The Dan Bongino Show - Why Are They Hiding The Pegasus Scandal? (Ep 1566)

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

Why are they hiding the massive Pegasus spying scandal? In this episode, I follow the money. I also address the REAL data behind the covid risk to kids.  News Picks: What is Pegasus? Follow the money.  The Matt Ridley blog post about the infectious nature of the coronavirus variants, which I discussed in the show today.  Twitter communists suspend Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Democrats want your young kids wearing face diapers. Biden is desperately backtracking on his Facebook threats.  Media joker admits they’re full time liberal activists. Copyright Bongino Inc All Rights Reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino. This Pegasus story did not take off yesterday as expected. Why? What is Pegasus? Why does it matter? The story's devastating. Pegasus appears to be a program designed to hack your phones, your microphone, your camera, watching you. Imagine that, your bedroom with your camera, activating the microphone, reading your emails, reading your texts, reading even your encrypted signal traffic. So the fact that this story broke in The Guardian

and nobody's talking about it is quite disturbing. And I think I have the reason why today. Why is the Pegasus story not spreading? As always, what do we do? I actually wrote a book about it right there. Totally unintended. Follow the money. Beers would be one of those follow the money cases.

Hey, you have the right to privacy, by way defend it get a vpn it's like the perfect time express vpn spots seriously go to expressvpn.com slash bongino today defend your right to privacy welcome to the damn bongino show uh let's get right to it i've got that also the endless fear campaign continues with the coronavirus. You're all going to die. You're going to die all the time. Endless fear all the time. I'm tired of it. The world is a really complicated place, okay?

It's full of threats. There's threats everywhere. There's threats of crime, threats of an air traffic accident, threat of a car accident. There's threat of disease. There's threat of hunger, starvation, waterborne illnesses, insect-borne illnesses. Everybody needs to man up and say, listen, this thing, we're going to have to live with it. It sucks. Yes, it can be dangerous to some people. Thankfully, to large groups of people, it's very risk manageable and we're going to have to move

on. Is that going to happen anytime soon? Or is the endless coronavirus fear campaign going to continue until we all die of stress from the coronavirus? Sorry, that wasn't even part of my beginning. I'm just, I can't take it. The fear campaign is out of control. It is so detached from the data. Wait till I get to later what the mortality rate amongst kids from the coronavirus is. Wait till we talk about that a little later.

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All right, Joe, let's go. Every morning. So Jeff Bezos touched down a little while ago in the desert did his little jaunt into space we're gonna cover this for about 20 minutes today just kidding great congratulations guys uh whatever worth a billion dollars um is you know committed to conservative censorship so i don't really care i'm not really into celebrating jeff breeze bezos's billion dollar you know 11 minute tourism venture to the end of the horizon So I don't really care. I'm not really into celebrating Jeff Bezos' billion-dollar, you know, 11-minute tourism venture to the end of the horizon.

Congrats, dude. You probably, you know, were bored on a weekend. We're like, hey, I want to travel into space. Most of us middle-class Americans can't do that. Of course, everybody's running wall-to-wall coverage of this absurdity. Great. He went into space. Congratulations.

What are you supposed to do? What do you want to talk about? Joe, any angle on that you'd like to add? Guy? Justin, anyone have any? No? Joe? Guy?

Justin, anything to say on it? No, nobody cares. Okay. I only talk about stuff, by the way, if there's an angle. Hold on. No, it's not cool. No, Guy's angle is it's pretty cool. No, no.

Get out. Justin, take over. Thank God we got an intern. He's fired. Ball up. Get this kid out of here. It's not pretty cool. We don't care.

The guy flew to space. You know, no, no, I'm not buying that. All right, let's get to the real news. Sorry. Why is this Pegasus story not spreading? Yesterday's show went nuclear. It was the sixth most listened to pod. I'm just kidding. We love Guy. He's allowed to have an It was the sixth most listened to pod. I'm just kidding.

We love Keith. He's allowed to have an opinion, even if I object to it strongly and fire him immediately after the show. It was the sixth most listened to show on iTunes, a news program yesterday, the podcast. It went nuclear fast

because we talked about Pegasus. Pegasus, according to the Guardian's reporting, it's a story you need to know about. It is apparently some kind of malware program that can infect your phone, invented by this company called NSO, that according to the Guardian's news reporting, because I don't like hysteria,

according to the Guardian, this is being abused by totalitarian regimes, and they had a list, they allege, of 50,000 numbers this has been implanted on or could be implanted on. So it's an important story, folks. I mean, just imagine, as I said yesterday, your phone right here, the camera, the microphone. I mean, imagine right now if the Pegasus program was on, they could hear everything that's going on. They could hear yesterday we had to cut out five minutes of the show because I got off on all kinds of weirdo tangents, right?

Pegasus might have that show, whoever has it. It's a huge story. It's a huge story because the power to surveil now is like nothing in human history. If you wanted to surveil people in the past, when I was a Secret Service agent, right, what'd you have to do? You had to go get a surveillance team. You had to go sit in a car,

follow a guy around. You had to bring an antifreeze bottle that was empty. Why do you think that is? I'll leave you to guess that one. That's right. You had to bring an ant and a whole lot of water and some food and you'd be out all day and you had to watch.

Sometimes you'd have those like parabolic mics or whatever. I remember one time I was out with this FBI guy who, you know, most of the FBI guys I work with were pretty, pretty cool cats. We're pretty smart. This one guy worked with, wasn't that bright.

And you know, we were out in the car with tinted windows. Cause you don't want the bad guy to know you're watching them. The guys at a gas station were're across the street so the FBI guys got the binoculars and he's watching from behind the tinted glass watching the guy he decides to roll down the window with the binoculars staring at the guy who promptly looks and sees a guy with binoculars staring at him and I was like dude what are you doing just keep the window up like that didn't occur to you it would look weird that a criminal would see a guy and a dude in an FBI looking car

with binoculars. I was like, what are you doing, man? That's the way we used to do it. Now, click of a button. You don't even have to click on this stuff. Apparently, this company can send you Pegasus in a text message and your phone is now a homing beacon so I said to you yesterday I said I'm predicting it'll become one of the biggest stories in America yeah it didn't and now I think I understand why you always have to follow the money

again the Washington Post in a shocking act of journalism it does happen once in a while once every it's like haley's comet what is haley's comet every 72 years once every 72 years haley's washington post comes around and does an actual piece of journalism always stunning and they talk about quote how washington power brokers gained from NSO spyware ambitions. Says the surveillance giant NSO is a company built Pegasus. NSO has failed to build a big business in the US. Thank God. But an influential network of consultants, lawyers and lobbyists still made money representing the company.

Drew Harwell, Washington Post. I rarely put Washington Post stories in my show notes, but this story is worth reading if the journalism is accurate. Listen, I can't stand the Washington Post, but unlike them, I don't discriminate against facts. If this story's fact-based, it's a good one, and it explains exactly why all of America right now isn't talking about this Pegasus program, which could be on phones and people don't even know about it. By the way, how do we know this technology is not going to be hijacked, as Guy said yesterday, by some foreign regime and put on the phone of the BlackBerry of Trump or Obama? Obama never even got rid of it. But how do you know that? I mean, how do you know that stuff? But granted, they're all out of office, but we don't know that. Once the technology is out there, that's the whole idea. That's the whole idea about an idea

that makes it harder to control. It's an idea. You don't have to touch it to spread it. Once you have an idea, that's why, by the way, not to get off topic, but that's why communism never works. You may control the means of production, but you can't control the spread of an idea. Once this technology spreads, you don't know who has it. From the Washington Post piece, it says, an influential network of Washington consultants, lawyers, lobbyists, and other prominent personalities have earned money from the company.

Oh, there's a stunner, folks. It's parent company or its founders. A Washington Post review of government and company filing shows those beneficiaries include some of the most powerful members of the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. Folks, there's no sacred cows here. Keep this up a second. Remember, NSO is the parent company that made Pegasus. It says,

among those who've received payments from NSO or related companies are former chiefs of Homeland Security and Justice Departments, as well as Washington's most prestigious law and public relations firms, the public filing show folks there's no sacred cows here some of the names on this list people who were being paid by the parent company of pegasus apparently to lobby here again this malware that according to this reporting can spy on your phone without you knowing and you don't even have to click on a pernicious link you just have to be sent a text and you're finished. I'm going to play some video in a second from some reporting done. Keep it with a grain of salt.

It's from Al Jazeera. But what the guy's saying from what I read is reasonably accurate. They're using it for other reasons to attack Israel. But my opinion, by the way. But I'll put that up in a second, how it works. Because it's frightening. Some of the names on the list are really scary. Now, not to keep bringing up my former line of work, but when I left the Secret Service, I was asked by a security company.

I was asked to go over to a foreign country and review their personal security profile for their dignitaries. Now, you may say, oh, well, you know, okay, interesting. Why didn't you do it? Well, I didn't do it because one of the countries I was a little bit suspect of, and I was uncomfortable showing even basic security stuff to them. Keep in mind, I would never in a thousand years consider sharing what we really do behind the scenes, obviously. I mean, that would be treasonous type behavior. The Secret Service is here to protect our digs, our dignitaries.

But they were asking for just like basic type training, firearms type stuff, basic formations, protection formations, anything you can read online. I didn't do it. And it's interesting because I found out that in order to even do that, the basic stuff, you have to go through this ITAR, this international thing against

arms that regulates arms and trade in arms. You have to get ITAR approval to teach that kind of stuff to foreign governments. It's considered a sensitive technology. I mean, is ITAR involved in this? I mean, you're policing basic secret service.

No, we weren't even. They were like basic protection formations. And you're not even allowing guys to go over to a foreign country and whatever, teach the French about basic security techniques. Are we policing this thing? Listen, I'm not a fan of government regulation, but my gosh, I am a libertarian at heart. I don't want my microphone and my phone and my geolocation

and my texts and all my passwords and my signal traffic out there for the world to see. This is pretty sensitive technology, no? I'd almost rather see trade in hard weapons before trade in this technology. Getting back to who some of the names on this list are. The network of people paid off. It's another name on there I found particularly frightening. I'll get to in a second, but from the piece. In 2019, after a Saudi dissident filed a lawsuit in Israel accusing NSO of helping surveil Jamal Khashoggi before his death,

the company embarked on a VIP spending spree in hopes of cleaning up its reputation, announcing it hired three senior advisors to help the company, quote, continue its work to assist governments in fighting serious crime and terrorism. States' first Homeland Security Secretary under George W. Bush, Gerard Herod, France's former ambassador to the United States, and Juliette Kamen, a Department of Homeland Security official under President Barack Obama. I want to note in the interest of openness that Lieutenant General Mike Flynn was on this list, too, according to The Washington Post reporting. Folks, listen, apparently this

company did its homework. According to this reporting, putting money, throwing money out there, seeding it across the aisle to make sure they could clean up and burnish their reputation. Listen, I'm not, this company is free to do what the technology, I love technology companies. I'm not attacking this company personally. I'm simply suggesting that this is a very dangerous technology. Everybody should understand that. I'm not a fan of government regulation, but the idea that a technology could get out there and be sold to enemies of the United States or people in the United States to stalk and track you for blackmail purposes or whatever is really disturbing. And I would say that about my political enemies in the press too.

I don't want them being watched via a surveillance program, and I certainly don't want the press being watched either. It's a serious story. Now listen, this is from Al Jazeera, so take this with a huge grain of salt. But I did my homework before I could. It's about a minute-long clip about how this is initially, when this technology was invented, you had to click on a malicious link. In other words, hey, sign up here. Boom.

Click, and your phone's infected. According to this reporting, which from everything I've read, this reporting is accurate, the technology now is zero-click, meaning all you have to do is receive a text. This is really disturbing. Check this out.

Originally, when we started studying Pegasus in 2016, a target would have to click on a link sent via SMS in order to facilitate the infection of the phone. If you didn't click on the link, the phone wouldn't get infected and wouldn't be able to be monitored. But around 2017 or 2018, NSO Group appears to have released a major update to the Pegasus system, which allows governments to hack into phones with a so-called zero-click technique. This means the target does not need to click on anything. They don't need to take any action. Their phone could be sitting on a table. One minute, it's fine. The next minute, it's hacked. And once it's hacked, the government can access everything on the phone. They can get messages. They can turn on the microphone and

listen into conversations happening near the telephone. They can take pictures through the camera. They can take passwords, contacts, track GPS location, basically anything you can do as the owner of the phone or you can see the operator of the spyware can do or see. You know, this is insane. I really have to almost recommend to people, it's crazy that everybody go out to get like burner phones. This is nuts.

This is nuts. I'm not suggesting you're all being spied on with this Pegasus or even a fraction of you. That's not what I'm suggesting. I'm simply suggesting that technology is there to do it now. Unless everybody here is lying, this consortium of media folks, which they've done in the past, but I have no reason to believe they are here. they've done in the past, but I have no reason to believe they are here. The technology's there right now to spy on you in a way not even possible with direct personal surveillance. Think about it.

When we used to watch people with surveillance teams, criminals, you don't hear what they're saying. You watch them. Hey, guy went to a bar. You take surveillance notes. Guy left the bar. Guy went to the bank. Maybe he's scobity.

You don't know what they're talking about. This is even worse. You've got their geolocation on the phone, which you can triangulate on towers. You've got their conversations because you activate the microphone. You've got their writings when they're writing an email and sending to people. And then you have all their

passwords. This is a dangerous new world we live in, folks. Very dangerous. And as I've warned repeatedly and will warn you again today and tomorrow and probably next week too, the most dangerous threat to freedom right now in this country and elsewhere is the big tech government symbiote. And I'll throw in the lobbyist and influencer symbiote as well. Protecting these big tech companies as they buy off government officials. We are in a really dangerous spot.

All right, I want to move on because I've got a lot to get to. I got tied up on this yesterday. That stopped me from getting to the whole litany of stories I wanted to cover. Folks, the fear campaign continues over COVID. And the government's making it worse with big tech. Big tech and government, the symbiote. I can't express to you in strong enough terms how they're not only a threat to liberty, but a threat to liberty,

but a threat to sanity as well, and your civil liberties when it comes to coronavirus, which is being used now as an excuse to crush like a grape your civil liberties. They want you in an endless death spiral of fear. Oh my God, we're going to die. Delta variant, we're going to die. Are you? Are you? What does the data say?

Why are we putting kids in face diapers? Why? Why are we telling the kids, you got to wear the mask, kids? Why? What's the evidence? What is the evidence? Have you done any risk analysis on that whatsoever? I'm going to get to that in a second and how big tech is contributing to this by crushing

people's ability to speak, which is making people even more suspicious of what we're being told about the coronavirus. I'm sure this episode will be banned. Let me get to my second sponsor. I want to get to that and want to give you actual data because we do science on here. Science, not fear campaigns. That's important. You know, I love the Teeter inversion table. Now Teeter is bringing you a full body zero impact exercise with one simple machine. I love it. It's called the Free Step Recumbent Cross Trainer. It's really good.

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You'll also get free shipping and a 60-day money-back guarantee, so there's no reason not to try it. Remember, you can only get the Teeter Free Step Recumbent Cross Trainer and save $100 by going to teeter, T-E-E-T-E-R.com slash Dan. That's teeter.com slash Dan. Thanks, Teeter. We appreciate you sponsoring the show. I'm not doing the fear campaign anymore, and I want to salute Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends in the morning

for speaking out against this stuff. If you've listened to him on Fox and Friends in the morning for speaking out against this stuff. If you've listened to him on Fox and Friends in the morning, he has been asking very simple questions. Why are we putting these masks on our kids? Have we looked at the data? Do we understand the science here? Is there a downside to the mask? I'll get to the JAMA study we've been talking about. A lot of you have been emailing me about it in a moment, too. The fear campaign must continue. It is the only way the teachers unions and the anti-civil liberties left will be able to crush your civil liberties. What have I been telling you for two weeks now? The coin of the realm for the left is fear. They use fear. It's the only way to get you to surrender your civil liberties to them. Every single tyrannical, totalitarian, authoritarian

regime throughout human history has gotten people to suspend their civil liberties by a fear campaign first and a violence campaign later. Every one. Every single one, hands down, period. And they're not helping the big tech government symbiote. What do I mean? Look at the story by The Washington Times from yesterday. Marjorie Taylor Greene suspended again by Twitter for daring to suggest that if you are obese and overweight that you may have some issues with coronavirus.

You can't say that. You can't say that. And the tragic thing here is Twitter thinks they're making the problem better, apparently not realizing that people are in an open rebellion right now against big tech, convinced big tech isn't telling them the truth because they're not allowing them to access information about the coronavirus. So Twitter, in order to solve that problem, no, no, no, we're telling you the truth, decides to block people who they suggest aren't telling you the truth, making the problem a thousand times

worse. Here's another story. This one showing you how the Democrats, they are in an endless love affair with this fear campaign in conjunction with the teachers unions, whose only agenda right now is to scare the hell out of you to get more money. Only agenda right now is to scare the hell out of you to get more money. I'm not knocking teachers. Stop. Stop. Love teachers.

They've been great to me. Am where I am because of great teachers. Your unions suck. They suck. They hate the kids. Stop pretending they don't. They are all about money. They don't give a damn about your kids.

I'll prove that in a second. They're influencing and throwing money and influence around everywhere to stick your kid in a face diaper with no evidence whatsoever. It's mitigating any risk here. Here's a Washington Examiner article. Bubble children. Democrats say yes to masks and vaccines in schools. This is a Paul Bedard article. Be in my newsletter today. Read it because it shows you how the Democrats chronically live in fear. They believe all of this stuff. All of it.

Kids are at super high risk from coronavirus and death. That is not backed up by the science. Are we doing science anymore? Here, from the examiner piece. Look at these poll numbers. By more than two to one, Democrats support requiring schools to mask up and vaccinate students, requiring them. No free choice here, folks. This is according to Rasmussen. On masks, Democrats support a requirement in school, 58 to 23%. On vaccines, it was 56% backing a requirement to 25% not. These people live in fear a requirement to 25 percent. Not these people

live in fear. They're absolutely hopeless. Listen, this is why I tell you. I had Curtis Saliwa on running for mayor in New York City the other day on my radio show. You know, he said, listen, people got to stay and fight New York. Listen, I totally, entirely, completely disagree at this point. I wrote an article years ago at IJ Review suggesting we should stay in blue states and fight. Folks, these people aren't interested in the fight. They're not. Far better off to go to states where your vote is more tactically and strategically useful. Swing states and red states so we can keep them red. You can't live with these people. You can't. They want your kids in face diapers. They never stop the endless fear campaign. It is never going to end.

So what evidence are they using? Because we're doing science. I know this show will be banned by ScrewTube and others. I get it. I understand. I don't care. As I've told you a thousand times, I'm not interested in catering to their whims

and their anti-science BS. You would think that these claims by Democrats, kids should be in masks, we must vaccinate, that it would be based on some risk profile, correct? Interested in the evidence? I am. So what is the evidence about the risk to kids? Well, Marty Makary, an actual sane person I work with at Fox,

has an article up in the Wall Street Journal which has actual data. You know, data points, the stuff I thought, you know, we're the party of science. You are the, well, what is the science leftist? You don't know. That's why you're in a panic and you want kids in face diapers all the time. Here's the article, Wall Street Journal, today.

The flimsy evidence behind the CDC's push to vaccinate children. The agency overcounts COVID hospitalizations and deaths and won't consider if one shot is sufficient. So what does the data say about kids and risk? And I don't want to hear your leftist, silly talking points if you're listening to my show. I'm out of patience today.

I don't want to hear it. If you are going to come back with a, well, Dan, not one life is where you can't put a price on a human life. We can't risk one life. Please stop. You put a risk and a price on your own life every day. I can't say it enough.

You get in a car, you drink alcohol, you fly in a plane. You know there's a risk of dying from those behaviors, correct? Very small risk. So let me get this straight. When there's a very small risk from flying and dying from a couple drinks every week, a small risk, you're willing to take that risk because you want to travel

and you want to enjoy your life. Is that right? Guys, anything I'm saying crazy? Anyone? Any objections? Okay, thank you. Joe and I have been known to have an adult soda once in a while.

Rarely. Joe was a musician once, so we give him a little pass. There was a different code back then, I'm sure. But they took the risk. They had fun. They said, this is my life. I want to enjoy myself. I'm going to have a few adult sodas.

Knowing it's probably not good. Because people put a price on their own human life every day. So why is it with coronavirus, with kids, where the risk is really, really small of death? Matter of fact, according to Macari's piece, which I'll get to in a minute where the risk is really, really small of death? Matter of fact, according to Macari's piece, which I'll get to, the risk is zero mortality.

Zero. Not the risk is zero. I should have said mortality zero. I want to be precise in my assessment of the data because I don't want to be a leftist. That we've totally thrown risk assessment out the window. Why don't we put masks on kids in schools because someone may come in smoking a cigarette?

Got to keep the risk low. You can't have a breathing secondhand smoke. Here, from the Wall Street Journal piece, here's the risk to your kids. Quote, a tremendous number of government and private policies affecting kids are based on one number. That number, 335. What is 335? That's how many children under 18 have died with a COVID diagnosis

in their record, according to the CDC. Yet the CDC, which has 21,000 employees, hasn't researched each death to find out whether COVID caused it or if it involved a pre-existing medical condition. Just to be clear, because we do science on this show, which I understand fake book and Twitter and Scooter will ban immediately. I get that. I'm willing to take the risk. I understand the risk and I'm taking it, putting out the data for you because you need to hear it. There's a chance we get thrown off Apple too. That's okay too.

Listen on my website. You're telling me in a country of 330 million people that we're sticking face diapers on our kids, locking down the schools and suggesting that they get vaccinated because 335 kids have died with COVID, not necessarily because of COVID. You get the difference, right? Kid shows up in a hospital with a broken leg and gets an infection.

Later on, he takes a positive COVID test. Does that mean he died of COVID or he died of the infection? Kid gets in a bike accident and goes to the hospital and dies of the bike accident and has COVID. Did he die from COVID or did he die with COVID? We don't seem to have an answer on that. So there's only 335 kids, deaths, ultra, especially kids, tragic nonetheless. But we're doing data here. And you're telling me of that number, you don't even know how many of those died of COVID?

Here's where we get to an even more puzzling number where the left can't seem to digest its risk profile again. So Macari did research and they analyzed the 48,000 children under 18 diagnosed with COVID using health insurance data from April to August.

Folks, science! Science libs! This is called science. Their report on these 48,000 kids with COVID found a mortality rate of zero among children without a preexisting medical condition such as leukemia. Can you imagine this? Shutting down the entire educational infrastructure of a country for a virus which, according to Macari's research from Johns Hopkins, they found a mortality rate of zero.

Zero. Zero. Zero. And you're wrapping your kids in face diapers, having them breathing in their own CO2. Folks, we're entering the dark ages of science. I'm serious. We are back to like Inquisition type times

where these people are so stupid. I'm going to show you in a minute how science isn't science anymore. Science has gone out the window. where these people are so stupid. I'm going to show you in a minute how any, science isn't science anymore. Science has gone out the window. It's been subordinated to politics and weak losers who do not have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to bureaucrats, teachers, unions,

and people with a vested interest in the fear campaign and say, stop, not today. Stop, not today. Stop, not today. We are not going to recommend absurdities for our kids for a disease that according to this research has a mortality rate based on health insurance data of zero. All right, let me get to my next sponsor and then I want to get to the, and I can't.

Guy, did you think the blog post by ridley was good fascinating right i'm gonna this one's good i'm gonna get to a blog post by matt ridley in a second that explains why not only is the government screwed this whole thing up coronavirus from the start with their absurd recommendations but how they've could have through the lockdowns could have made the coronavirus more deadly what yes yes the lockdowns could have, through the lockdowns, could have made the coronavirus more deadly. What? Yes, yes. The lockdowns could have made it more deadly.

Fascinating piece. I found it yesterday on social media. Hey, our third sponsor, our friends at Brickhouse Nutrition. Listen, back when I started my podcast, they were my first sponsor. And Miles, who owns the company, I said to him, I was actually taking, you know, these fruit and vegetable pills. You know, they have them and you grind them up and put them in a pill.

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You go to other fruit and vegetable powders, look at the back. It'll say supplement facts because it's a supplement. It's not real food. This has nutrition facts because it's real food. Check it out. This stuff, it's delicious.

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My daughter puts it in orange juice. It's delicious. How do you get Field of Greens? Go to brickhousenutrition.com slash Dan. Go today. Take care of your health and get 15% off your first order with the promo code Dan at checkout. Give it a try. Your body will thank you. Send me your reviews. You're going to love it. Brickhousenutrition.com slash Dan. Brickhousenutrition.com slash Dan. Promo code Dan. Pick up Field of Greens today. I promise you're going to love it. It's really good stuff. Okay. So again, not only is the government and the bureaucrats and the fear merchants and the media fully invested in an endless coronavirus fear campaign, totally detached from the data in the real world. I thought they were the party of science left.

There's a fascinating piece by Matt Ridley in his blog, conveniently called the Matt Ridley blog. Bold name, bald name. But it's a great piece. It'll be in my newsletter today. Read it. It's short. It's probably no more than 400 words.

Bongino.com slash newsletters. Again, how you subscribe to the newsletter. It's all free. He says virulent does not mean infectious. There's some fascinating information on this. Listen, I'm not an epidemiologist. Again, I don't pretend to be one. But facts are facts, whether you're a medical doctor, a researcher, a PhD or not.

And any sane person should be able to read facts and interpret the data. It's not complicated. You have a basic background in science. So Ridley brings up some fascinating points about how common respiratory viruses and their mutations evolve. He says this. He says respiratory viruses, you know, i.e. like colds and flus, they tend to evolve to be more transmissible but less virulent. They do better if you go out and about and meet people. He says this is not true of insect-borne or water-borne viruses, which don't care how sick you are.

Insects or water do the going out about for you. Come to me for a second. I'm going to come back to this one, guys. Sorry. I don't mean to confuse every one of the production crew here. What he's saying is that respiratory virus, they don't think they don't have brains or neurons. The only goal of a virus,

it's not even a goal, it's just how evolution works, is to spread. So the best way for a virus to spread is to become, let leftists get ready, the clawing's going to start at the faces, become more spreadable,

develop sprite proteins on the virus that better attach to receptors in the nose and the respiratory tract. They evolved to do that. They don't think about it. They just do it. The ones that evolve and mutate through natural processes to become more infectious are the ones that will infect more people. Guys, there are liberals listening, so pretend to be liberals for a moment because I don't want to like, because I know libs get confused about the coronavirus because everything is Trump,

Trump, hydroxychloroquine, inject bleach because they're so dumb. They want to stick their kids in face diapers because they can't comprehend basic things like a virus that mutates to be more infectious will infect more people. Like, whoa, really? Yes. That's how respiratory viruses work. But on the other hand, as Ridley says in his blog, they typically evolve to be less virulent.

Why? Because as Guy said this morning, you want it to be infectious but not necessarily kill the host. Because if the host is dead, he can't spread the virus. Why are we doing this? This is like, I feel bad for you, my regular listeners who have to hear this stuff. But I promise you, there are some insane people who are really hearing this for the first time. Like, no, Dan, I watched the movie once with Dustin Hoffman

and the virus killed every single person on planet. Really? Then who'd the virus infect? No one, because they're all dead. Respiratory viruses don't work that way. They evolve to be more transmissible, but less virulent, because it's no good to kill the host. He makes a good point, though.

Insect-borne viruses, Zika or whatever, they don't really care if the host is killed or not because the host doesn't transmit it. The insect or the water does. Whether the host is dead or alive is irrelevant. The mosquito just goes and bites someone else. If you die in 10 minutes or not from dengue fever, it doesn't matter.

You're not spreading it. The insect is. For libs, is this okay? Are you getting this? So what happened? Go back to the first piece again. Yeah, that's right. That's why it doesn't kill the insects. It kills you. Right.

He says that's why, this is Ridley's blogging, end quote, that's why there are 200 kinds of ants, it kills you. Right. He says that's why, this is Ridley's blogging, end quote, that's why there are 200 kinds of the common cold, none of which is virulent, including OC43, a coronavirus that probably caused a terrible pandemic in 1889, but now, through mutations, is a fairly mild and common cold. Doesn't do a lot of good to kill the host. Folks, the coronavirus is a respiratory virus too.

So where's the left as you believe every mutation is going to be some humanity killer that's going to wipe out all of humankind? Are we actually contributing to the maybe more virulent nature of some of these coronavirus variants? Because that's not typically evolutionarily how respiratory viruses work. Well, he makes a pretty compelling argument here, Ridley, one I strongly consider you to take into account, even if you're a liberal who right now wants to scream, it's bad, bad,

Trump, hydroxychloroquine. Listen to this. He says, however, there's one situation where respiratory viruses will stay virulent or even become more so. That's if mild cases meet fewer people than severe ones. Think about this. He says, this is what appears to, this is what happened, appears to be what happened in 1918.

He says, this is what appears to, this is what happened, appears to be what happened in 1918. Paul Ewald argued when severe flu cases in 1918 were evacuated from the front line of the war to a series of staging posts, field hospitals and trains, while the mild cases of the flu slept it off in a dugout. Because I think this is what happened last year when mild cases of COVID-19 stayed locked down at home while severe cases went to the hospital where many cases of the virus were acquired in the hospital. In other words, lockdowns, he says, whether necessary or not, probably delayed the evolution of the virus into a milder form. the evolution of the virus into a milder form. He says that's now happening and is our least worst option, given that eradication is impossible and the virus may become more transmissible in response to vaccination.

Folks, you see what he's saying here? This is not complicated to understand. It's a theory. Granted, I'm not positing it as dispositive fact, unlike leftists who want you to do that. But it is a fascinating theory that the lockdowns, which would have allowed mild mutations of the virus or the natural, the mutations that were not as virulent,

mild cases, people would have went out and spread the mild case, which would have made the mild case the dominant strain. Instead, by locking people down, the mild cases stayed at home in the lockdowns while the severe cases went to the hospital, went out, and probably spread the more virulent strain, which then mutated into more virulent strains.

More evidence, folks, that the government can't get out of its own way. Screwed this thing up from the start. You think banning people from Twitter is going to help this situation? Finally, on this topic, again, the dark ages of science are back. I told you about that JAMA study last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association, pediatric edition, that did a study showing kids with masks can develop hypercapnia, inhaling excess carbon dioxide. Well, of course, that didn't meet the political narrative of the day,

so here's a MedPage Today story. JAMA pediatrics retracts much-hyped mask study. Controversial study had numerous problems, Journal said. So instead of doing your own study, which would happen in, you know, science and trying to either replicate or debunk the results, no, they just retracted it under political pressure.

Because the narrative wasn't there. Gotta wear masks. There's no downside to masks, none. Got to get rid of the methodology wasn't right. So repeat the methodology and see what happens. Repeat the methodology or fix the methodology and see what happens. Try to debunk the study.

Didn't do it, just retracted it. Sounds like political pressure to me. Which is really puzzling because another scientific journal, The Lancet, had no problems whatsoever publishing Peter Daszak's, remember this letter? Fox News story? Daszak's recused from The Lancet's COVID-19 commission. Remember this guy? Daszak?

The EcoHealth Alliance guy whose organization gave money to the Wuhan lab? Who conveniently put together a letter that made it into the Lancet, another scientific journal, no problem, suggesting what? Ah, lab leak theory from the Wuhan lab. No worries, folks.

No big deal. Didn't happen. That made it into the Lancet. Really, that's strange, right? Very puzzling how that happened. Science. Didn't happen. That made it into the Lancet. Really? That's strange, right? Very puzzling how that happened. Science. Science is dead. Democrats killed it.

You should be embarrassed. Embarrassed. I don't ever want to hear out of your mouth again. The liberals are saying ever shut your mouth. Take the cotton out of your ears. Jam it in your mouth. Don't ever say this again. You will be laughed at and mocked.

We're the party of science. You're the party of stupidity and gaslighting. You're suckers. I just gave you the science. How respiratory viruses evolved to be largely less virulent. How the data on children does not at all comport with the risk profile you believe. And you don't care because you're all crazy. You're all seriously crazy.

I was in the doctor's office the other day. Lady's like, you got to wear a mask. I'm like, no, I don't. She's like, yes, you do. She's like, the CDC recommends. And I go, yeah, I recommend I don't. I was seriously going to leave. I'm like, no, I don't. She's like, yes, you do. She's like, the CDC recommends. And I go, yeah, I recommend I don't. I was seriously going to leave. I'm like, you know what?

I'm going to go outside. She's like, I can give you a mask. I'm like, I don't want your mask. And your nasty fingers touch it. I'm not interested. I went outside because I had something I really had to take care of. I walked back in. So here's what I did.

I put the mask on my face. I lowered it down over my face and just walked in the office. They were just happy that I had a mask on my chin. It was blocking, I guess, the goatee from spreading the coronavirus or whatever. It's so stupid. Here's another one. You want to see, quote, science? Phil Kirpin.

If you're not following this guy on social media, you're making a big mistake. It's fantastic. He's at Kirpin. His information's terrific. Although I hate Twitter and haven't posted an original thought there in months. Kirpin's got some good stuff. He talks about the Academy of Pediatrics, the AAP, that they put out this directive, this Pediatrics Academy, supposedly doing medicine, where in the tweet he says that they made this directive about child masking. And notice the citations. This is where the citations come from.

So he put this out on his Twitter feed. The AAP, this pediatric association, put out this report recommending kids in masks. So you'd think they'd have a scientific citation? Guys, again, I'm just asking a question to the libs. I'm not trying to be an ass here. I'm just asking you a question. You would think if the AAP for pediatrics is putting out a directive on masking, they would at least have a citation indicating there's some science on this, right?

So what's the citation they use? As Kirpin points out, this is hilarious. Joe, look at this. The American Federation of Teachers. Reopening schools during a time of triple crisis, financial implications. That's their citation. That's their citation.

The Teachers Union. You know, those advanced PhD epidemiologists who've done mounds of research on the effects of masking in kids. The AFT. Yeah, yeah. No, not those people. The people who haven't done any research at all. Science, folks.

Science. The left party of science. You believe that? Please stop humiliating yourself. Please stop in public embarrassing yourself. You're living in crazy pills time. If ever there was a time for Morpheus to appear with mass red pills, it's now. Morpheus, if you're out there, please.

We are living with the dumbest people on planet Earth. They have no ability to process information. This show, I have no doubt, will get banned. It will get banned because we just put out to you facts they're uncomfortable with. That's how dark the dark ages we're living in now are. Agent Smiths are everywhere. Agent Smiths are everywhere. All right, I got a couple more stories coming up. I just, I got to wrap with this AOC tweet too. AOC just, I know, I know you hate it.

You're like, oh, we should just ignore her. Tried that in the past. We don't confront the information head on. It just grows and grows. Let me get to my last sponsor. We always appreciate them being here talking to you. My last sponsor today is ZipRecruiter. Hey, good news. Entrepreneurial optimism has increased. In fact, a recent survey shows the highest ever intent for people to start their own business in spring of 2021. You ever wanted to start a business or a side gig? You know, I've always wanted to kind of get into some kind of franchising and stuff. It's a good way to

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One of the most important stories going on right now. What's happening to the people involved in the incident up at Capitol Hill on January 6th, in contrast to what's happening or what's not happening to the people involved in the assault on the courthouse that went on for over a couple of months in Portland, Oregon. So here's an AP story. So the first, it says Capitol rioter who breached Senate gets eight months for a felony. Michael Tarm, AP. Paul Hodgkins is the first person who entered the Capitol who has been charged. He got eight months in prison for what is in effect trespassing. Eight months. Eight months. What's really stunning about that is I haven't seen any months for anyone involved with the actual attempted burning down of a federal courthouse on a months-long assault.

I haven't seen one person charged. I am not giving this up. This is not whataboutism. You know what? I take that back. This is whataboutism. This is about what about principles and justice. Where are they?

Principles and justice. Where are they? Why isn't this Antifa crew that literally on video got caught over a period of months trying to burn down and kill people in a courthouse, a federal court? Why aren't any of them in jail? It is whataboutism. It's what about principles and justice. You're darn right. I rescind that statement.

Here's MSNBC last night. I want you to pay particular attention here. It's a Huffington Post legal analyst talking about why Paul Hodgkins was sentenced to eight ridiculous eight months, by the way, on what is in essence a trespassing charge. And I want you to listen closely here. He talks about when the judge made the sentencing decision, the eight-month sentencing decision. He said, well, I did it, the judge said, because Hodgkins had a series of decision points, and at each decision point, he made the wrong decision. And as he's going through this, I want you to think,

gosh, didn't those Antifa people in Portland that tried to burn the courthouse down make the exact same decisions? Didn't they decide to go there in like black ninja suits? Didn't they decide to go there with pyrotechnic devices? Didn't they decide to throw fireworks and gasoline at the courthouse? Didn't they decide to attack federal agents and federal officers? Didn't they do that too? Why aren't any of them in jail?

Oh, justice is blind, right? We still live in a free country. Yeah, good luck. Listen to this. Check this out. Ryan, take me through how closely other defendants and defense attorneys are watching this for sentencing. Very closely. I mean, it's going to lay out the path for a lot of these cases going forward. And the sentence they requested is smack dab in the middle of the sentencing guidelines, 18 months. That's right in the middle of the range of what it would be. And what prosecutors talk about in their memo is they say that Paul Hodgkins has several points

where he made these key decisions along the way. One of those key points was in Florida when he packed up his bags and put some of the stuff into his bags that he would bring into the Capitol, some latex gloves, some goggles, things of that nature, basically preparing for battle. The second decision was after he left the rally, started making his way that 1.7 miles to the White House. And then the third decision was when he actually crossed those barriers and entered onto property

that he had no right to be on, just as thousands of others did on January 6th. And then that next decision was entering the Capitol building. And the next decision after that was going into that Senate well. And that's what sort of escalated his sentence above and beyond what, or his charges, rather, above and beyond what a lot of other defendants are facing. I get goosebumps now because I'm, look, I'm not messing with you. Look at that. Wow.

Those are really, because I'm so disturbed at this story. You got these people, listen, a lot of them made a mistake. Okay. Stakes happen. I'm not absolving anybody of any responsibility. We're all big boys, but trespassing eight months in jail, eight months in jail, eight months in jail. Meanwhile, you've got a entire group of people that nearly burned down the Fed, nearly, I mean, almost burned down quite literally, not figuratively, a federal courthouse in a prolonged multi-month assault. And I haven't seen or heard about one prosecution yet.

And again, liberals, you believe in science and the party of the facts. You're going to tell me the facts dictate that that's justice? You can go stick that up your caboose. You're totally full of crap. You don't have an ounce of credibility on this topic at all. Not an ounce. It's disgusting.

It's people like you, the useful idiots that dissolve away freedom right in front of our eyes. You do, because you go along with all this stuff. You never ask any questions. Useful idiots every single time.

By the way, a bit of good news. As always, on Tuesday, you get it live on the air the ratings come in around 10 a.m in the early morning when we um when we're doing the show they just came in i just got the ratings and you'll see thank you very much the show was uh number one in the demo this week unfiltered with dan Bongino. Thank you very much. It just happened again. Always. If you watch on Tuesday, we always get it while I'm doing the show. We were on number one. So you all are awesome. You really are. I cannot thank you enough. It is just such a rewarding experience having you all appreciate the work we put in. It really is. And

I cannot thank you enough. I can only watch the show once. The show is for you. So the Fox show has been an overwhelming success. Thanks to you, exclusively to you. And I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart how much I sincerely appreciate your support of the show. Thank you very much. That's incredible.

So really put a smile on my face. I needed that today because I was so depressed over this story. All right, let's go to the AOC tweet last. And then I had a couple other things I'll have to do on the radio show today. By the way, we have Cynthia Lummis, a senator on the show today, talking about this very dangerous on the radio show, always at the top of the second hour, talking about this very dangerous ATF nominee, nominee to head the ATF. Very dangerous. Total gun grabber. She's been all over this.

We're going to talk about that at your Gun Rights Matter. But finally, AOC, the world's richest bartender. She says in a tweet here, talking to Sean Spicer about... I like to read people about capitalism. AOC.

I'm sorry. I love bartenders I beat it, not kidding Pete from Glenn Patrick smartest bartender ever I hung out in that bar all the time I grew up in a bar, my family owned a bar no one knows more about bars than me

Gibby's Bar, 64th and Myrtle, that was my grandfather's my mother took it over bartenders are good guys, AOC not dumbest bartender on planet Earth. So AOC lecturing Sean Spicer about capitalism. She says, I'm not sure if you know this, Sean, but transactions aren't capitalism. What an idiot.

Capitalism is a system that prioritizes profit at any and all human environmental costs. It does? Really? So let me get this straight. You kill everyone in the process of making money? Aren't you going to kind of like the coronavirus? Aren't you going to run out of customers after?

AOC doesn't know that. Pass the Heineken, AOC. That's all she knows. Pass the Heineken. That's all she knows. She says, but for what it's worth, our shop is unionized. It doesn't operate on profit.

So AOC, I will explain capitalism to AOC because she's serious. I'm not kidding. She's really not that bright. Sometimes I say with people, oh, you know what? They know what they're doing and they're lying on purpose. No, AOC really doesn't know anything. I'm not kidding. This is really a not bright human being. And I'm being kind here, trying to, because I don't want to get emotional talking about

it because it distracts from the argument. So folks, when your liberal friends try to tell you about what capitalism is, ask them to define it, please. They won't. Capitalism is really, in essence, three things that I would argue aren't really an ism or belief system at all. An ism would, you know, when you put ism at the end of something, you're suggesting it's some kind of belief system. Capitalism is just a word to describe economic freedom and basically three

things that comprise economic freedom. So when you ask your leftist friends to define capitalism, they won't know. It's three things. Capitalism is the ability to own private property. So you should ask your liberal friends who object to capitalism because they were, you know, many of them are, you know, double digit IQs like AOC. Say, do you object to private property? Because you object to capitalism, and capitalism is just economic liberty, and economic liberty is the ability to acquire and own private property. Do you object to private property, and what is your solution?

And if you object to private property, AOC, then why do you own a Tesla? I'm sure she has a very expensive phone and computer and a nice flat-screen TV, too. That's yours. You own it. Do you object to that? Watch them go, uh, uh, uh. They have no no answer because she just doesn't know what she's talking about.

It's just not a smart woman at all. Second, what's capitalism? Not just private property. It's also a pricing mechanism. We price stuff. We don't ration it. So do you object to that pricing, pricing of food, pricing of vehicles? Do you object to that? What do you prefer? Because there's only another way only one other way to allocate resources if you don't price them, right? It's to ration it. So you support rationing. No, no, no. I don't support rationing. So you don't support pricing? What else?

What's the other one? You have a third way? Because there's no other way to allocate resources. There's pricing and there's rationing. That's it. They won't know that again.'ll be like uh irrationate finally capitalism private property pricing is also trading your labor for a wage you object to that you prefer uh what indentured servitude what else forced labor what do you what do you prefer watch them stew on that one too because they've never actually thought any of this through

because they're just stupid. I'm really sorry. Damn, don't talk like that. No, it's true. They're just dumb. All right, folks. Thanks again for tuning in. I really appreciate it.

And thanks so much again for supporting the Fox News Show Unfiltered. I really appreciate it. I'm just kind of caught off guard. I knew we'd do well this week, but you all blew it up. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I'll see you do well this week, but you all blew it up. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

I'll see you all tomorrow.