In this episode: The polls in this Alabama Senate race are a stunning rebuke to political elites. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mcconnells-pick-for-ala-senate-seat-down-19-points-evangelicals-reject/article/2632160?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20Washington%20Secrets%20-%2008/22/17&utm_medium=email This economic policy is destroying the American middle-class and is alienating working Americans. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-22/the-unintended-consequences-of-quantitative-easing Our national debt is approaching catastrophic levels. http://dailysignal.com/2017/08/16/america-is-heading-straight-into-its-most-avoidable-crisis-ever/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURObVpXWXdNbVkwT1daayIsInQiOiJIdFwvXC92MGNPODlSZ2FxWUMwTU1DT2VcL05ZcUYwWTg3cWMrcU45bnJUcmRjWUxCZllwZkFCaGloZmpaVlVGT3oxVnhnK2xKelc3bWN4ck5UenVXc25YXC9kcG9uWE5JQmM3WVcxY2hDcVN2NWgxTERpRVpWa1dvYXhhY1owMU9HTmEifQ%3D%3D No, Trump is not bankrupting the Secret Service. https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/no-president-trump-isnt-bankrupting-the-secret-service SPONSOR LINKS: www.BrickhouseNutrition.com/Dan www.CRTV.com Promo Code "Bongino"
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We have to call it what it is and we have to stop being delicate about it.
Get ready to hear the truth about America.
We're not like the leftists.
The conservatives don't need safe spaces.
They don't need lollipops and coloring books and teddy bears.
I'm good, OK?
On a show that's not immune to the facts, with your host, Dan Bongino.
All right, welcome to The Renegade Republican with Dan Bongino.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
I'm doing all right there, Kimo Sabe.
Yeah, a lot to get through, as always.
So listen, today on the show, I'm going to connect two stories.
For you.
And I'm going to explain the why, of course.
The why always matters.
Why these two stories are related, number one, and why these two stories should greatly concern you.
And they are two stories that seemingly have absolutely nothing in common.
But folks, bear with me, because I put a lot of work into this show today.
A lot.
I got up super early to make sure this show made sense because it explains so much about A topic we discussed last week.
And one of the topics we discussed last week is how the left is, and I'm using air quotes here, there's no Facebook Live today, but I'm using air quotes, winning the culture war.
In other words, beating the hell out of us in Hollywood, in academia, in the media, in pop culture.
They're winning the culture war.
Everything's leftist or left-leaning in the culture wars.
Everywhere, everywhere you look.
Music, movies, right?
They're winning everywhere.
But, and I'm using air quotes there, because are they really winning?
No.
One of the topics I brought up last week is they're losing the political war.
All right.
Neither topic is really open for dispute.
I mean, I'm just giving you facts.
The overwhelming majority of people in Hollywood, in academia, in the media, they are far left-leaning.
I mean, Joe, is that a mystery to anyone?
No.
Just take survey data.
I mean, this is a facts and data-based show.
We don't do liberalism here.
We do reality.
So they are winning the culture wars, but they are losing the political war and losing badly.
And I'm going to put two stories into the show today that are going to explain to you why this phenomenon is happening, where you have this sense that, gosh, the left is everywhere.
They're in our movies.
The liberalism is in our music.
It's everybody.
Everybody hates Trump.
And this is crazy.
But that's not what shows up in real America and the political numbers where Republicans are kicking the crap out of Democrats just about everywhere.
Folks, Democrats are at a historic ebb in power.
I can't point this number out enough.
They had a piece at Real Clear Politics I read about three years ago, and it's only gotten worse since, that Democrats have the least amount of political power at the federal, state, and local level they've had since 1928.
So folks, what's the disconnect?
Again, the Dan Bongino Renegade Republican Show is always about the why.
Why is there a disconnect between the Democrats kicking our butts everywhere in the culture, the liberals I should say, I hate when I do that, the liberals, yet the Republicans kicking the liberals butts and the Democrats butts, in that way it's appropriate, just about everywhere outside of America's major cities.
There's something going on here.
Okay, well, obviously the culture wars are part of it, and I don't want to belabor the point here because I bring it up a lot on the show, but it's been this relentless war on things that the left wants you to believe, opinions that are held by the majority of Americans that are not.
Things like men in the women's room and women in the men's room, the bathroom bills.
The left wants you to believe these are opinions held by the majority of the public and they're just not!
They are not held, these are fringe opinions held by a limited number of people who want you to believe it's held by a large number of people and the way they do that is by scaring people off to countering those opinions.
Here's what I mean by that.
You're in a polite circle of friends that say it's a mixed ideological group.
You have some Republicans, some hard conservatives, some Democrats, some hard liberals, maybe some greens and libertarians thrown in there, say there's 20 people.
And someone brings up in a polite conversation about, hey, you know, what do you think about these bathroom bills?
Letting men in the women's room and women in the men's room, right?
Biological men and women, I'm saying.
And two or three people go, you know, I think this is great.
This is all about bathroom equality.
And nobody speaks up.
Well, you're thinking to yourself, understandably so, Joe, as you go home, that, wow, people really support this.
Look at what happened.
Joe, we had a group of 20 people in a circle, a mixed political company, two or three of them spoke up about it.
They really support men in the women's room, biological men in the women's room, and nobody said anything.
So clearly, this is a widely held opinion.
Talk about theater of the mind.
Theater, a good, very good point.
Joe and I were talking before the show about theater of the mind in a different respect, but Joe, but when you go home, what you don't realize that's happening is 17 other people in the car going, man, do you believe that guy supports that men in the women's room thing?
I didn't want to say anything at the party because I didn't want to cause a controversy.
Why?
Because when you open your mouth, you're up.
Racist!
Or a homophobe!
Or an Islamophobe!
Or a phobophobe!
Or an istihist!
Or a misogynist!
Or an ista-misogynist-a-phobe!
Or a phobe-islamophobe-ista-misogynist-a-homophobe-transgender-phobe!
I mean, it doesn't matter!
If you open your mouth, you'll be stigmatized, so nobody opens their mouth!
So the left continues down this road of pushing fringe positions under the mistaken belief that these are widely held but they're only widely held not because they're widely held but because people are afraid to speak out against them because they don't want to be an istaphobe.
They don't want to be an istophobe!
That's it!
Nobody holds this position!
So when they go in the voting booth, and it's a secret ballot, nobody knows who you vote for, obviously, everybody who listens to my show understands that.
What do people do?
Now they don't have to be worried about calling a phobic or an istophobe.
So they go in the voting booth, Joe, and they cast a ballot for the guy fighting against this, which is usually, not always, but usually, or the guy or woman I should say, a Republican.
I mean, leftists, how do you explain otherwise the fact that you're getting your butts kicked?
How do you explain it?
If your positions are so widely held and everybody supports them, like you want the public to believe, then how come nobody votes for them?
At least in numbers where you could express it in political power.
I mean, again, Joe, in some limited circles we would call this.
A clue.
Clue.
That something's wrong.
That your circle at your party of 20 people is not effectively representative of what's going on in the power structure.
Now, again, as I always get emails, I'm not giving advice to the left.
This because the left is they don't care.
They are married folks.
Trust me on this.
They are married to identity politics and it doesn't matter.
There is nothing you can say.
You know, I heard once and this was great advice.
There was this, I went to a lecture in Montgomery County when I was running for office about three, four years ago, and there was this guy there, and I forget his name, but he gave a speech about how to talk to the left, and the premise of his speech was, don't, you're not talking to the left, you're talking to the guy listening.
And he was right!
In other words, when you're arguing with a leftist, they're married to identity politics.
You're a racist and isntophobe and it doesn't make a difference.
But there are people listening to that conversation in that party in mixed company that are hearing what you're saying.
So even though you're not making any ground with the left and you rarely if ever will, my purpose of this conversation is for the third party listening who's a democrat who's thinking about taking the dark turn into liberalism but could equally take a turn into moderate republicanism.
I'm asking you to listen to what I'm saying.
That taking that turn to dark liberalism is joining a small minority of people who I assure you do not share the views you think they do.
Now, why am I bringing this up?
This is a relatively current event show.
What does this have to do with anything going on today?
Well, there are two stories I saw which really point this out.
First story.
There is a Senate race going on in Alabama to fill the vacant seat of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was the U.S.
Senator down there, who left the seat.
Now, an appointment was made to fill the seat by the former Republican governor, I think it was Bentley.
Bentley appointed Luther Strange.
I don't know Luther Strange, I'm sure he's a nice guy, but he is definitely the establishment pick.
He was endorsed by Mitch McConnell, shockingly I think was also endorsed by Donald Trump, a decision I absolutely do not support.
I think it was a terrible decision, but You know, he gets to endorse, so nobody votes for endorsements anyway, believe me, having run for office.
I've asked people a thousand times, who'd you ever vote for because of endorsement?
They can't answer your question.
No, no one.
But Trump endorsed him too, which generally, which really surprised a lot of people.
But he's been endorsed by the establishment, including Mitch McConnell.
Again, I don't know Luther Strange, but there is definitely a more conservative choice, and the conservative choice in the runoff that won in the initial primary, but now there's a runoff, because the way it works in Alabama is if you don't get 50%, top two finishers go to a runoff, which is happening in, I think it's five weeks, okay?
The guy who beat Luther Strange in the initial election but didn't get 50% was Roy Moore.
Oh yeah, yeah.
You know this story?
Yeah, yeah.
Now I do, yep.
Now your buddy Dan Horowitz and my buddy at Conservative View has an excellent podcast as well.
Thanks to everybody who subscribes.
His podcast is really kicking butt, so a little cross-promotion, but I mean it.
Joe produces that show as well.
He's not as interactive as... Joe's become a part of my show.
He's not the sound guy.
He is a On-air talent.
I'm a tool of this show, yes.
Yes, you are.
But Dan Horowitz has been all over this because he follows Roy Moore and has followed Roy Moore's career for a long time.
Roy Moore, folks, is a symbol.
He's not just a person, but is a symbol of what's going on with the left.
What did Roy Moore do that has made him a favorite that now has him up?
And this is the story I saw today.
It'll be in the show notes.
Washington Examiner's story from Paul Bedard's Washington Secrets will be in the show notes at Bongino.com.
You can subscribe to my email list at Bongino.com and I will email you these stories every day.
Folks, Roy Moore was the guy... Oh, by the way, she's up 19 points against Luther Strange in the runoff.
That's the current news event.
What does that have to do with the Why Matters?
Why does this matter to you?
Because Roy Moore did something a long time ago.
Roy Moore fought passionately against the removal of a Ten Commandments statue from a courthouse in the great state of Alabama.
Going against the liberal, what they want you to believe is the zeitgeist of the time.
That confederate statues, symbols of religion like the Ten Commandments, crucifixes, crosses, they all need to be removed from the public square because Joe, the liberal fringe position they want you to believe is the widely held position and that position is Religion.
Bad.
Must be removed.
Confederate statues in American history.
We're all sinners and imperialists.
Bad.
Remove every piece of it.
Burn it.
Wipe the stain of American history clear.
That's the liberal fringe position they want you to believe is widely held.
Apparently not.
At least not in the state of Alabama, where Judge Roy Moore, who took a significant stand against this, had great personal penalty against the removal of these statues, is now up 19 points against a sitting United States Senator running for technically re-election, even though he was never elected because he was appointed.
But you get the point.
You have an incumbent United States Senator.
Think about what I'm telling you, folks.
For liberals who have grotesquely misinterpreted and licked their finger for the wind, they got the wind in the wrong direction about where America is.
They are absolutely wrong.
Think about what I'm telling you here.
You have a sitting United States Senator, Luther Strange, with all the powers of fundraising, nearly the entire United States Senate behind him, And Donald Trump vocally endorsing him over and over and he's losing by 19 points in a runoff to a guy who gave two big double-barreled middle fingers, gosh I wish I was doing a Facebook Live today, two double-barreled middle fingers to the liberal zeitgeist of the time that everybody wants religion wiped from the public square.
Libs, again, in some limited circles, we would call this a clue.
Now, I know you won't, but I'm telling you what's going on is a massive cultural backlash against liberals, quote, winning the cultural war that is expressing itself through politics, through voting, because voting is secret.
It is not expressing itself in Hollywood because people are afraid of losing their jobs.
I guarantee you there is a huge swath of Hollywood, guaranteed.
You may laugh at this, don't.
I'm telling you, there is a huge swath of Hollywood actors, I'll bet, who know what's going on right now.
It's a total joke.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Joe, listen, Joe is on CBM.
We don't deal with, like, when I was filling in over there, like incredibly famous people.
I'm not even going to name names because I don't want to stigmatize people.
We do interview people who are actors, who have books out.
I know I met a few in green rooms at Fox.
You would be stunned how many people in Hollywood are conservative.
But they can't express themselves there.
So where does it go?
Where it's secret.
In the voting booth.
Liberals, you have grossly, grossly misinterpreted your so-called liberal mandate.
And the backlash is going to continue because folks, I'm telling you, liberals can't divorce themselves from this.
They are married to identity politics and it's the faux politics.
They have nothing else.
They have nothing else.
Folks, do you really think, Liberalism 2020, that a platform of we need to abort children up until the day of birth, we need to hike taxes, government's just too small, we need to tear down inanimate statues and kick them and spit on them, Chi crime is great and the cops are the worst and we need to defund their military.
Honestly, I'm not being sarcastic.
Do you really think that's a winning platform?
That appeals to such a small sliver of America, you would have a tough time winning a dog catcher race anywhere outside of New York City and California.
I mean, you even, you lost the governorship in Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts to semi-Republicans.
Well, I mean, what?
I don't get it.
You're getting destroyed.
This Roy Moore thing should scare the hell out of you because it should tell you one other thing.
Roy Moore up 19 points.
Listen, I almost won an election and I've been smoked in a couple more.
I know what it's like to get smoked.
And Joe, let me tell you something.
19 points is an official smoking.
That is a smoking.
You are getting smoked.
But another thing it should tell you, another critical takeaway from this, Is that this movement is not exclusively about Donald Trump.
Now, liberals want to paint this movement exclusively about Donald Trump to simplify it and make it a reality show enterprise.
Folks, this is a critical point.
Don't miss what I'm telling you here.
They want to make this a sideshow.
They get lost in the personality of Donald Trump.
And they don't want you to believe, liberals, that there's any substance behind the Trump candidacy.
Now, you may say, well, what are you saying?
People are clearly rejecting Donald Trump's premise.
That Luther Strange is the better candidate.
So I don't get it.
In one case you're saying, like, Trump is deep and he has principled positions people believe in.
On the other hand, you're saying, well, they're endorsing the other guy.
No, no.
What I'm saying here is that people who voted for Donald Trump, like me, are not Donald Trump golden calves.
They don't worship Donald Trump.
They believe Donald Trump represents a fight against that establishment.
And even when Donald Trump goes wrong and endorses Luther Strange over what I think is a better candidate, Roy Moore, People aren't falling for the reality show enterprise and the politics of personality.
They're making principled decisions.
Meaning, people have principles.
Which is a shock to the left.
Which is a stunner to the DC bubble liberal media.
Wait, you mean people in Alabama really hate these culture wars?
They want to go back to an America that respects its traditions, its country, and the freedom of religion?
They want to go back to that even if Donald Trump says otherwise?
Which he's not saying otherwise.
The endorsement was for a lot of reasons.
I'm not apologizing for him.
I think it was a bad call, but it was for a lot of reasons.
I don't want to get overly... But you see my point, Joe?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
They want you to believe Donald Trump is a reality show president, but I would argue to you that the Roy Moore jump in support despite the Trump endorsement shows you that there's a real movement going on and that real movement is a backlash to the liberal culture wars that the liberals are missing completely.
That was story number one.
Now, just quickly related to that story, because it's happening again.
I got a couple emails this morning from listeners, Donna, who emails me a lot.
I always appreciate her emails.
Last night, you saw again the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Browns football game.
You had now multiple players on the sideline deciding to take a knee during the national anthem.
I'm not, you know, I've covered this story a lot, but again, I'm going to make a quick, this isn't the second story.
The second story is a financial story, but I'll make a connection in a minute.
But just in relation to the Roy Moore story, which is how liberals are misinterpreting where America is right now, and that's why they're getting their asses kicked.
Joe, the NFL is making the same mistake.
Yep.
I mean, do you get a lot of calls about this on the radio show?
Um, when it's in vogue for the day, yeah.
Yeah, when Kaepernick, I know you did when Kaepernick started with his thing.
Um, and I know you did when the Ravens were thinking about signing Kaepernick.
But folks, I'm begging anyone, listen, we have a lot of listeners.
Thank, that's not a humble brag, that is a sincere thank you to you.
We have a lot.
Like, this show has exploded.
Thanks exclusively to you.
We do almost no advertising at all.
You're our advertisers.
There has to be someone connected to an NFL executive that listens to the show.
There has to be, just based on the numbers.
I'm done.
I mean, I'm out.
I'm out for another season again because of this.
I cannot be the only one.
I know I can't because I talk in my gym when I go work out.
After the show I go work out, burn off some steam.
I talk to people in the gym and there's no way I'm the only one.
Based on the small sample size of people I interact with on a daily basis, I'm telling you, you are losing tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of committed viewers and purchasers of your product who buy jerseys and things like that.
You are grossly misinterpreting the impact of what's happening on your sidelines right now.
You may think that, oh, you know what?
It's not a freedom of speech issue.
Stop saying that.
It's just freedom of speech.
We got to let them express themselves.
No, you don't.
No, you don't.
You don't have to do that.
Freedom of speech is they're free to say whatever they want.
They're just not free to say it on your sidelines.
Listen, Joe works for CR just like I do.
Yeah.
We're free to say pretty much anything.
Notice, I said pretty much anything.
Pretty much.
I promise you right now, we have freedom of speech, constitutionally.
It's conservative review, nowhere in my contract does it impact my constitutional rights.
At no point did they ask me to sign executive memorandum line 672, you will forfeit your first amendment rights by agreeing to put a podcast on our platform.
You have full editorial control.
Absolutely.
With the exception of a couple of things.
Now, I don't even know if it's in my contract, but it's unnecessary because I wouldn't do it, but I'm sure I'd be fired.
Understandably, if you and I started engaging in some racist tirade on the air, using all kinds of inappropriate language, we can and should be fired.
Now, obviously, you get my point, but I'm trying to make it personal so you understand.
That's free speech, Joe.
You and I can say whatever we want.
Sure.
But there are lines in a professional contract with a business that you're free to say what you want, you're just not free to say it here.
And that's a line you and I would never cross and would rightfully be fired if we did.
Overtly, I mean, you know, using just horrible terms and saying things that were just grotesquely offensive towards people.
But those terms and that talking would never come in to your resort, my mind.
We just don't know.
And Conservative Review knows that.
But I respect that if that were to happen, let's say you and I took some mind altering substance one day and some like men in black, they overtook our minds and we started saying all kinds of crazy stuff.
They would let us go.
Sure.
We still, Joe, we're still free to do it.
We could go out tomorrow and start the Dan Bongino show and do our own thing.
You're just not free to do it here.
You're free to do it, but not on those sidelines.
I'm telling you, NFL, this is going to be the death of your brand.
And to all these players out there, you think you're taking some principled stand crapping on the United States while other people fought for your ass and your ability to make 10 million on the sidelines kneeling?
You have grossly, grossly misinterpreted where America is right now.
You are making a catastrophic mistake.
You want to improve the world?
Go teach a Sunday school.
Become a catechist somewhere.
Go volunteer at a soup kitchen.
Donate some money to cancer research.
Go volunteer at a hospital.
They always need people up front to direct people around.
You know, you see volunteers everywhere.
They have those vests on.
Go do that.
You think kneeling and crapping on our national anthem, you're making a difference?
Oh, you're making a difference, all right.
You're making a difference in that you were destroying the one thing Americans had that escaped the political sphere.
You're doing it.
And I've got news for you.
It doesn't impact me one bit.
I enjoyed football.
I enjoyed it a lot.
But Joe?
Yep?
Doesn't affect my life an iota.
I'll wax my car on Sundays now.
I was gonna say it opens up to Sunday.
It opens up, you know, eight hours a Sunday not having to watch football.
Don't care one bit anymore.
Forfeited away last season, done with this season, don't miss it in IOTA.
But you guys will miss it a whole lot.
Because your 10 million dollar salaries are gonna go right down the toilet bowl.
And so is the rest of your brand too.
So good luck with that.
Good luck courting your far left American hating audience and pissing away everything you had and everything you built.
Just a disgrace.
Alright, the second story I saw.
Let me just get to one of my sponsors quick, because this story is related, but I don't want to break it up.
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Okay.
So again, the first story about the liberal disconnect was the Roy Moore story and it kind of tied into the NFL story.
The second story about how liberals and the culture war that's going on, that they think they're winning.
Yet the disconnect between political power being lost by liberals is an economic story.
I'm not going to bore you with this one because it's a topic I discuss often, but it's an important story that the author was really, really, I think, good at tying seemingly unrelated points together.
Hold on, I'm just unlocking my phone here because I keep some notes on my phone.
This is important.
I take screenshots of important quotes.
Let's see.
But we're leaving this in the show, folks.
Yes, of course.
Yeah, there we go.
I got it.
So it's at Bloomberg.com today.
Again, the article will be in the show notes, and I strongly encourage you to read it.
Now, note of caution, it is a little wonky, and if you don't have an understanding of economics at a basic level, it is a little bit tough to read.
But I'm going to set it up for you so when you read it, it makes a world of sense.
The article, the gist of it, is about the damage quantitative easing is doing to our economy.
Now, if you're like, oh, here we go with the technicality.
Here it is, in simplicity, make it as simple as possible.
The article is about the United States government printing a whole lot of money.
Just printing money to buy stuff.
That's what the article is about.
How does this relate to the why?
Now, the why about how the cultural wars are being lost to liberals.
And the political wars are being won by middle America, because we're winning everywhere.
Folks, this policy, I would make the case to you, on the economic side now, we're moving from the culture side to the economic side.
So we're clear?
We're moving away from the Roy Moore NFL argument into the alienation on the economic side.
First part of the show is about alienating people on the culture side, NFL, Roy Moore, I mean Roy Moore is the good guy here but you get my point, alienating people on the culture side.
This is about alienating people on the economic side and the backlash economic elites are feeling.
Now this is a bipartisan condemnation.
This is not strictly directed at liberals.
I want to be clear on that.
This is directed at both parties because both parties have had a lot to do with sanctioning the United States government's Federal Reserve, which is a quasi-independent, they want you to believe they're independent, but they're not, central bank that prints money.
The printing of money has had a devastating effect in alienating middle America and the article does a really good job of explaining it.
I took a few notes here and a few takeaways for you so I'd sum it up for you in case you just, you know, don't want to read it or you want to read it and be prepared in advance.
This is an incredible number that when I saw it, my jaw dropped.
The printing of money by the Federal Reserve, what we would call quantitative easing.
Here's what happens.
The Federal Reserve literally prints money in some cases.
In other cases, it creates electronic money, Joe.
And it goes out and buys U.S.
government assets.
So think about that.
Think about what's happening there.
The U.S.
government, say, issues a bond.
Say it issues a $100 bond.
What does that mean?
It means the U.S.
government needs $100.
Because it's issuing a bond.
In other words, a promise to pay back that $100 later, right?
That's what a bond is.
Whatever it is, 20 years, 10 years, it needs money.
So, let's say that $100 bond costs $50.
So, Joe goes out and buys that $50.
Joe has given the United States government $50.
But what happens when the United States government, through its federal reserve, its central bank, just prints the $50 and buys its own assets?
Folks, that's what quantitative easing is.
It's the printing of money by the U.S.
government's central bank to buy U.S.
government assets.
If you're like, wait, wait, that doesn't make any sense.
It's not supposed to.
It only makes sense to quants and some people who get lost in econometrics and want to make sense out of the unsensible.
Or the nonsense is a better way to say it.
Sounds like a street scheme, man.
It is a street scheme.
Now, here's an incredible number about how bad this has gotten globally, not just in the United States.
Japan's doing this too.
They're actually buying privately held bonds, not just government bonds, which is even worse.
You want to talk about cronyism.
The government is now printing money to buy private assets.
Crazy.
Global assets, Joe.
The nominal value, okay?
The nominal value, not the real value.
There's a difference.
The real value of something and the nominal value are not the same thing.
The nominal value is just a number.
So, if you have, say, massive inflation, and the cost of a car goes from $100 to $500, the nominal cost of the car is increased five times.
But if your salary is bumped up as well, the real cost of the car to you is probably not five times.
In other words, if your salary doubles and the car increases in cost five times, you're not paying five times as much.
You're paying a lot less than that because you've actually got a bump in salary.
So that would be the real cost.
But the nominal value of investable global assets is up 40% to over $500 trillion from $350 trillion.
What does that mean?
That means stocks, bonds, equities, derivatives, that kind of thing.
Investable global assets.
The nominal value has increased from $350 trillion to $500 trillion.
Nominal, not the real value.
So if you're saying, what the hell's the difference?
What does that mean?
Folks, if something increases in value, a stock, bond, whatever it may be, from 350 trillion to 500 trillion dollars, you would think it would be backed by something productive?
By an actual increase in business?
So I made an example here.
So let's say Joey Bag of Donuts, right, has a mug company.
And Joey Bag of Donuts' mug company, right, Increases in value from $350 trillion to $500 trillion.
If you're an investor looking to purchase stock in Joey Bagadona's mug company there, you would reasonably ask questions like, well, man, you must be producing a ton of mugs, right, Joe?
Or the mugs you're producing now, you're not producing more, but are getting so much more money.
What if Joey Bag of Donuts comes back and goes, no, not really.
We're not producing any more mugs and we're still fetching the same price we were always fetching.
The logical question if you're an investor is, well, where the hell did the extra $150 trillion come from?
Oh, the US government started printing money and buying up Joey Bag of Donuts mug company?
Stock?
Oh, that makes sense.
Folks, global assets are up 40% with no real backing to them at all.
Meaning, somebody's printing a crap ton of money out there and chasing up the price of assets with nothing to back it!
Nothing to back it!
Minimal growth at best!
What the Hades does this have to do with the alienation of the middle class?
Folks, this policy of printing endless amounts of money to go out and buy stuff and hike the price of that stuff without any real productivity and real assets or anything behind it has had a dramatic consequence.
Asset inflation is eroding the crap out of people's savings and earnings.
Joe, remember, when we print a lot of money, that money finds its way into the economy, chasing products.
It raises the price of those products.
If the economy doesn't grow and companies don't grow, they're not going to pay their workers more.
But what's happening?
Money is still chasing those products and increasing the prices.
So what you're seeing right now develop, the alienation of the consumer class in middle America by both parties, is legitimate!
This fury, and listen, far be it from me to ever credit Bernie Sanders for anything, because the guy is an absolute kook, and his policies are insane, and he is an absolute statist.
But I get it why some of his supporters have been attracted to this message, while other supporters have been attracted to Donald Trump.
Folks, I'm going to make a proposition to you, you might think it's crazy.
I don't think there's that much of a difference between a small percentage of Sanders supporters and a good percentage of Trump supporters.
On the economic side, because when the government is engaging in policies, the massive printing of money, the money is going somewhere.
It's just not going to you.
Now, there are winners and losers here, folks.
I think I made clear who the losers are.
The losers here are middle America that is desperately trying to stay ahead, they're working the same hours, they're busting their butts, sometimes more hours at their job, and their money is buying less and less and less and less and less.
But the printing of this massive amount of money is finding its way into assets.
So if you are a holder of assets, to be absolutely candid here, disclosure of my... People like me!
I'm not rich by any reasonable stretch, but I do okay.
I've saved my entire life.
I have a lot of stocks.
I make out like a bandit!
I make out like a bandit.
I fight against this.
I don't want this.
These are, but I'm telling you, these are ill-gotten gains.
Even my own.
Because they are not built on real growth or real mugs.
And this piece is fantastic because it explains, they make, the connection between the Trump and Sanders thing is not covered in a piece.
I made that connection, that leap.
But I wanted to explain to you how this massive disconnect between the culture liberals think America embraces, and the economics liberals and squishy Republicans think America embraces, and what's actually happening are leading to a massive political backlash.
Now, I've explained to you many times, why does government love this?
Government loves inflation and the printing of money because it evaporates your dollar away.
You may say, well, how does that benefit anyone?
Don't they see the backlash?
They don't care.
Governments love inflation because they can run up massive amounts of debt, and the debt they run up is worth less every year as the dollar goes down in value.
When the dollar loses value, folks, so does the dollar of debt.
If I owe you a dollar, and I, let me give you a quick example.
If I owed you a hundred dollars a hundred years ago, that was a ton of money.
If nobody said anything about that $100, and all of a sudden somebody came back today and said, hey, you want me that $100?
I could pay it back like that.
Most of you could probably, too.
A little bit of squeeze.
You don't want to lose $100, but it's probably not going to devastate the majority of the audience.
You get what I'm saying, Joe?
The government loves inflation.
So do rhinos, because they can spend the hell out of your money and not have to worry about paying the real value of it back years later.
Massive inflation and the printing of money will always lead to negative real interest rates.
Meaning the value of your investments and your money is going to go down because the value of your money goes down over time.
And they make another great point in this too, in the piece, the Bloomberg piece.
How we're having this proliferation of zombie companies now, that due to this constant influx of freshly printed money, are not doing anything productive, Joe, are producing a bunch of crap, yet get to stay in business precisely because the government's funding them.
Folks, it may be uncomfortable to say, but crap companies need to go the way of the dinosaurs.
And those assets need to be reallocated towards companies that are actually producing products people want.
It's a really great story, and I think it really needs to be said.
Folks, our debt is exploding.
There's another story in the Daily Signal that Heritage puts out, which I'll, again, include in the show notes today.
Our debt, the projections of our national debt, Joe, $20 trillion now.
In 30 years, on our current trajectory, we are going to owe $92 trillion.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is not You're going to hear the expression a lot when you debate with economists who want to sound fancy about monetizing the debt.
Monetizing the debt is exactly what I told you before.
The printing of money to force inflation so they devalue the dollar so that that $92 trillion in 30 years is not worth what it was today so it's easier to pay back.
Folks, the why matters.
Governments love to spend money and love inflation because they get to take your money, they get to pluck the feathers from the goose without the goose noticing.
It's a scam.
It's the biggest economic scam of our lifetime.
Now, here's a quote from the piece in Bloomberg, but I had pulled up before and it almost went down again because my phone has like a five minute sleep feature.
John Maynard Keynes famously said that inflation is a way for governments to confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
Critically, inflation creates much social tension.
While the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some.
The site of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at the confidence and the equity of the existing distribution of wealth.
This is fascinating because John Maynard Keynes, eponymously named Keynesian economics, was named after John Maynard Keynes and is the very foundation of liberal economic theory today.
Yet, in that quote, Joe, you have Keynes himself explaining what government's doing with inflation.
I mean, did you hear what I said?
He says it's a way to secretly and unobserved a way to confiscate the wealth of citizens.
This is Keynes!
Liberals love Keynes!
You should ask your liberal friends.
You believe in Keynes?
Really?
You believe in the confiscation of wealth by inflation?
Keynes did.
Here's a quote.
I was going to say, that's why they love him.
That's why they love him, but they won't admit it.
He also explains how it impoverishes many, but enriches the elites.
This was Keynes, and the liberals don't even get it.
They don't even get it.
They love government spending and inflation.
It's just staggeringly stupid.
All right, today's show also brought to you by CRTV.
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All right, one last topic I have to cover because it is current events.
I'll hammer through this quickly because it has a few takeaways.
It was the Afghanistan speech last night.
Let me just say I don't agree on principle with the expansion of the admission in Afghanistan.
For those of you who missed it, Trump gave what I thought was a very good speech.
I disagree with what the premise of the speech was, but I thought it was a good speech.
It was well stated.
And the bottom line is there's going to be an expansion of the mission in Afghanistan, and he also called out Pakistan as well.
So the expansion of the mission from reports means 4,000 additional troops in Afghanistan.
I'll give you just quickly my opinion, free to disagree, you're always free to comment on my Twitter and my email, most of you have it, danielatbongino, I'd love to hear your opinion.
But here's the bad parts from it, and I'll finish with the good.
I'm not sure that the money spent on these 4,000 troops could not be better spent on hardening up the homeland.
If this is really part of the war on terror, which I think it is, I take Trump at his word, obviously.
I don't think there's any manipulation there.
But I just wonder if the massive cost of those troops and supporting those troops could not be better spent with reinforcing the homeland.
Especially given the fact that we covered a story yesterday about the Secret Service that apparently can't even pay its guys.
Which, by the way, I have a piece up at Conservative Review thoroughly debunking, which I'll put in the show notes today, the thing that the Secret Service needs more money.
It's ridiculous.
So, I'm not sure that money couldn't be better spent at home.
Here's the second takeaway.
If the premise of this approach is to get the Taliban to the table by scaring the crap out of them, which is the gist of the speech yesterday, that we're going to go over there with overwhelming force, I have no doubt our brave men and women can cause massive, massive losses to the Taliban.
But there's just not a lot of evidence that the Taliban is willing to negotiate at all.
These men, they're nihilists.
They're destroyers.
They just want utter annihilation of humankind, and they want Islamic supremacy under Sharia law.
There's no evidence at all they're willing to negotiate any of that away.
They're not reasonable actors.
So I'd say on the bad side, I think the money could be better spent at home.
I'm not willing to sacrifice any more United States blood over there.
And secondly, I just don't think they're willing to come to the table, the Taliban.
On the good side, to give you kind of, again, I disagree.
I don't, I wouldn't have done this.
So that's, you got that out of the way.
But on the good side, he did confront Pakistan.
Pakistan's ISI, their intelligence services, has been long involved in the support of external terrorism for a long time, especially when it comes to the Taliban, the involvement in India.
Someone needed to call them out, and Trump Joe just doesn't pull punches.
He got up there and basically put Pakistan on notice.
And secondly, he was vigorously defended the movement away from nation-building.
That's a clear failure.
He said it clearly, we're not going to nation-build.
In other words, we're not going to Afghanistan to build some kind of democratic constitutional republic.
You may say, well, why not, folks?
Because it's not working, okay?
The culture has to change before the government changes.
And we are in no position right now to change the culture of many countries in the Middle East.
They either don't want it, they're not interested, or they're not willing to fight for it.
And we know that because it's not happening.
You have monarchies, you have oligarchies, you have dictatorships.
The culture's not ready.
It is not up to us to nation-build.
So I applaud him for putting that out there.
Alright folks, thanks again for tuning in, and thank you again for all the wonderful reviews on iTunes.
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