The President's Daily Brief - President's Daily Brief - April 18th, 2022

Episode Date: April 18, 2022

It’s April 18th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. I’m your host and former CIA Officer Bryan Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. ------ First up, there are Chinese companies shutting down because of a COVID outbreak that will affect our economy and your wallet. Second, President Zelensky wants an additional $50 billion from the United States for aid. Finally, we're going to talk about sacrifice. Joe Biden has asked you and your family for it. As we weathered the dual storms of inflation and Ukraine price hikes, we're going to talk about whether Biden himself is willing to sacrifice. And as always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. There's a growing hepatitis outbreak amongst kids in the U S. COVID is playing a role, but not in the way you might expect. ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's April 18th. You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright, and your morning intel starts now. Before we start, a quick reminder to those new to the show, the brief you're about to hear is in the same spirit of the actual President's Daily Brief, which is a top secret summary of the most critical events of the past 24 hours, all delivered to the president each morning by the nation's spymasters. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I am your spy, and this is your brief. Here's what we're going to be talking about, this morning. First up, some important developments out of China. There are companies shutting down because of a COVID outbreak that will affect our economy and your pocketbook will discuss. Second, a bunch of updates on Ukraine. Among them, President Zelensky wants an additional $50 billion to shore up his economy. You've already given him about $3 billion, by the way. More on that in a minute. Finally, we're going to talk about sacrifice. Joe Biden has asked you and your family for it

as we weather the dual storms of inflation and Ukraine price hikes. We're going to talk about whether Biden himself is willing to sacrifice. And as always, I'm keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar, there's a growing hepatitis outbreak amongst kids in the U.S. and Europe. COVID is playing a role, surprisingly. But not in the way you might expect. We're going to talk about that. All up next on the President's Daily Brief.

Your first piece of intel this morning, some alarming news out of China, specifically a COVID outbreak that is leading to factories shutting down. Those same factories supply our economy and fill our homes with products. But more on that in a second. The COVID outbreak is in the city of Shanghai, which has 25 million inhabitants. To put that into perspective, New York City is 8 million. Shanghai is now in a strict lockdown has been for weeks, and virtually no one is allowed to leave their homes,

except for perhaps COVID testing or a once-a-week food run. And while the communist government is also delivering food as they're able, we have solid reporting that some people in Shanghai are in fact starving to death. The amount of food they get simply isn't enough or when they get something, it is spoiled by the time it arrives. Not surprisingly, desperation is growing. We have confirmed video of people screaming for help on the balconies of their high-rise buildings. It's eerie. Tens of thousands of people screaming that they have no food or are in a panicked need of medical care. Some are screaming that they have been separated from their children because of a COVID-positive diagnosis. All of this is awful and outrageous, obviously. It's curious, though, isn't it, that this story hasn't generated much outrage by world leaders,

as this is a clear case of human rights violations. I'll leave it up to you to decide why our global elite are so quiet. Meanwhile, here's why this story matters to you and your family. China is the world's factory, responsible for about 30% of the world's. of the globe's manufacturing output. Nowhere is that truer than here in the United States as we import about 20% of goods each year from the communist regime. Yet that figure hides some pretty shocking numbers on certain products. For example, we import 97% of our cooking appliances from China. Do you have a thermos, by the way? 97% of those are made in China. How about baby carriages

and strollers? Well, 98% of those. come from China. The point is, America is very reliant on the communist regime's factories to keep our shelves stocked, and that's a problem for lots of reasons. But let's focus on the most immediate concern. Factories in Shanghai have closed or are closing. That's bad news for consumers here. Example, one of Apple's top suppliers has stopped work leading to a loss of 6 to 10 million iPhones and counting. Meanwhile, other companies are trying a different tactic. It's definitely. It's definitely, and frankly, it's awful. They're calling it closed-loop operations. American companies like GM and China have adopted it. In this closed-loop system, workers remain in the factory at all times.

They live, work, and sleep, and isolation on the factory floor. It's a requirement to keep their job. Did you catch that? If Chinese workers want to keep their job at a GM factory in parts of China right now, they can't leave the factory floor. Now, reasonable people can agree or disagree on whether these closed-loop systems are good. They're certainly effective, I suppose. But the issue here is that it is required of workers. They're locked inside to produce cheap stuff for the world, for you and I. Look, if I were briefing the president this morning, I would say there are two key issues to wrestle with here. First, inflation is going to get worse because what's happening, fewer goods from China means that the ones that we have become more valuable, more scarce.

In the world of supply and demand, that means prices are going to go up for some goods. How many products will be affected and for how long economists are working through those questions as we speak. But second, we are over-reliant on China. We saw that during the pandemic, and we're seeing it yet again. Not only does this make us more vulnerable as a people, but apparently it's also turning our companies like GM into monsters. Locking up workers on the factory floor, effectively without their consent, is gross. It's wrong, and frankly, it's un-American. If we're earnestly interested in fixing all of that, both the over-reliance on China as well as an under-use of business ethics,

then we must speed up our efforts to onshore or near-shore our manufacturing industry. both of those words are just fancy ways of saying bring it all back home or if not home somewhere close like Mexico that way we bring more jobs back to America and we keep a closer eye and our corporations who in some cases are engaging in some pretty awful behavior so ladies and gentlemen if you are moved by this story give your senator or representative a call and tell them that this issue is important to you and to fix it because believe it or not if enough of you do that they listen I worked on Capitol Hill for a short time. Politicians get very nervous when too many cranky constituents leave too many cranky messages.

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Ukrainian government officials are coming to the U.S. this week, 10 cup in hand to meet with the World Bank, the IMF, and the U.S. Treasury. That's your money. Now, if we were Ukraine, We'd probably be asking for this help, too. After all, their economy is predicted to fall a whopping 47% this year. One analyst has said that it'll take a decade or more for Kiev's GDP to recover to pre-war levels. But in the midst of this economic calamity, there's one group of people that's doing quite well. It's America's manufacturers of weapons. Last week, the Pentagon held a classified meeting with eight of these manufacturers. The topic, well, a bit light in details. I'm working on that. but in general, the goal was to talk about their capacity to pump out more weaponry and fast.

That meeting aside, what we know so far from our involvement in this war is that big military, just like big tech or big pharma, is making hand over fist worth of cash. Biden has sent $3 billion worth of things to Kiev, give or take a few hundred million, and is authorized to send $10 billion more. That money is mostly for weapons, and also to pay for all the U.S. troops being sent to to NATO countries. There's also a modest amount for humanitarian assistance. And if all of that money is mostly buying weapons, it comes with a price. And for this next update, I'm not talking about a financial price. Last week, Russia formally complained to the United States about all that military aid.

But what's interesting is that Moscow was most concerned about the recent batch of equipment that Joe Biden sent. Russia called it advanced weapons systems. They're probably talking about, in particular, some of the missiles that can be fired from a very far distance rather than requiring the Ukrainians to fire them up close. Moscow warned in a letter that this equipment could lead to, and I'm going to quote here, unpredictable consequences if these shipments go forward, saying they're adding fuel to the situation. If you listened to this brief last week, you knew this was coming. My sources continue to warn me that this fight is getting closer and closer to direct confrontation between Russia and the United States. So no matter what you think of Putin or his war on Ukraine,

no matter how awful it is to see women and children die at the hands of Russian aggressors, which is what they are, the questions you should be asking yourself this morning are twofold. First, in a time of massive inflation in this country, an economic struggle, how much of your taxpayer dollars do you want to send to Ukraine? Or how much of that should stay here at home? maybe not even spent in the first place. Second, have you considered that all that weaponry and intelligence that we're sending to Ukraine increases the chances of a retaliatory response on the American homeland? Are you ready for that?

Is your family? How about your city? Is this country? I don't know how to answer those questions, but I do know this. We should be debating them. And we're not. Moreover, your leaders in the Pentagon in the White House aren't either. certainly not with you and definitely not in a candid way. Instead, all they talk about is a generic

call to sacrifice. But that's about it. So that brings me to my final question. Do you want more out of your leadership? I think you deserve it. This is Euphoria Calvin Klein, the new elixir collection featuring three perfume intense scents, inspired by a unique orchid accord paired with vanilla, each with its own distinct attitude, each with its own universe, bold elixir. Sensual, woody, addictive, magnetic, sweet and romantic like a lingering touch. Solar elixir, a radiant expression of joy, ultra-concentrated for amplified impact and lasting power.

Find your euphoria. Discover the euphoria elixir collection by Calvin Klein. Final story, this one's about sacrifice. Joe Biden and others in D.C., both Republican and Democrat, have been talking a lot about sacrifice these past months and years. Joe Biden talked about sacrifice in March when authorizing sanctions against Russia, telling America that defending freedom will have costs, referring to higher gas prices. Now, a year prior, Joe Biden justified COVID restrictions in the same way,

by saying through his press secretary, it's difficult, all these COVID restrictions, it is hard, and what Joe Biden is asking people to do is to sacrifice a little bit longer. Now, we have one more example of Joe Biden asking you for sacrifice. This one was during the presidential debates talking about whether he would be willing to sacrifice the jobs of oil and gas industry workers, hundreds of thousands of jobs, by the way, to address climate change. The answer, he said, is yes. Now, put aside what you think about these issues. Instead, think about how comfortable Joe Biden has become in asking sacrifice from you and of you. Profound sacrifice. It seems very easy for him to do. Well, this morning we have a little bit of

bit better understanding as to why. Joe Biden's tax returns were released late last week. Kamala Harris is too. Turns out the president made $611,000 last year plus $150,000 for travel and entertainment expenses. The vice president and her husband reported a gross income of, wait for it, $1.7 million. By any definition, that makes them all part of the infamous 1% that they rail against. Now, to be fair, they are not alone in being rich and a politician in Washington, D.C. U.S. senators make $174,000 annually and have an average net worth of $2 million. The point, ladies and gentlemen, is that it is very easy for rich people to ask you and I to sacrifice, because sacrifice means something different to them.

Let's do some simple math to help us understand exactly what that difference is. The average American worker makes $51,000 a year. Some economists argue that number is closer to 65, but no matter. This year, those same economists say that you will need to find an extra $5,000 to buy the same goods and services that you did last year due to inflation. So doing the math, if you make $50,000 a year and you lose $5,000 to inflation, that's substantial. That's like 10% of your salary.

That is sacrifice. But if you make $600,000 like Joe Biden or $1.7 million like Kamala Harris, or you have $2 million in net worth like our senators, then a $5,000 inflation haircut isn't much. It's not sacrifice, is it? The bottom line, folks, in the coming weeks and months, you're going to be hearing a lot from people, especially Democrat politicians, trying to convince you that all the pain we're experiencing is about righteous sacrifice. For Ukraine to protect people from COVID, you'll be hearing these pleas because the midterm elections are right around the corner. And as you probably know, polling shows the Democrats are about as popular as a bad case of hemorrhoids these days. So when a politician of any stripe starts talking to you about sacrifice, about Ukraine or COVID, whatever it may be,

I want you to recall what I've just told you. And then I want you to ask your politicians how much exactly they make in a year. And what precisely they are doing to sacrifice. Because if they had to actually sacrifice like you and I, I suspect we'd have a very different set of leaders making very different decisions. Perhaps it's time you told them so. Finally, one other story I'm following for future developments. I'd recommend you put it on your radar too.

there's a growing hepatitis outbreak amongst kids in the U.S. and Europe. Seventy-four kids so far in the United Kingdom that we know about, other cases in Scotland, Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands. There's a cluster in Alabama, too. Nine kiddos there, too, have required liver transplants. The CDC is drafting up a national health advisory as I speak. This will go out to all states, alerting them of the problem, and requesting further suspicious cases be reported.

One hypothesis raised by the Scottish investigative, is perhaps these illnesses are more severe because they are infecting immunologically naive children, which is, by the way, a fancy way of saying that these kids were sheltered throughout the COVID pandemic and not exposed to assorted viruses that they normally would be. That means their immune systems are weaker than they ought to be. You see, when we're kids, it's especially important that our immune systems get challenged by little bugs like colds and the occasional flu. It makes us a touch sick, yes, but our immune systems learn and grow through the process. That's how we all develop stronger immune systems, and it's very important for this to happen in our younger years. Otherwise, we are much sicker as adults. Please stay tuned to this story because

the results are incredibly important as we think about lessons learned from our COVID pandemic policies, as well as trying to take care of our kids. More to come. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes your morning brief. I will speak with you. you again tomorrow for the latest edition of the President's Daily Brief. Now, with luck, you're a subscriber of the podcast. If not, shame on you. Just kidding. But please do push the subscribe button if you have yet to do so. Tell a friend if you would. Regardless, please know that I am so thankful for you listening. We have added 5,000 subscribers in the very first week. That is a big deal. You're making it happen. So thank you. And now, folks,

as I leave you this morning, a reminder of why we are here talking about our country. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John chapter 8, verse 32, and you shall know the truth. The truth shall make you free. Today. All. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Buckslot Machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club Serrano members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary.

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