In this episode: Melania Trump expertly trolls media-hacks by doing this. http://trib.al/XWHmXf3 No, Hurricane Harvey will not be good for the economy. Destruction economics is for fools. https://www.cato.org/blog/bad-economics-hurricane-harvey-part-2?utm_source=Cato+Institute+Emails&utm_campaign=1af3773aff-Cato_at_Liberty_RSS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_395878584c-1af3773aff-143016961&goal=0_395878584c-1af3773aff-143016961&mc_cid=1af3773aff&mc_eid=3fd7404a34 Another liberal Hurricane Harvey "narrative" debunked. https://www.cato.org/blog/lack-zoning-not-houstons-problem?utm_source=Cato+Institute+Emails&utm_campaign=1af3773aff-Cato_at_Liberty_RSS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_395878584c-1af3773aff-143016961&goal=0_395878584c-1af3773aff-143016961&mc_cid=1af3773aff&mc_eid=3fd7404a34 Are liberals ready to abandon identity politics? This liberal writer thinks it's time. http://www.salon.com/2017/09/02/time-to-give-up-on-identity-politics-its-dragging-the-progressive-agenda-down/ The Universal Basic Income is still a really bad idea. This study is deeply flawed. http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/a-dollar1000-per-month-cash-handout-would-grow-the-economy-by-dollar25-trillion-new-study-says/ar-AAr35pQ?li=BBnb7Kz
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They've been tweeting to me, Bongino's a nut, Bongino's a blanker, blanker.
The Dan Bongino Show.
Everywhere big government gets bigger, corruption grows bigger, and these liberals just keep going on and on and on about how great big government is, and they can't prove to you any examples of how wonderful big government is almost anywhere.
Get ready to hear the truth about America.
Young kids, you are too stupid to figure out your health insurance needs, so we're gonna hammer your cabooses to death until you figure out that the government knows what's best and you're an idiot.
On a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino.
Hi, welcome to The Rangy Republican with Dan Bongino.
Producer Joe, how are you today?
A fine Labor Day it is, my friend.
Ah, it was gross.
I totally just... My mic, I have a like a puff protector, you know, looks like a q-tip on the end, and I get up on the mic pretty good when I'm sitting in my chair, and I just like brushed my lips up against it.
Yummy!
And those things are always gross, you know that?
Talking into them the whole time.
Man, that was nasty.
Man, today's deadlift day.
I'm, like, stoked to get in the gym after this.
Took the weekend off.
Joints feel good.
Love deadlifts.
For those of you who have to lift the greatest thing on the planet, the deadlift, there is nothing like it.
Man, I'm telling you, I love deadlift day, so I'm stoked.
All right, let's dig right in.
Just one personal story here.
Bear with me over the next week or so.
I was just talking to Producer Joe before this.
We will get our shows out on time, as we always do, but there is a, you probably heard, another massive hurricane.
Barreling towards Florida.
Now, we don't know if it's going to hit us or not.
It's, you know, I don't know, 50-50 at this point.
Some of the cones have it coming up towards Florida where I am, some of them don't, but just bear with me.
It's been interesting.
I went to Walmart yesterday, Joe, and there was, I kid you not, Walmart, there was literally not a case of water left.
Now, you know, I don't really say this because we advertise Patriot Supply, that'll come later, but I prepare early I sniff a hurricane I went out so we had our cases of water already but I was gonna buy a few more just in case but it's all out so just bear with me with the hurricane and if you're out there in Florida get prepared right quick you know all right so jumping right into the stories for today so uh the in an expert act of trolling like I haven't seen in years Melania Trump gives a big
Double barrel middle finger to the media hacks.
They go back to Texas this weekend to help out with the recovery effort over there.
And what does she do?
She rolls out of the White House again in a pair of high heels in a beautiful double barrel To the mainstream media clowns.
Now, I don't want to dig into this story too deep because it's just a beautiful thing to see the Trumps just stick it to these media goons who have nothing better to talk about, I discussed this last week, than Melania Trump's footwear as she boards the helicopter to go to Andrews to go to Texas.
By the way, she never got off the plane in heels.
It's just that she got on the plane in heels that bothered the media because they have nothing else.
They can never, ever lose the narrative.
And their narrative is now that the Trumps are elitists.
So that's all they got.
Nevermind that, you know, the Obama's, you know, vacationed over in...
Martha's Vineyard.
So what does she do instead of changing?
She gets back on there, back on with the heels on again.
Now, the only reason I want to bring this up is because I've been through something like this, and I want to just, for any of you who are candidates out there, political activists, people who are public figures in the conservative, libertarian, or republican realm, I just want to give you a lesson that I really, really hope you take with you.
It's important.
I'm not messing around here.
I'm not trying to be funny or silly.
I've been on the receiving end of the media mob, like the Trumps are every day.
Now, obviously, far different in scale.
I mean, there's this, like, international outrage.
You know, mine was relatively localized, a couple of national stories.
But I've been on the receiving end of bullying groupthink.
And I hate the term bullying.
It's so bullying.
It sounds so whiny.
You get what I'm saying, Joe?
I mean, you know, with that slob Caputo, that incident with him.
I remember they went after you constantly.
It was surprising how much they went after you.
Especially in Maryland, they got kind of savage.
But I've been a victim of a few of them.
I mean, it's not just once or twice.
And I don't even like to use the term victim.
I've been on the receiving end of them.
I know what they're like.
Like the bullying effort because Melania Trump wore heels onto them and they thought, oh, that's so insensitive.
You know what?
F you.
Here's the only response to this, and I mean it.
Bullying only works, and groupthink bullying, with media hacks.
By the way, they're all cowards.
I'm telling you, I have been behind the scenes with the media as a Secret Service agent.
Talk about the scissification of humankind.
We are talking about a class of people.
Who, I'm telling you, 50% of them are total losers who could never do it.
They could never be carpenters.
They could never be cops.
They could never be in the military.
50% are decent folks.
But half of them are total, complete losers.
They rely exclusively on the power of the pack.
The horde.
The wolf pack.
They will never act alone.
Because they're total cowards.
They need the pack.
And when the pack leaves them, they back off.
So my point this whole thing is the bullying that they tried to do with Melania, the only way to come back to this is the way she did it, with a big double-barreled middle finger with your tongue out and a big F you, pardon my language.
It's the only way.
Now listen, sometimes you're wrong and you apologize.
I mean, I've done some things I felt bad about and I'm like, eh, you know what, I'm only human, bad move, move on.
But the times I've been on the receiving end of the groupthink bullying, like with Melania by the way, but she did nothing wrong at all.
She got on a helicopter appropriately dressed for the White House and got off in sneakers.
The only appropriate way to respond is to never cower in fear to cowards.
Listen, Joe, sometimes fear helps you, okay?
When you're up against a lion in the middle of the Serengeti, be afraid.
Be very afraid.
Get the hell out of there right quick.
Move your caboose.
Get out of there.
I'm not a southerner, by the way.
I just love that expression.
Get out of there, fast!
You're overmatched, you will not win, and you're gonna get dead fast, okay?
You're in a looting situation in Texas?
You're gonna get dead real quick.
You should be afraid if you're looting in Texas, okay?
It's a way to get dead real fast, okay?
It just reminds me of that Miami Vice movie with the lady with the gun.
Only one person's gonna get dead.
You'll get dead real quick in a lion situation and looting in Texas, okay?
But when you're not in the wrong, the only way to respond is to overwhelm these people with big double-barrel middle fingers.
It's the only way!
Yep.
When I had that incident with that slob Caputo, one of the biggest losers, anyway, my wife hates when I bring this story, but it's applicable here.
I don't know who this guy thought he was dealing with, but I think he thought he was going to get an apology for me telling him to go F himself.
That was never, ever in the cards, ever.
Like, ever gonna happen.
Like, the next day, or was it the day after that?
Or the next day after that?
I came out with, like, the secondary video telling him he can basically double down on going to urgh himself, you know?
Yeah.
I think he was shocked, like this little goofball with his, I mean he's like, this guy's like the epitome of the clown class.
I don't understand what he was expecting.
The Melania did the same thing.
It's the only way because they don't have anything else, Joe.
What are they gonna do?
What is Caputo or the media clowns of Melania gonna do?
No, I'm dead serious.
Like, what are they actually going to do?
They got nothing.
They got nothing?
What do you think this is, Game of Thrones or something?
Like, they're going to come after you?
I don't watch the show, but there's, like, dragons armies and stuff.
And, uh, what are those?
Walker?
I don't watch the show.
Maybe you should.
I don't either.
Yeah, but I see all the previews and the Facebook stuff.
What are they going to do?
Like, attack the castle?
These are total cowards.
Believe me, I'm not suggesting that violence here is the answer.
I mean that.
I have a, I do, I fear God.
I love God but I fear him and violence is certainly not the answer.
Well you were talking about a verbal response in your case and in Melania's case it was a a show.
I mean it was it's it's a it is a yeah it's a it's a non-violent act of yeah of basically I'm not going to fall into your trap and you can either deal with it or or this it's one of those like Matt Damon goodwill hunting how do you like them apples moment.
Because there's nothing you can do.
Like, that's the thing with the coward class.
Like, there's nothing you can do.
It's what I love about Brazilian jiu-jitsu and grappling and weight.
It's the ultimate equalizer.
Like, when you go into a grappling class, if you don't like a guy and he constantly beats you, he's just better.
There's nothing you can do.
You've tried everything.
Negotiation's not going to work.
He's going to sidemount you and choke you out.
It's just the way, that's what I love about it.
But in the media world, it's not like that.
They think, no, no, now we'll say, I know you are, but what am I?
And that's going to make this guy feel really bad.
And you're like, dude, really?
Like, did you grow up in the same world I did?
Like, were you the guy in high school?
That's why I bring that example of even in that conversation with Caputo about, How these are the kids, sadly, who got beat up a lot in high school, which is terrible.
They did.
They're probably nerds.
And I'm not being funny about it.
It's really rude that people end up obnoxious and nasty that people do that.
I was on the receiving end of a few beatings before I started, you know, turning a corner on that.
And it sucks.
But that doesn't, like, two wrongs don't make a right.
Because you got beat up a lot in high school doesn't make it like, oh, well, now I'm going to get everybody back later on because, you know, I'm going to double down on it and I'm going to use this PAC mentality to go after people.
All right.
I spent way too much time on this than I wanted to, but I'm just warning you out there for you candidates for office and stuff.
If you're in the right on something, do not back down.
Don't.
At all.
Ever.
I don't care how many people, what the social media pressure is like.
They will drive them.
All the pack, wolf pack in the media wants is for you to go, oh, I'm really sorry, when you're not.
Don't do it.
It's a big mistake.
All right.
I know that's took it kind of a different direction.
We don't cover a lot of that stuff on the show, and I haven't brought that up in a while.
My wife hates it, but it is applicable.
All right.
You know, I titled today's show is someone trying to tell us something.
And I mean it, on a more serious note here, you know, I'm watching the news this weekend.
We have these wildfires in Los Angeles, Joe.
You know, we have North Korea now with a hydrogen bomb.
And for those of you, listen, I'm not a nuclear scientist, obviously, but, you know, being in the Secret Service and stuff, this is the kind of stuff we're required to know about, at least at a, not a deep level, but in a superficial enough level that you know what's going on.
You know, that's a thermonuclear device.
It requires an explosion to get the bigger explosion.
So a hydrogen bomb can be, in most cases, far more devastating than obviously the standard battlefield nuclear weapons and these intercontinental nuclear weapons that are designed to take out cities as well.
A hydrogen bomb is a really big, big, big problem for the United States, if the North Koreans are in fact accurate that they've created one.
So we got wildfires, we have Hurricane Harvey, one of the Just most tragic natural disasters in American history.
We have Hurricane Irma now beating down on Florida, you know, the Bahamas.
And I just thought to myself this weekend, Joe, You know, is God trying to tell us something here?
I mean, you know, we've seen this, the country taken over by an unprecedented level of hatred for the president, uh, for, for people who have opposing political views.
We have this Antifa crowd and I, you know, I would just, even for myself, this is a little self-reflective moment on Labor Day.
And by the way, thanks to all the laborers out there on Labor Day who bust their butts every day.
But, You know, maybe it's time for us to be a little self-reflective as well.
I don't think on our side, I don't think we did anything wrong, but if you're one of those people out there on the left that's taking it upon yourself to hate and accuse everybody who's conservative of being evil people rather than having evil ideas, maybe it's time to look back and say, hey, maybe they're trying to tell us something.
Just a thought.
Alright, moving on to another story on a different note.
I got a great article.
Thanks for all the emails with articles and stuff.
I read them all.
I got a bunch of tremendous emails this weekend.
Forgive me, I forget who sent this one over.
Maybe it was Rich.
He's a regular emailer.
But the universal basic income, Joe, has made a comeback.
Now, I want to tie this into a different story here, but the universal basic income, again, is the idea that the government should give people basically a salary every month for doing nothing.
And the tech industry is supporting this.
The Zuckerbergs and the Elon Musk from Musk's of Tesla are those people of the world because their thesis, which is silly, Joe, is that Robotics and automation and artificial intelligence and technology is going to leave human beings with absolutely nothing to do.
You're not going to have anything to do all day.
Therefore, if the government doesn't pay you, we're all going to die of starvation, which is nonsense.
That's been said about everything.
It was said about, you know, shoes in France, ATMs in the United States, and the bottom line is each time we develop a technology, human beings find another way to produce something that human beings didn't know they wanted in the first place.
I mean, isn't it true?
Think about, walk down any aisle in Walmart, and I challenge you to look in that aisle and see the products there and ask you if those products were there 50 years ago.
And if you say, well, why would you do that?
Because you may say to yourself, well, logically, if that's correct, that human beings aren't going to have anything to do because everything we have will be produced by robots, how do you know what we want?
I was in Walmart this weekend.
Yeah, I'll give you a quick example.
There's like an entire aisle dedicated to hand sanitizers.
People needed clean hands in the 50s.
Why didn't someone think of it?
Because no one thought they needed a portable hand sanitizer.
No one thought they needed that.
You'd go in and wash your hands.
What happened?
The world changed, people travel a lot, they may not have access to quick water and soap.
Someone said, why don't we put alcohol in a gel?
Great idea!
Oh my gosh!
Someone thought of that.
The fact that he didn't go on to produce it later, because some robot or machine produces the gel, does not mean that the person who invented it, his product designers, his product testers, and the other people involved in the company in the beginning, and the investors, do not in turn make money from it.
You see what I'm saying, Joe?
Yeah.
We have no idea what people are going to need in the future.
It's not like robots are going to create everything we need because you don't know what you need.
It takes people.
It takes creative people.
Artificial intelligence will never be able to match the creative instincts of a human being because they're not human.
You can't teach a non-human to be human better than a human being.
Okay?
You can get into the mind of a cat if you'd like to by doing all kinds of pet scans and whatever.
I got news for you.
You will never know what it's like to be a cat.
Humans know what humans want.
So, with that, there's a study out, and I'll put this in the show notes, and for those of you, again, with the show notes out there, thank you to all the new subscribers.
Please go to Bongino.com, that's my last name, Bongino.com, and subscribe to my email list.
I will send you the show notes, interesting articles I pull across from the internet.
I will send them to your email box every day, or you can just go to Bongino.com and check out the show notes every day.
There's a study, it's a story on msn.com, Joe, that a far-left think tank that's saying now if we were to give people $1,000 a month as a UBI, universal basic income, that, Joe, this is a good one, it'll grow the economy by an amazing 12.56% in eight years.
Whoa!
That's crazy!
Giving people $1,000 a month is somehow going to grow the economy?
It's like magic!
It's like the money fairy!
But!
Here's the caveat.
This is fascinating because it requires a level of economic ignorance that only a far-left think tank could produce.
It says, Joe, but it'll only grow the economy by this 12% over five years or over 12% if it's financed through government debt and not through taxes.
Uh, huh?
Now, I'm going to relate this in a second to disaster economics and some other stuff, because this is creeping up again, the idea that Hurricane Harvey is going to be some kind of a boon to the economy, it's going to be a benefit, which is insane.
Folks, do you require how, like, Econ 101, right?
There is no difference between taxes and debt.
There's no difference.
Think about it, right?
If I tax you now, Joe, at $1,000 a month.
Tax me, baby.
Tax me, baby.
Take that $1,000 from Armacost and give it back to Armacost in the form of a universal basic income.
Let's be generous, Joe, and say the government only takes 20% to manage the program.
Realistically, a lot of data shows it's closer to 40%, if not higher, but let's be generous.
So I take 1,000 from Joe.
I give him back 800.
And again, that's being generous.
Folks, please explain to me how Joe's any richer.
Now, you may say, well, Dan, what's the problem?
The report clearly said that that taxing is not going to grow the economy, and you're just confirming the point.
No, but it goes on to say that, oh, but if we finance it through government debt, it'll definitely grow the economy then.
OK, so I don't tax Joe now.
I just borrow $1,000 from an investor or anyone, say in China, that lends us, and I give Joe the $1,000, and then all of a sudden we're going to be 12.56% richer over eight years.
You may say, well Dan, that makes sense.
It's just found money.
Is it?
Now we're not only paying the $1,000 back from Joe's income, but we're paying it Joe with interest, folks.
I mean, is this complicated?
No, my stupid meter's going off.
Now, Joe, you're not an economist, right?
Neither am I, but I love economics.
It's my passion.
But this isn't difficult to figure out, correct?
That either way, you're paying.
You're either paying up front or you're paying with interest.
This is like the foundation of basic, this isn't even Finance 101.
This is like Finance Kindergarten.
Like my kid gets this.
But the report makes a distinction as if these things are different.
Oh no, if we finance it through debt, it's A-okay.
But tax is no good.
Now folks, I thought about this.
I'm like, how do I give people just a simple analogy here?
Alright, let's say this was a private company.
And they said, well, we need to grow.
We need to grow by 12.5%, 6% over eight years.
So Joe wants to grow his podcasting business.
So Joe says, well, I need that money to come in, because I need to redistribute that money to my employee, whatever it is.
I need to give my employee, Joe, let's say an employee, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Botts, right?
So Johnny Botts needs that $1,000.
Joe can do what?
Joe can raise the prices to me, because Joe charges us to do the podcast.
He's got to get the money from somewhere, is the point.
Or Joe could take a loan.
But either way, Joe is not, if Joe doesn't grow his business subsequently, Which the United States, based on our growth rate and based on our debt levels, we're not growing.
We're at 2%.
We're barely keeping up with inflation.
Joe is not better off either way.
Either he's paying back, either the customers are paying more right now for Joe's services, me, because you're charging me more, Joe, because you need more money to pay your employee, or you're going to charge me more next year, plus interest.
So you're going to charge me more, plus the interest you're paying, because either way, the money's not fabricated out of thin air.
Now, the private industry has a benefit here because Joe can grow his business.
The government doesn't produce anything.
You get what I'm saying, Joe?
You actually have the benefit.
If you were to grow your business substantially, you may find a way later on where that works out for you and works out for everyone because your business grows and you'll be able to be more productive.
The government doesn't even do that.
It doesn't produce anything to offset the interest it has to pay on the debt.
Folks, this is an unbelievably stupid idea.
You'd have to be a tech industry titan to believe it.
I mean, really, this is an unbelievably dumb idea.
Put the MSN piece in there.
It's a good piece and it gives both sides.
So don't be confused by the title.
The title's like, study says universal basic income will benefit the economy.
Give it a read because it says in the end, it goes through how, you know, there's a counterfactual here too.
In a counterfactual meaning, what if we didn't do that?
What if the $1,000 stayed in the economy?
Now, I want to get to this Salon piece too, but there's so much good material today.
There was another story I saw which relates to current events in Cato.
And it is a thorough, thorough dismantling of destruction economics.
And it's a short piece.
It will be in the show notes.
Please read it.
I take a lot of time putting these articles together.
This is a doozy.
Because now this is coming up again too.
This is creeping up.
This idea that this is somehow going to be good for the economy.
Now, why does the left love destruction economics?
And keep in mind, The theory behind it, so you understand the tie-in here folks, is the exact same theory and the exact same mistake being made, I should say, it's being made with universal basic income.
That tax and debt are different.
That a payment now is somehow, if it's a payment later plus interest, it's somehow more beneficial.
Government debt is somehow net worth.
Then a payment today.
In other words, if I don't tax you now, but we take a government loan and then I have to tax you later, that's better off.
Destruction economics, it's the same thing.
It's the same garbage.
It's the same nonsense.
It's the same idea that somehow a taxpayer dollar plus interest later is better than a taxpayer dollar taken from people now.
Now, this is creeping up again, and the why matters, folks.
Why does the left love destruction economics?
It loves destruction economics because the left is always about control.
It is about the control of money, the control of funds, the control of the economy, and destruction economics, in other words, the idea that the government can come in like they did after the New Deal joke, And pour all this taxpayer dollars into the Tennessee Valley Authority and other things.
That if the government dictates the flow of funds, pools it, then gives it to people, and controls it, that somehow this is going to be beneficial.
I'm going to tell you, I'm going to say something a little controversial here.
I don't think the left really believes this.
I'm talking about the educated left.
And I mean that.
I know that sounds like an oxymoron.
But I don't think the educated left really believes this.
The Krugmanites.
Paul Krugman and all these lefties that write about destruction economics, how Hurricane Harvey is going to be so good and we're going to pour infrastructure in the economies.
I don't think they believe it.
I think they are obsessed with the idea of the control of the flow of funds.
It's as simple as that.
They want your money, they want to see where your money goes, they want to dictate where your money goes because that's the whole, that's the core principle, the base on which the socialist house is built on.
That there should be no private property and the government can control everything, can control where the money goes.
They love this stuff.
Folks, this is nonsense for two reasons.
I know I addressed this last week, but it's coming up again, because I'm hearing it over and over, even from some conservatives out there who don't know any better.
They're like, well, this could be a long-term boost to GDP, because think of all those construction jobs.
Folks, I'm not going to go over the Bastions broken window thing again.
I did that last week.
You can listen to last week's show or look it up.
Yeah.
But think about it.
You now have, what, 40, 50,000 destroyed properties, potentially more?
So the properties no longer exist.
These were productive assets that no longer exist.
That's number one.
You had assets, you have destroyed them.
Now, if these were unproductive assets, in other words, let's say a machine, Joe, that's outdated and doesn't help you make money anymore, let's say You know, Joe, you're making coffee cups or whatever it may be, right?
And you have a coffee cup making machine and your competitors have the new machine and it pumps out twice as many coffee cups per hour.
It's clear, Joe, if you don't exchange your old equipment, capital, for new capital, new equipment, you're going to go out of business because you're just not producing, you can't fill the demand.
While your competitors can.
Make sense?
Yeah, I'm going to have to get rid of old Jim.
You're gonna have to get rid of it and say goodbye, see you later.
You're gonna have to go find something else, either more productive workers or better capital.
Human capital or equipment.
That's an unproductive asset.
But let's say Joe's equipment was working just fine and he was competing with his coffee cup competitors everywhere, right?
Right.
If Joe's equipment's destroyed, Joe now has to go back and just buy the same equipment over again.
This is not a net benefit to the economy at all.
Not to mention, so again, productive assets are destroyed, and number two, in the time it takes between when Joe's equipment was destroyed because of the flood, to Joe buying another piece of equipment to produce his coffee mugs, In that time, Joe's not producing any coffee mugs, so Joe's not making any revenue.
Folks, this is not only, destruction economics is not only dumb, it's 100% counterintuitive.
The far left narrative, ladies and gentlemen, I can't say this enough, and I got a story about this zoning thing, it's gonna really kick your caboose.
This is what aggravates, I was in the shower this morning before, and I'm thinking about the show, I'm like, how do I explain to my audience with such a passion why liberalism bothers me so much?
Because it relies on, Joe, absolute total manipulation.
It's not that it's not true.
It's that it's a lie with intent.
It's a lie with intent to manipulate you to believe in a narrative that's not only not helping, but is actively hurting you.
For the left to try to convince people that a biblical level storm and flooding in one of America's great cities is somehow going to be a GDP boom, strictly for the purpose of advancing a narrative that the government should control the flow of funds and build new infrastructure.
I'm telling you that's why they're doing this.
They don't really believe this.
It's just sick!
It's just sick stuff.
They just make this stuff up, folks.
They just make it up.
It doesn't make sense on its face.
I mean... I'm slipping over my own words here because I'm so aggravated by this.
Who in their right mind...
Thinks that if a wrecking ball was to accidentally take out your house while you're at the gym, that, oh man, this is great for my own personal GDP.
Wow, now I get to rebuild my house.
Do any of you believe that?
Well, why would you believe that then on a mass scale?
Like, oh no, but Joe, when it happens 50,000 times, then it's really good.
This requires like a blind stupidity.
It's infuriating.
Some more evidence, by the way, in the in the Cato piece, that this is just as if you needed any more evidence that dumb is dumb.
But Joe, if this was the case, you would think after Hurricane Sandy, right?
Yeah.
Up in New York.
Right.
You would think that, which was devastating, by the way, they took out, I mean, I have an aunt and a cousin that lives in Long Beach.
The whole area was devastated.
If this was the case, that destruction economics was going to lead to some kind of an economic boom, because look at all the new jobs.
Then why did the New York economy suffer 12 quarters, 12 quarters after Sandy hit the area?
When I say suffer, I mean perform lower than the average across the United States.
Again, folks, this is a facts and database show.
And I appreciate all the emails, I got a ton of them this weekend, saying how we do things differently than other shows and we give facts and data and research.
You know, that's how I learn.
If there's evidence otherwise, why would you continue to say it?
If destruction economics worked, New York's economy and New Jersey, due to Hurricane Sandy, would be booming.
It's not.
It's anti-booming.
It is doing worse than the national economy.
Now, is it just because of the destruction?
No.
New York and New Jersey have high tax rates.
I'm not saying that it's causal.
But I'm just saying, if there was an inference to be made that was causal or even correlational in the other direction, the left would put it out there.
But they can't.
The evidence is the opposite, Joe.
But don't, again, don't let facts get in the way of a good argument.
Hey Dan, over the weekend I was watching Fox's coverage of Harvey and I was watching Fox Business and I heard the broken glass theory brought up a few times and I knew exactly what they were talking about and that's due to the show.
Yeah, the Bastion's Broken Window.
I just wanted you to know that and I think our listeners heard it too and they probably went, yeah, I know what he's talking about.
And they cover it in a Cato piece too and it's really something you need to learn.
We talked about it last week because it's just so elegant in its simplicity.
Hey, today's show brought to you by our friends at My Patriot Supply.
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Food, water, safety, security.
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Okay, a lot of great material this week, and I saw another story of Kato.
Kato was bringing it in their newsletter this week.
Remember the story about zoning?
Yeah.
You know, my wife is getting ready to go to yoga this morning and I'm like, "Paula!
Paula!"
"Stella!
Stella!"
She's getting ready to leave and I'm like, "No, no, you gotta come in here."
Because we mentioned this thing about zoning last week, how the left is always obsessed
with the narrative.
Not all Democrats, not even all liberals, but the left is a radical group of people that even despite a national tragedy like Hurricane Harvey, an almost unprecedented tragedy in that area in our time, How they will never ever let go of an advantageous narrative, even if the narrative is false.
In other words, as I said to you before, it's not just that liberalism is lying to you, it's lying to you with intent.
They lie to you about destruction economics because they want you to believe that the government should be able to rebuild things and control your money, not the private sector.
They're lying to you about what's happening in Hurricane Harvey with climate change because they want to control the allocation of resources and climate change is a way to do that through carbon taxes and things like that.
Although climate change, as the left wants you to believe it, is largely mythical.
Now, they lost those narratives.
Those narratives were gaining no traction at all because nobody cares right now about climate change.
So what did they do next?
Instead of telling the truth, they moved on to another narrative, a lie to manipulate.
And the lie was, Houston suffering Joe because of zoning!
Or lack thereof.
Right.
Now, the left loves zoning.
Now, zoning, to be clear on what we're talking about, for those of you who missed last week's show, is the idea that government should control who can build what and where.
You can build this type of building on this ground.
You can build this type of building on that ground.
The left loves zoning.
They think it's the greatest thing ever.
Why?
Because the left is obsessed with control.
If they can control who builds what and where, then the left can be bought off.
The left can say, oh, you want to put that seven-story building over there?
Well, I don't know.
We can change the zoning laws, Joe, but you know my campaign account, People for Joey Bag of Donuts?
You're gonna have to write a little campaign check for that.
By the way, you should max out.
And maybe we'll get you a little hearing in front of the zoning board.
Wink and a nod.
The left loves zoning.
It is the epitome of government control.
Oh, you can own private land, Joe.
You just can't do crap with it unless we tell you so.
Isn't that sweet?
The left loves zoning.
Houston, although they have zoning, comparatively speaking, has very few zoning laws compared to other localities.
This is driving the left wild.
So they, Joe, they see an opportunity again for a narrative, for a lie, a lie to manipulate because the left can't tell the truth even in the time of crisis.
They must manipulate people.
And they said, you know, that's it.
That's it.
Houston had no zoning, which is not true, by the way, but had relatively little zoning.
They built all, they paved over everything Joe.
Houston's just a big parking lot according to the left and therefore the water had nowhere to go and look what you crazy conservatives out in Houston did, which by the way is not a conservative city overall.
Texas, I mean it's got a democrat mayor.
So, there's nothing I enjoy more than debunking stupid liberal myths.
So I did some homework, found a piece of Cato, which again will be at the show notes, Bongino.com.
Let's go to the videotape here, because I want to read this directly.
Joe, this is comical.
This is from a piece by Cato about zoning.
First, Now, keep in mind, the left's premise here is that Houston paved over everything.
Everything's concrete, water and nowhere to go because of zoning.
And if liberals can dictate the zoning laws, there would have been all kinds of green space and Houston would have been okay.
So, here's from the Cato piece.
It says, in fact, a map of Houston indicates the city has a low level of impervious surface cover over more than...
90% of the city!
Most of the remaining 10% falls under the Average Impervious Pervious Surface Ratio category, and hardly any falls under the High Levels of Pavement category.
Don't let that get in the way of your story, Libs!
Now, if you're an intelligent listener, like the overwhelming majority based on the emails I get, people are.
We've got a really smart audience.
You may be saying to yourself, okay Dan, so most of Houston is not in fact paved over, but how is that relative to other cities?
Maybe it's not paved over, but it's paved over a little more than other places.
You'd be wrong again!
Here is another quote from the piece.
Here's a chart.
I'm going to read to you some stuff.
Houston has substantially more absorbent surfaces with trees, grasses, and soils than similarly populated American cities.
Okay, Houston, the percentage of impervious surface, because remember, the liberals want you to be, Houston's been paved over everywhere, Joe.
There's not a blade of grass anywhere around.
Houston's impervious surface, 39.2%.
Their absorbent surface, 60%.
Let's compare that to some liberal enclaves.
Maybe New York City?
That has some of the worst zoning laws in the entire known universe and all alternate universes if you believe in string theory.
New York, impervious surface.
The exact opposite!
61% is impervious, 38% is absorbent.
Oh, Dan, you're cherry-picking.
Come on, dude.
Let's go to Chicago.
Chicago's impervious surface.
58.5% absorbent surface.
41.3%.
Dan, come on!
Now you're cherry-picking two examples.
Let's go to Los Angeles, another one of your liberal favorites.
54% impervious surface paved over.
Absorbent surface, 45%.
You know what?
This is really ridiculous.
Let's go to New Orleans.
New Orleans, clear.
41% compared to 57% absorbent surface.
Folks, you now see why when I'm sitting in the shower there, and I think a lot, I put the cold water on at the end, and it ignites my whole brain and my nervous system.
Do you see why now when people email me and they say, why are you so mad at liberals?
And my wife gets mad at me when I yell liberals on the show.
Do you understand?
I mean, I'm being serious.
I know Joe does because we talk about this a lot.
It's not that they lie to you.
It's that they lie to you with intent.
And that lying to you with intent manipulates you into believing in a false reality.
And not only a false reality, but believing in that false reality creates a completely alternate reality.
I know that was a little convoluted, but what I'm trying to get at here is if you were to take the liberal narrative that the whole city's been paved over because of zoning, and you believe that, and you vote for the next liberal candidate to get into office precisely because he's going to institute government control over who can build what where and more zoning, The liberal created a false reality that ignited your action that is going to make the situation actually worse than the situation you thought you were going to help.
The situation in liberal cities is worse.
They're more paved over than Houston.
Joe, did you track that?
Yeah.
They created a false reality that got you to work to do an action, a volitional action, manipulated you to do something that made your situation worse, not better.
Houston has less impervious service.
As the Lord Almighty will be my ultimate judge, I guarantee you, you watch CNN or MSNBC or even Fox, and you'll see some of the liberal people on there, I guarantee you they will bring up this argument about zoning, despite it being factually absolutely false, with no problem at all.
None!
And then they will bring up the destruction economics thing afterwards.
None!
And sadly, very few commentators will call them out.
I'm not talking about the news personalities, because they're supposed to marshal the debate, not predetermine it.
I'm talking about the conservatives.
They bring out the debate.
None of them will call them out.
They just let it go.
Yeah, I heard this over the weekend as well.
You did, right?
Yeah.
This is their new argument.
It is factually not correct.
It is just made up.
Oh, it's infuriating.
All right, I'm not gonna get to this salon piece today, but please, please do not miss tomorrow's show.
There was a great salon, the Left Wing Outlet.
You may be like, why are you, I'll put it in today's show notes too.
Folks, I would never do, I hate giving them the clicks, but this is a really, really good piece.
And we can't, as conservatives, I'm not lecturing anybody, you can make your own decisions, or libertarians, When we have an ideological ally on the other side that sees a weakness in the liberal armor and thinks he can make the country better or she, I don't... It's honest.
Shivani, I'm not sure if it's a he or she, to be honest with you.
Sorry.
That's the author of the piece?
He points out the grotesque failure of liberal identity politics.
In other words, you're a racist, he's a racist, you're a racist, she's a racist, he's a racist too, yeah!
I mean, that's the Left's theme song.
The author here, I should say, it's probably a better way to say it, points out four or five just grotesque failures of identity politics.
And for me to cover it in five minutes or so would be doing you a sincere injustice.
It's a good piece.
I know it's Salon, I hate to give him the clicks, but it is definitely worth reading.
I'm gonna cover it in a little more depth tomorrow, and I'll just tease it a little bit like this.
He doesn't just talk about how talking about things like white privilege alienate a class of people and create the identity politics that you think you're combating, but he talks about how it's forfeited the way the economic arguments as well.
How the left is so focused on what they think they're doing, Joe, winning the hearts and minds of people, do race identification and culture identification, that the political war has completely passed them by and there's no saving it at this point.
Because there's no end game to this.
In other words, You can't make the argument that there's a legislative solution to identity politics because once the solution is enacted it takes away the victimhood class.
You get what I'm saying Joe?
Yeah.
I mean if you pass a bill that's gonna like this is gonna rescue Asian Americans from this or Hispanic Americans from this and it passes That legislative solution, there's nowhere you can go with it then.
And what are you going to say?
If Democrats do it, there's no legislative solution for identity policy.
It's a good piece.
I'm going to get into it tomorrow and I'll bring you some other good stuff.
And one final request.
Folks, my book is coming out.
It is already available on Amazon.
It'll be available in bookstores on September 19th.
Please go pick it up if you haven't.
I'd be honored if you would consider it.
I understand, you know, money's tight.
So, you know, no pressure.
But it is my book.
I put a lot of work into it.
It's called Protecting the President.
And it's an inside story.
It's not salacious.
It's not a Kitty Kelly book.
It's not designed to do that.
It presents a lot of positive solutions.
But it's a really surprising, kind of astonishing inside story of the collapse of the Secret Service at the management level.
And I think some of the stories you're going to read in there about the pressure Especially the Clintons put on the Secret Service to do things, and you're gonna be like, did that really happen?
So please pick it up today.
It's called Protecting the President.
It's available on Amazon now.
They'll deliver it to you in a day or two.
Be available in bookstores on September 19th.
I'd really appreciate it.
Hey, thanks again for tuning in, folks.
Don't miss tomorrow's show.
See y'all soon.
You just heard the Dan Bongino Show.
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