them on in the app. Fine glasses for every need. Blue light for helping with digital eye strain. Summer glow for helping with low mood migraines. Sleep Plus for improving your sleep. They also have other amazing products such as low blue light bulbs,

red light therapy devices, and 100% blackout sleep masks, all backed by science. Blue Block ships worldwide in rapid time. They have easy returns and exchanges. How do you get them? Go to Blue Blocks. That's B-L-U-B-L-O-X.com slash Bongino.

And use coupon code Bongino to save 15%. That's BlueBlocks.com slash Bongino. And use coupon code Bongino to save a terrific 15%. BlueBlocks.com slash Bongino. B-L-U-B-L-O-X dot com slash Bungino. Thanks. Okay, so back to Afghanistan. We have to start asking serious questions because unlike the unserious evil people we're being led by, we are a good, serious people that have to start making hard decisions. Michael Tracy wrote a piece on July 13th. You may have seen him. He appears on Fox News once in a while. But I caught this from Glenn Greenwald. Glenn Greenwald, who just started a Rumble account, is a terrific video up about a lot of this. And in Tracy's interview, this Afghanistan veteran reflects on he has some insider experience on the withdrawal of U.S. forces. And he says, quote, to Tracy, it was a big money funneling operation. The piece is fascinating. It's in my newsletter today, Bongino.com slash newsletter.

But I'll go to the one part, in the interest of time, I'll go to the part I found the most devastating. How it appears that a bunch of people were making money with military equipment in Afghanistan. We didn't even know where it was going. Here, this is from the Afghanistan veteran who was in on these meetings. He's talking about how they were supposed to provide Humvees to the Afghan military.

He says, I wasn't going down and surveilling where a damaged Humvee went, but we'd send a convoy of Humvees down to Lashkar Gah and only two of them made it there intact. And then nobody would follow up on what happened to the rest of the Humvees. And so I'd say, I'm speculating, I'm speculating that these are winding up in somebody else's hands, where they're not supposed to be. That seemed apparent to me in pretty much everyone else I work with. Who else's hands?

He goes on. The overwhelming impression I got, it didn't occur to me that we were purposefully delivering this equipment into the hands of Al-Qaeda or whatever, but the sense that I got was, oh, well, the purpose of us being here is to justify pouring mountains of cash into the pockets of contractors and the manufacturers of this equipment. The incentive structure was lose S-word because then it'll have to be replaced and we'll have to send more out there. We're not allowed to bring this up. We're not allowed to bring any of this up,

but we're not allowed to talk about this. So we would send what 12 Humvees to our supposed partners in the Afghan military. Two of them would make it. Nobody asks any questions about what happens to the other 10. Just to be clear, you can't have a gun, according to liberals in the United States of America, but we can produce up armored Humvees, lose them and then never account at all for where they went. Yeah, that sounds that sounds about right. You know, I love your feedback. I'm thinking about on my Fox show this weekend, Unfiltered, right? You know, I'd love your feedback. I'm thinking about on my Fox show this weekend, Unfiltered, right? I'm very seriously thinking about

a monologue based on a question I asked during yesterday's radio show. If Joe Biden was trying to destroy America, would you do anything different? I'd love your feedback on that. I think that needs to be, it might be harsh, might not be the kind of thing you want to hear Saturday night at 10 o'clock, but it may need to be said you were going to try to destroy america what

would you do different than what joe biden's doing listen i can't again verify this 100 percent but i was sent this this morning from someone who claims bona fides from the region said to train black hawk helicopter pilots who said that this message went out from the taliban uh and it was sent to him this is the translation however accurate the translation is again i don't write arabic or speak arabic so i couldn't tell you but remember i said yesterday we have these this fleet Blackhawks has been taken by the Taliban. They now have one of the largest fleets of Blackhawks among militaries in the world. When you factor out the big ones. And a couple people wrote back and said, well, they're not going to have the pilots.

Oh, they'll find the pilots. Here, this is a translation from a message that was allegedly sent out. It says, greetings to all the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Congratulations to all for the recent conquest. The time of Kabul is short and with the help of Allah, Kabul will come under control soon and we will settle with all those commandos who martyred our Mujahideen and the pilots who fly at night with Americans and attacked us, especially the 777 block. We will burn their families alive. Good luck. Glad Biden did the responsible thing and pulled out responsibly. What a joke. What an embarrassment.

out responsibly. What a joke. What an embarrassment. Now, we're not just led by evil, unserious political idiots. We also have unserious people in corporate America who are selling the country out day by day. They sell the country out all the time. We've been sold out by large swaths of corporate America. I want you to just pay very close attention to these headlines here, and you can form your own conclusions. Here's an article I saw pop this morning on the Financial Times. You know BlackRock? Well, BlackRock, it's this investment firm,

this investment asset manager. BlackRock calls for investors to lift their allocations to Chinese markets. It says that the second largest market, China, is no longer an emerging nation. Steve Johnson, Financial Times, August 17th, 2021. So BlackRock, part of corporate America that, I'm a capitalist, but I'm not a crappitalist. BlackRock said, yeah, you know what? You definitely need to bump your asset allocations more into China.

Let's get more money into China. That's our recommendation. Which is strange because BlackRock on their own website, June 22nd, 2020, put out this, our actions to advance racial equity and inclusion. Big social justice stuff. Sent out a memo to all their employees

with an update on their plans to promote racial equity and inclusion. Does that include China, where you're recommending people invest more of their money? Because that's weird. I saw this story, too, in the BBC, and you can see it pretty much anywhere, that China's the same country that, quote, their goal is to destroy everyone as Muslim Uyghurs and their camp detainees allege systematic rape of their women by the Chinese Communist Party.

Very inclusive. Yeah, Guy makes very, very inclusive. Corporate America. Always, always our friends. Always our buddies, right? If there's a right side of right and a wrong side of right, they're on the wrong side of right

just about every time, a lot of these large corporations who incredibly will sell their souls to the devil for a buck in china will sell their souls to the anti-american pro-chinese communist party left to destroy this country will tell people to invest more in china claim there for racial inclusion while supporting a country that systematically rapes mus Uyghur women and puts the rest of them in concentration camps to men. Sounds fair. A couple of quick stories before we go for today, but important ones. Is this a harbinger for what's coming in the election in 2022?

Gosh, I hope so. Breitbart story being my newsletter today. Connecticut, the Republican Party flips the state Senate seat in a district Joe Biden won by 25 points. Folks, I think the Democrats are in a lot of trouble. I get your frustrations. I've heard them. Believe me, I hear them every day.

2020 was a mess. It was a mess. And there are still things to come out about 2020. There are questions that have not been answered. There will be. But you can't ignore what's ahead. You're not vanquished until you consider yourself so. This could bode very, very poorly for the Democrats in 2022. Listen, I'm going to leave you with a tough video today. And I had to think this through.

I wasn't sure I wanted to play this today. But I'm going to play it. My judgment's 50-50. And when it's 50-50, I say, do it, don't do it. And I'm struggling with it. I think that it's best to show it to you and let you decide and email me back later. This is some video taken at Karzai Airport outside of a young Afghani girl. It's not very long.

It's only about 15 seconds or less. Begging a US soldier to let her in because the Taliban are coming. You know, and I asked the left again and all the others out there who weren't for big strikes and hate our military and everything like that and want to engage in humanitarian missions rather than engaging in retribution attacks and teaching these people a lesson. Is this what you wanted? Because this is your guy that did this.

It's a little disturbing, folks. But again, when I'm 50-50 on it, I play it and I'll let you decide. Take a look. It's hard to watch. But better you see it than don't. And I'll leave you with this thought. There's more of those videos coming and they're going to be worse. It's time to fight these people on their own terms. And the only terms they understand are violence and pain. That's it.

There's no easy way out of this. Anyone giving you an easy answer is a buffoon and should be ignored immediately. Thanks for tuning in, folks. I really appreciate it. I'll see you all tomorrow. You just heard Dan Bongino.