Summary:
In this episode I address Trump’s bold move on sanctions last week and why it should reassure you. I also discuss Twitter and Facebook’s ongoing war on conservatives and why they believe they’ll win. Finally, I discuss an economic mystery that’s befuddling “experts.”
News Picks:
Facebook is targeting Trump supporters again, and the reasons they gave are ridiculous.
Is Ted Cruz being targeted by Twitter?
President Trump has targeted 7 Russian billionaires, and regular listeners of the show will “remember the names.”
This mental health counselor tweeted that he was “excited” about the fire in Trump Tower.
Who conducted a cyber-attack on Iran?
Why is the Twitter’s CEO tweeting an anti-GOP article?
A terrific piece about persistently low inflation.
Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Get ready to hear the truth about America with your host, Dan Bongino.
Alright, welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
Producer Joe, how are you on this fine Monday?
I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!
One of my favorite lines ever.
I have got a stack show today.
Please do not move from the radio, the car radio, the whatever you're playing us over your TV, on iHeartRadio app, whatever it is, Spotify.
There is so much stuff to cover.
So we're going to motor through it.
Let's get right to it.
But I just want to say before I get to it, I keep telling you take it easy on the Trump-Sessions thing and more evidence has come out that Sessions and Trump know exactly what's going on.
I'm gonna get to that.
I don't tell Joe any of this stuff before the show because I like to see a genuine reaction, so I told you to take it easy, and I don't know if you missed it, but big stuff happened this past week.
We'll get to that in a second.
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Okay, I had to title this section of the show is, are you still sure that Trump doesn't know what's going on, or Sessions?
Now, what happened last week?
What are we talking about, right?
Last week, in a story that got a little bit of attention, but not a lot, Joe.
It wasn't exactly like major league breaking news anywhere.
You know, people covered it, but it wasn't all over the place.
And I think one of the reasons it wasn't all over the place is because the left-wing media may realize what I'm about to tell you.
That Trump and Sessions know exactly what's going on with the Obama-Spygate scandal, the Clinton email scandal, the Clinton Foundation scandal, and all the nonsense that went on with the DOJ.
What do I mean?
Trump's Department of Treasury issued some significant sanctions against a couple of Russian billionaires.
Actually, I think it was seven of them.
A couple of them that are very interesting.
Russian billionaires and oligarchs who are connected to Putin.
Now, you may say, okay, great.
Why is that story significant and why does it matter?
Because the question is, who did he sanction?
Who are these Russian billionaires?
Well, if you're a regular listener to my show, what do I always tell you folks?
Memorize and remember the names because these names will continue to creep up and if you don't have them committed to your memory, you will miss the crux of the story because the mainstream media will not explain it to you.
They will not!
They will gloss right over it as if nothing happened, whistling past the graveyard.
They don't care.
Name number one who was sanctioned by Trump.
And by the way, his company took a massive nosedive after this.
Russian billionaire and oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Oh!
When did you hear that name before?
Trump puts major sanctions on a guy named Oleg Deripaska.
Yeah, media covers it.
I don't want to be dramatic.
But it certainly was not front page news everywhere, but it should have been.
Major league front page news.
Should have been a headline.
Why?
Because again, I've been told by a lot of people who are upset with Jeff Sessions and some of Trump, what's going on?
Nothing's happening, Joe.
They're not doing anything.
They spied on the Trump team.
Hillary got off.
Nothing's happening.
Stuff is happening.
Deripaska, folks.
Oleg Deripaska is a central figure in this scheme.
I had to draw a little flow chart here to make this make sense for you quickly because I've got probably 10 stories to get to.
It's a major league.
I put the show together last night figuring I'd cut myself a couple hour break this morning and had to get up early anyway to do the show over because there's so much breaking news since last night.
So Deripaska.
Was connected to Manafort.
They had some business dealings together.
Matter of fact, Aripaska and Manafort had a falling out.
There's a lawsuit over money owed to one of those parties in a deal.
Manafort was one of Trump's campaign advisors.
I had said to you in a prior show, and this is important, who pushed Manafort on the Trump team?
Follow me, folks.
A Russian oligarch by the name of Oleg Deripaska had significant business connections with Paul Manafort.
Manafort was a GOP consultant who, at least according to some sources, Roger Stone pushed on to the Trump team.
Who pushed Stone To get Manafort on the team.
How did this happen?
Why did they think this was a good idea?
Manafort was already under a Democrat National Committee investigation by this Alexandra Chalupa for all of his connections into Ukraine and Russia.
May I suggest to you that if you were going to set up a narrative in advance that Trump colluded with Russia, even when it didn't happen, that Manafort would be the guy you'd want to be your campaign manager?
He's also connected to Deripaska.
Folks, are you picking up what I'm putting down?
Yeah.
Trump doesn't know what's going on.
Sessions doesn't know what... Really?
Why'd they sanction Deripaska?
Here's another one.
Deripaska, who Trump just levied major league sanctions on here.
His aluminum company is taking a bath.
It's dropped... What did I see this morning?
There was an article on Reuters.
It's lost tremendous value this weekend.
This guy, Deripaska.
So he's connected to Manafort.
I've said to you over and over, who kept pushing Manafort on the Trump team?
I've heard Stone.
I'm not so sure that's the whole story.
We're working on it in the book right now, because if you were going to set up a story in advance that Trump had colluded with the Russians when he didn't, you would want Manafort to be your campaign manager.
Hey, take this guy, Joe.
Wink wink, nod nod, you know?
Deripaska is also connected to Christopher Steele, the spy who produced the dossier for Hillary Clinton and Fusion GPS.
Yeah!
How?
Deripaska hires a lobbyist to work for him in the United States, this guy Waldman.
This is the exact same lobbyist who was trying to connect Christopher Steele with a bunch of Democrat senators after the fact to kind of clear the air.
They're all this... You see what I'm saying?
Yeah.
The lobbyist connects Deripaska and Steele.
It's the same guy.
He's working for Steele and Deripaska.
And Trump sanctions them.
Again, are you absolutely sure?
Through the Department of Treasury, those are where the sanctions are actually from, but... Are you sure Sessions and Trump have no idea what's going on?
Who's person number two?
Viktor Vekselberg.
Now, again, if you're a regular listener to the show, this name may ring a bell.
I'm sure we brought it up.
Viktor Vekselberg was a major sponsor, had a significant business interest in a project in Russia, which was going to be a Russian Silicon Valley type project.
Skolkovo.
Yeah, yeah.
Vekselberg was the guy.
He was the Russian kind of like really central to this project.
The Skolkovo Project, which was designed to be against some Russian Silicon Valley project, it turned out later, based on American intelligence, was a major Russian espionage effort to take and steal our technology.
Oh, shocker there!
Well, why is that interesting?
Well, it's interesting because it is.
They're trying to steal our stuff, and we were suckers, but 17 of the 28 companies, Joe, involved in Skolkovo, which Vexelberg was intimately involved with, donated to who?
Oh, the Clinton Foundation!
Crazy!
Crazy how that works out!
Crazy!
So you got Trump sanctioning Deripaska, who's connected to a lobbyist, who's connected to Steele, who's also connected to Manafort, who also had business dealings in Ukraine.
You got Trump sanctioning another guy through his Treasury Department, Vexelberg, who was intimately involved in a Russian espionage effort at Skolkovo to steal our technology.
By the way, there's been some allegations that the Skolkovo project and the theft of technology may have had something to do with Russia's recent development of a hypersonic missile designed to defeat our missile defenses.
Oh, and by the way, the same companies involved in Skolkovo and the theft of our technology donated to the Clinton Foundation.
Oh, and by the way, doubling down again, Vexelberg's firm, Renova, what they donated to the Clinton Foundation, $50,000 to $100,000.
Folks, again, are we absolutely sure?
I have provided to you.
I have done my best because I love you to death.
I tweeted.
You pushed us to, what were we, Joe?
Six?
Six overall.
Six overall in news and politics.
You know, I mean, we were beating some heavy hitters this weekend in our podcast.
Thank you.
The subscriptions matter, not just the listens.
And for those of you who subscribed, thank you.
But we have been telling you over and over and over again, these connections are deep, they are layered, they are there, and that Sessions and Trump are aware.
Trump's not aware of the whole thing.
Sessions has to protect him from some of the stuff that implicates him for obvious reasons.
But I'm telling you, give it some time.
I have provided you mounds and mounds of evidence.
Now, in case you're still doubting me, which is fine.
Listen, I'm not one of the Stygian witches from Clash of the Titans.
Give me the eye!
Remember that?
The Clash of the Titans with Harry Hamlin?
Give me the eye!
Give me the eye!
I'm not trying to be some sage or predictor of the future, you know, Karnak from the Johnny Carson show here.
But he puts a little index card to his head, right Joe?
Yeah.
I'm really not trying to do that.
I'm just trying to, as a former investigator interested in facts trying to explain to you that I have good folks and really quality sources who are telling me, give it a minute!
They know what's happening!
This is taking a very long time to do and to do correctly.
Now, one more piece of information.
So again, just to reiterate what I told you, because this is important.
The Russian sanctions against these billionaire oligarchs, levied by Trump and his Department of Treasury, targeted two people intimately involved in the spying on of Trump operation.
Not spying on him personally, but I mean the whole Obamagate scandal.
You know, you see what I'm saying?
Like, Deripaska connected to Steele through a lobbyist.
Deripaska connected to Manafort.
Vexelberg connected to Skolkovo.
Skolkovo, the theft of U.S.
technology in this Russian Silicon Valley-type simulated project.
The stealing of technology possibly leading to the development of missiles that could defeat our missile defense.
Oh, and the same companies involved in it donated to the Clinton Foundation.
Why do you think they sanctioned these guys?
To make them feel good?
To give them a pass?
The guy's company, Deripaska, took a dump this weekend.
Alright, one more thing.
They announced this weekend as well, the appointment of John Lausch, another United States Attorney from the Northern District of Illinois, to supervise what?
The production of documents to the House Investigative Committee on FISAgate, Clintongate, McCabegate, Flingate, all of this stuff.
Yes, it took a little time.
I get it.
I understand.
But I am Be careful here, but I'm confident, let's say, Trump knows exactly what's going on.
He more than likely has said to these, Trump is the head of the executive branch, this is obvious, has probably put the squeeze on them and said, guys, it's time to comply with Congress and their demands for transparency here.
I don't know.
No one told me that personally, but it's obvious by his tweets that he's interested in the Department of Justice doing the right thing and complying with oversight.
The Department of Justice and the FBI are not independent agencies.
They fall under the executive branch of our Constitution.
That's just a fact.
They are politically accountable like everyone else.
So the appointment of this United States Attorney to supervise this process says to me that they are darn serious about the public finding out what's going on.
I don't know how you could come to another conclusion from that.
It's important stuff.
Okay, I got a lot to get through, but that story.
And by the way, I have a really good story in the show notes.
It's from Reuters, Bongino.com.
Check it out, please.
Folks, one quick note on that, because it's going to...
Segway nicely into my second story.
Listen, I completely and entirely understand I can't say this objectively because anything I say about my content obviously benefits me and Joe and the show and CRTV and NRA.
I get that.
NRA TV where I have my 5.30 show at night at NRATV.com.
I get that.
I understand that it can't possibly be objective.
But I was on Fox & Friends this morning.
I was making a very serious appeal to people and I hope you saw it.
We are being selectively targeted by Twitter.
That's not hyperbolic.
It's not drama.
It's not me making a stink for PR.
I don't need it.
Don't care about it.
Matter of fact, Joe, how many interviews do we turn down a week from 15, 20 or something?
I'm not kidding.
I'm not interested anymore.
I'm interested in my family, my kids, and I have three jobs already.
NRA TV.
I do a lot of work doing analysis with Fox and I have this show and CRTV.
I have too much going on.
I'm not interested in the free PR.
What I am interested in telling you is Twitter and Facebook are targeting conservatives.
They banned me from running ads.
They said it was due to inappropriate content.
I have no idea what they're talking about.
We scoured our Twitter account.
I've told you this multiple times.
I don't know what they were talking about.
They won't answer.
They won't answer what the inappropriate content was.
And frankly, I don't care anymore about this, about the ads that is.
I do care about targeting conservatives because I wouldn't give them a dollar anymore anyway.
So that's not going to happen.
I also sold my stock in Twitter, sold my stock in Facebook.
I want nothing to do with these companies anymore.
But I say that, folks, because I'm humbly requesting that you please go to my website, Bongino.com, subscribe to my email list if you wouldn't mind.
It's right there, the big subscribe button.
Follow us on Twitter while we're still there.
Follow us on Facebook while we're still there.
You know, spread the word on our podcast and please subscribe, subscribe, because I won't, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to contact you via Twitter.
I am seriously not confident that I won't be deplatformed soon from Twitter and Facebook.
Now if you'd like to join me in a, I'm taking a bit of action this week, I'm dancing a little bit for you regular listeners, you know what I mean.
So Diamond and Silk, who I know, I wouldn't call them personal friends, but I know them quite well, we've had a lot of conversations, we've been at events together, are very nice ladies.
They support President Trump, they have some pretty good content out there, people seem to like them.
They have a platform on Facebook, and some of you know them, some of you don't, you can look them up.
And they have been sanctioned by Facebook as well.
I will have this story up at the show notes again as well, please check it out.
For content that is, quote, unsafe for the community.
This is the equivalent of me on Twitter, inappropriate content.
Nobody knows what that means.
They told Diamond and Silk that their Facebook content is basically being throttled because they're being, you know, not being expanded to the audience it should because it's unsafe for the community.
No one will tell them what that means exactly.
Now, in a protest against this, because it's a sham and I'm tired of social media and I'm imploring you humbly to join me in this, I'm taking a week off from Facebook.
I am not posting.
I posted yesterday that that would be my last post for a week, that I'm going dark on Facebook.
It's up to you.
I understand.
I'm not trying to start some like national trend or anything, but I would encourage you today, if you can, to make a post in support of him.
Tell everyone this is going to be your last week.
You'll see him again next Monday.
That you're going dark for a week.
If they want to silence you, then you know what?
That's fine.
We'll put the tape over our mouths for a week and we'll show them what silence looks like.
Because let me tell you something.
Remember folks, and you may say, well why would we deplatform ourselves for a week?
You know why folks?
Facebook is selling you.
They're selling you and your information.
Facebook is worthless without people posting updates because nobody would go to Facebook to see updates that aren't there.
And I've had an epiphany on this.
I used to say to Joel, why would we get off there?
Getting off there is a big mistake.
We can use their platform against them.
And we can.
If you want to cancel your account, fine.
I'm not going to do that yet.
But I think a good week or two of letting them know what it looks like to not have any content to move.
Facebook is useless without you posting dog pictures and cat pictures and what you did this weekend.
I'm serious.
It's useless.
What are people going on there for?
So I'm taking a week off.
I posted, please like my post at Facebook because it'll share that post and then people will see it.
And I can't recommend enough that we do something and stand up.
All right.
Now, more on this because this is a big deal.
Facebook and Twitter, this is a win-win for them in banning conservative content, throttling conservative content, shadow banning conservative content.
And what I mean by shadow banning is... Yeah, please.
You heard this story?
Yeah, but it needs to be explained with shadow banning.
Yeah, and I got a good one from PJ Media at the Show Notes today, again, at my website bungino.com.
A good story about the shadow banning of Ted Cruz.
Here's what's happening on Twitter to prominent conservatives like Cruz and others.
They don't ban your account outright.
With me, they just banned our ads.
I'm on Twitter, but they won't let us run ads.
They banned us.
What happened with Ted Cruz is fascinating.
Ted Cruz has something like three times the followers or twice the number of followers as Kamala Harris, a Democratic senator and a liberal.
You know, the love interest of the liberals.
I mean, they think she's the greatest thing ever.
She is a California senator.
Ted Cruz has, I think, more than twice as many followers as her.
But if you look at an analysis that they did, I think it was Jim Garrity from National Review, of the retweets and likes, amazingly, Cruz only has a fraction of the retweets and likes that Kamala Harris does, despite a pretty engaged conservative base and Ted Cruz being an extremely prominent and important conservative voice.
Why do you think that is?
That is not by accident, folks.
Twitter has been... The James O'Keefe videos, where they acknowledge some form of shadowbanning.
In those James O'Keefe videos, shadowbanning, meaning Joe can post on his JoeHas1, follow Joe.
He's J-O-E-H-O-Z-1 on Twitter.
Give Joe a follow.
Once in a while I tweet, yeah.
Yeah, he likes it.
Follow Joe, but say it was JoeHas1 there, shadowbanning.
Joe's tweeting?
And he thinks his followers are seeing it, but Twitter is only letting select people see it, not his actual.
That's what a shadow ban is.
You don't know it.
You're not told you're banned.
You're tweeting away, Joe.
You think everybody on the planet's seeing it, like Cruz.
But Twitter's selectively shadow banning people, putting them in this box like, only let a few people see that.
Now, why is this a win-win for social media?
Now you may say, gosh, Dan, that sounds pretty, you know, macabre.
Win-win.
So how do we win?
I'm going to get to that in a second.
For two reasons.
Twitter and Facebook will continue to attack conservatives because number one, I had to take some notes on this to make sure I got this straight with you.
They are appealing to the new socialists out there.
The New Socialists... New Socialism was a term I took from Kevin Williamson in one of his books.
The New Socialists are not the type that want the government to own the means of production, Joe.
The New Socialists are people who want the government to tax and regulate business to death, but not directly own it like in the Soviet Union, because then they can't be blamed when it collapses like they were in the Soviet Union.
The New Socialists just want you to tax business and regulate it to death.
Now, who are the new socialists?
They are largely liberals.
People who run as Republicans in general.
I know we have some dogs too.
But in general folks are conservative and of the limited government type and don't want the government involved in Twitter or Facebook no matter what.
I know I don't.
I just want to be crystal clear on this.
These are free market companies.
I don't support government involvement even if it's on my behalf.
I don't want it.
I am crystal clear on my principles on this and you should be too where I stand.
If you support it, that's fine.
I don't.
But see how that's asymmetric warfare, folks?
Twitter and Facebook know guys like me, no matter how much they attack me and Joe, know we will never ever advocate for the government to regulate them.
They know it!
Because we're limited.
We actually care about our principles.
Despite the fact that Twitter has personally targeted me.
I've sent out the pictures.
Twitter's thing.
You are hereby banned from Biffra.
Inappropriate content.
You know how easy it would be for me to come on the air and go, President Trump, please.
You gotta go after Twitter, man.
They're not being fair.
They're not being fair.
But the free market isn't fair and the world stinks and I'm gonna fight back my way.
I'm selling my stock.
I'm encouraging you to.
I use their own platform to go after them.
But I do not support government involvement.
But do you see how this is a win-win for Twitter?
They know, Joe, that by continuing to attack conservatives, nothing will happen.
Because they know I'll never advocate for government to go after them.
They know that the free market will take a really long time to hit them.
Just like it did the mainstream media.
The mainstream media, gosh, Cronkite, you know, Dan Rather, they had a monopoly on the media market your entire adult life.
And then one day they didn't.
And I'm telling you that's what's going to happen to Twitter too.
Remember MySpace?
Some of you are like, what's MySpace?
Exactly.
Twitter is, I'm telling you, their days are numbered.
They may be numbered slowly, but they are numbered if they keep this up.
Chuckie.
But it is, I like that, it is a win-win for Twitter because they know conservatives will not go after them.
They're appealing to the new socialists who love big business targeting conservatives because anybody who aligns with their ideological cause, an enemy of their enemy is their friend.
They don't care.
They know conservatives are the enemy.
If Twitter attacks them, then they're our friends.
They're the enemy of their enemy.
I brought this up a couple weeks ago, but in light of what happened at Diamond and Silk on Facebook and what continues to happen on Twitter, it's important to bring this up again.
First, they're appealing to new socialists.
Second, they're appealing to government regulators because they want safe harbor.
They don't want to be sued for Now listen, the cases would be weak if, you know, seriously, it's a free market company and me suing them would probably be highly, highly unlikely to win anywhere, even with a ideologically aligned judge.
Not that I would sue them, but you get the point?
Yeah.
But they do want safe harbor from the government.
So what are they looking for?
Twitter's gonna figure on this, Joe.
Well, if we go after conservatives, They will cater to liberals, the new socialists.
They'll love us.
And maybe they'll pass these laws that they have over in the UK.
These hate language laws.
You know what I'm saying?
You can't say this and you can't say that.
It's a crime to open your mouth.
These laws they have in some other countries and that will allow Twitter and Facebook to ban conservative accounts entirely with no fear of litigation at all in the future.
None.
So it's a win-win.
First, they appeal to liberals who hate conservatives by booting conservatives off Twitter.
And secondly, once they boot conservatives off Twitter, maybe some law will be passed in the future that'll provide them safe harbor against lawsuits because they can say, oh, it was hate language and we just didn't like it.
This is a win-win-win for them.
Now.
Another thing happened this weekend.
Jack Dorsey, the head of Twitter, shared an article and he said, hey, great read.
Did you see this, Joe?
Great read.
Yeah, man.
Great read.
The guy is the head of Twitter.
The article was a complete pot shot, disingenuous attack on conservatives and a celebration of California politics, despite the fact that California was just rated, what, 50 out of 50 in cost of living, quality of life?
California going bankrupt?
You mean the same California?
Okay, we had a surplus this year.
Yeah, you also have trillions in government liabilities you can't pay.
Listen, I love California, okay?
I just don't like the politicians that run it.
But Jack Dorsey, the head of Twitter, shared an article and he said, great read, an article that just, I mean, attacks Republicans in some of the most grotesque ways.
This is the head of Twitter!
Now, what do we do?
I told you what I'm doing this week, and I encourage you to join me.
Totally up to you.
Again, I'm not trying to start some national movement here, but it'd be nice if you'd help me out.
Support Diamond and Silk, whether you like them or not.
Some people do, some people don't.
I like them, they're very nice.
I like them.
Yeah, their commentary's funny.
I don't think they're trying to be the William F. Buckley's of their time.
But they're funny, and they support the president.
I admire them for having the guts to stand up.
They are being hurt and impacted by Facebook.
I encourage you today to fight back and go dark for a week.
Facebook cannot sell you and your content if it isn't there.
Put up a post, tag Diamond and Silk, say, you know, thanks Facebook, we're out of here for a week.
We'll see you all on Monday.
You're not sharing anything this week because it ain't going to be here.
Second, I sold my stocks.
You do what you want.
I'm not a financial advisor.
I'm not trying to tell you to put your financial health at risk.
I'm just telling you what I did.
I sold my Twitter stock.
Listen, I'm sure some liberal pick it up.
I'm sure it had a 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1 percentage point impact on the price of Twitter.
If that.
I'm just telling you that over time the cumulative effects of a number of people who get tired of this stuff and fight back doing similar things will matter.
Finally, Twitter wants to shadow ban and then outright ban people like me from running ads?
Don't advertise, folks.
Don't give these people a dime.
Don't give them a dime.
Now, I have a contract now, so I still have some stuff to... I mean, because, listen, disclosure matters to me, and I don't want to be... I do have some ads running there on Facebook that I've already paid in advance, and I kind of have a tough time getting out of them.
Those will wrap up soon, but I'm done with Twitter.
I will not be giving them a dime again in the future.
But do what I did.
After this, I'm not... I can't.
I just refuse.
I'm not giving them a dime.
Dry them out.
Don't give them a dime of your money, folks.
All right.
I got a lot more to get to, so stay tuned.
It's going to be a stacked show.
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That's what matters.
God forbid you're involved in a self-defense scenario.
You better be able to fire that weapon accurately.
If you're a first-time gun owner, police officer, law enforcement, hunter, sports, whatever, it is in your best interest to be very proficient and accurate with the firearm you have in the event you had to discharge it.
The iTarget system, that's the letter I, the website's itargetpro.com, that's itargetpro.com, is a dry fire practice system.
What's dry fire?
Dry fire is when you depress the trigger on a safely unloaded weapon, rack the slide to the rear, open the cylinder, check it, check it twice, look, look away, look back again, look away, look back again, three times.
Minimum.
Make sure it's unloaded.
Finger probe that chamber.
Make sure that chamber is unloaded.
And what you do is, we used to do this in the Secret Service, you dry fire the weapon when it's not loaded.
You practice your trigger pull.
Slow, deliberate pull to the rear.
Line up your sights.
Equal light on both sides.
Level across the top.
And you practice it.
You train your body to fire accurately.
Constant pressure on the trigger.
None of this jerking the trigger.
You'll pull it to each side then.
The iTarget Pro System, they will send you a laser round that goes in the weapon you have now.
You don't have to do any modifications.
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They'll send you a laser round on the target.
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This is an awesome system.
People send me these screenshots of their groupings.
On Monday, they're all over the place.
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It's a beautiful thing to see.
Go check it out.
The system is called iTarget.
It's the iTargetPro system.
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Remember, competitive shooters try fire 10 times more.
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That's how you improve your proficiency with a firearm.
Okay.
Some news stories of the day I got to get to, and then I want to get to this inflation puzzle story because it's fascinating.
Let's see.
All right.
China again.
So China's talking devaluation now, folks.
China is, this is interesting what's going on with the Trump team.
Now, you know, if you've listened to my show on tariffs, you know where I stand on that.
We don't need to repeat those shows.
But it is fascinating what's happening and Trump's skills as a negotiator.
We'll see in the next coming days and coming weeks how exactly his Tactical negotiating skills, Joseph, play out, if you know what I mean.
Yeah.
He has threatened some significant tariffs on China, of course.
What did China do?
China responded by saying, I know you are, but what am I?
You know, we're going to do it too, right?
Pretty much.
So now you have this threat of taxes and tariffs on products imported and exported.
Imported into China, exported out of China, and vice versa in the United States.
But here's an interesting little note I saw.
So China is now, and what I said to you last week, I meant, I'm not a fan of tariffs, but China is really in between a rock and a hard place here.
Joe, China exports five times as much stuff into the United States as they buy, well four times to be a little more precise, four times as much products into the United States as we to them.
So if we were to impose tariffs on them, It would dramatically impact and affect the Chinese economy, and it would still, don't get me wrong, it would still affect ours, but we don't export as much to them as they send to us.
Now, it would impact us, you know my stance on that if you've listened to the show.
So China's between a rock and a hard place, for reason number one, they sell more to us than we sell to them.
Number two, Their second retaliatory measure they're threatening is, oh, we're just going to dump your treasuries, your bonds.
We have your bonds.
We lent you guys money and we're just going to dump them.
And dumping them would effectively, you know, basically destroy the market for U.S.
bonds and make it very difficult for the U.S.
to borrow money.
Why?
Because China's lending us the money.
If China says we're not going to borrow money anymore and they're a major lender to us, we're going to have to raise our interest rates to find other people to take up our debt.
So I talked about that last week.
So number two, You may say, well, how does that hurt China?
Because if they sell their U.S.
debt, all the debt they have, and they flood the market with it, all of a sudden what they're left holding, because remember, they're different maturities, is going to lose value too.
So China's basically going to cut off their nose to spite their face.
Again, we talked about that last week.
It's the third one.
Their new threat, Joe.
Threat number three.
China's saying, well, we'll just devalue our currency here.
We're gonna massively devalue our currency, and what'll that do?
That'll reduce the effect of any tariffs you put on our products.
By devaluing the currency, what do they mean?
They mean exactly that, making their money worth less.
And when you make their money worth less, their products are worth less, because their products are denominated in Chinese money.
So if you got, say, a thousand Chinese widgets, you bought them for a thousand U.S.
dollars, and they devalue their currency, your thousand U.S.
dollars buys more widgets then.
Why?
Because the Chinese currency they're denominated in is worth less.
So if you got a thousand Say dollars, and then you got a thousand Chinese renminbi, and now you get two thousand.
That's dramatic, you know.
But now you get two thousand of them because their currency's worth less, so you get more for your U.S.
dollars.
You can now buy more Chinese widgets.
Now, China's like, look, that'll work for us.
We'll devalue it, devalue our currency.
We'll make our products basically cheaper, and therefore it'll offset any of your tariffs.
So, you know, they do the Nelson Muntz.
Right?
Now you may say, Dan, I thought you were saying Chinese are over-Iraqi-er.
They are.
Because if they do that, they tried that in 2015, folks, and what happened?
By devaluing their currency.
We talked about this on a show, I think, two years ago.
By devaluing their Chinese currency, what do they do?
They devalue all the assets in China people have that are denominated in Chinese currency.
So what happened in 2015?
Big time Chinese money flooded out of the country.
Because they're like, wait, you're going to devalue my assets?
I'm converting everything to US dollars tomorrow.
So it's called capital outflows.
What are they gonna do?
Again, you know my stance on tariffs.
I'm not a fan, you've heard the show.
But I'm just telling you, in defense of Trump's negotiating position, if he can in turn get the Chinese to stop stealing our intellectual property and to work on government procurement, excuse me, that's more fair and reasonable, and reduce their own trade barriers, if he can get them to do this, It would be a genius move because there's nothing the Chinese can do that's going to impact us, Joe, that won't impact them worse.
We're going to devalue our currency.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Money's going to flood out of your country in droves and go where?
Into the United States.
Good luck.
Good luck with that.
We're going to sell you bonds.
Good luck.
You have trillions of dollars in assets, both in foreign direct investment here and in bonds.
You're going to devalue your own stuff.
That you have left.
Right, right, right.
They are up the creek, folks.
And I think Trump understands.
So we'll see.
And again, I'm not trying to play both sides of this.
You know crystal clear where I stand.
I'm just saying it's a negotiating position.
If he can get them to fold before these tariffs are implemented and open up their markets, stop stealing our stuff, our intellectual property, open up their government procurement and stop making a buy China only policy there.
It will have been a very significant move, folks, a significant one.
And I'm not so concerned so much about the trade deficit.
I am concerned, though, about unfair trade practices and their subsidizing of government industries and things like that as well.
It just makes for a globally inefficient market.
But I thought that was interesting in light of the conversations we've had with China.
Remember, those three ways, they're over a rock.
They're really screwed right now.
All right.
I got a lot more to get to.
Don't go anywhere.
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Okay.
Man, I'm sorry, folks, if I'm motoring along, but it's Monday and I need to get you the news you need to hear about.
All right.
Have you seen... I have...
On my notes today, I have a little arrow pointing to the side.
Stories which make liberals appear nuts.
Which is true for this week.
Here's a good one here.
So have you noticed this uptick in teacher strikes lately?
We've seen this in West Virginia.
We've seen across the states now teachers have been striking.
I think it happened in Kentucky recently.
Folks, this is all in response to a case going on in the Supreme Court right now.
I discussed a couple of weeks ago the Janus case right now.
Liberals are in a panic.
Why?
Liberals have been largely funded in their movements, their cause, whether it's the minimum wage cause, whether it's forced unionization.
As unions have moved farther and farther to the left, public sector unions, and in many cases private sector unions, have sponsored legislation that basically helped the Democrat Party.
They donate pretty much overwhelmingly to Democrat candidates and public union coffers and things, and they also You know, I've provided door knockers and things like that.
Unions have been a source of Democrat support.
Listen, I've said to you repeatedly, I'll say it again.
I'm not anti-union.
I'm anti-monopoly and I'm anti-force.
Being forced to join a union that has a monopoly over your freedom of association is not my idea of a good time.
I'm sorry.
There's a case in the Supreme Court now which is going to be absolutely devastating to unions if they lose, and it doesn't look good for them.
It's the Janus case.
It involves these security clauses.
Security clauses are, in essence, forced payments from an employee to a union.
Whether he basically wants to join or not.
And the reasoning behind them has been, well, the union's bargaining on behalf of everyone and these employees, you know, should be forced to pay for that bargaining because they benefit from it.
It looks like these security clauses are going to be thrown out.
Now, what's happening?
Of course, far-left states, Washington and others, are now responding in advance.
Keep in mind, the Supreme Court ruling hasn't even come out yet.
A lot of these teacher strikes have been organized as kind of a warning sign, Joe, that, look, if we don't win this case, this is what's in store for you.
Remember with the left, folks, nothing is by accident.
And the fact that you will not be forced to join and finance a union.
The fact that you won't is driving them crazy.
So states are passing laws that are what they're meant to preemptively do, Joe, is create just a small window for you to get out.
So if you don't have to pay anymore, you're only going to get a 10 day window, I think was one of the rules.
One of them was you have to respond in writing, but you're automatically enrolled in the union unless you respond in writing.
Otherwise, this is a scam, folks.
This is a scam.
Again, I have nothing against unions, but I do have a whole lot against unions forcing people to join.
Who don't want to join.
I'm sorry.
It is unfair.
And it just puts unions in a very, very bad light.
And what's interesting, Joe, is unions will tell you...
That, oh, this is necessary, and we're benefiting the workers.
But what's fascinating is if you read some of the studies on this, only about a half to a third of people in the actual union now, if given the choice to pay union dues, would actually pay them.
In other words, if they're so popular, how come only half to a third of the people in the union would agree to keep paying the union?
It doesn't make any sense.
All right.
Okay, I want to get to this one, too.
This is another great story.
So be in the show notes, and I strongly encourage you to read this one.
This isn't so much a story, but some research I saw this weekend which I thought would be fascinating to talk about on the show.
The inflation puzzle.
There's a piece out by the St.
Louis Fed.
It's short.
It's not one of these overly wonky pieces, which is surprising, because sometimes I read these things, and if you don't have a good background in economics and understand the elasticities and opportunity costs and stuff like that, the articles are almost impossible to read.
Yeah, you're lost.
Yeah, you're lost.
This one's very readable.
It's short, sweet.
It's more like a kind of a synopsis, but it talks about this inflation puzzle.
I know that, but this matters, folks.
This matters a lot.
There's a perplexing kind of phenomenon going on right now that a lot of economists are having a tough time figuring out.
It's why the federal government, through the Federal Reserve, you know, it's supposed to be independent, we all know it's subject to political influence like anyone else, but why they've been printing the heck out of money through quantitative easing and other type programs, but why inflation has stayed relatively subdued?
Now, when you print a lot of money, there'd be more money chasing the same amount of goods, the price would go up.
If there's $100 in an economy chasing 100 widgets, hypothetically each widget could fetch $1.
If you print another 100, therefore there are $200 in an economy chasing 100 widgets, then hypothetically each widget could fetch $2, even though there's still 100 widgets.
So, you know, monetarists and others, there's been a lot of theories about what exactly causes inflation.
I'm of the belief that the quantity of money does, in fact, is a primary driver.
I don't think that's a particularly controversial assertion to make.
But what's puzzling now is, again, that we've been printing the heck out of money, and inflation has stayed relatively subdued.
A lot of people can't find out why.
Now, when productivity goes up, When productivity is high, inflation is typically low.
Productivity meaning we're producing more stuff.
Think about why that would be.
Because if there's $100 chasing 100 widgets, and now you're producing 200 widgets, then now the cost should go down because there's more widgets, but they're roughly the same amount of money.
Right.
So, what are the theories wrong?
Well, maybe just productivity's enhanced.
It's that we're just producing more stuff.
But productivity's been kind of stagnant lately.
And inflation is still relatively subdued.
So there's a couple theories this piece puts out there, and it's short.
I'll go through them quick here.
One of them, which is fascinating, Joe.
Remember, we're talking about why prices aren't going up, in essence.
We're going to keep this very simple.
And I don't want prices to go up.
I'm not a fan of inflation.
This is just a good report, right?
And it explains a couple things.
One, I think, may have to do with the development of technology.
And one of the good examples I give here that makes a lot of sense is smartphones, Joe.
Smartphones have reduced the demand for other products.
A lot of other products.
Oh yeah!
You have healthcare apps now, Joe.
You have healthcare apps on your phone, so if you had a blood pressure monitor in your house that cost five, six hundred dollars, now you download an app on your phone, you put your fingers on a little board, it attaches to your phone.
Have you seen these things?
It'll measure your blood pressure, your pulse rate, whatever you want.
Yeah, well it probably won't do you.
You need a blood pressure cuff for that.
But your pulse rate, whatever it may be.
You know, you have all kinds of apps, healthcare apps that are coming out now.
You have pedometers that you can detect on your phone how many steps you're taking.
All of the smartphone apps have reduced demand for other products.
When you reduce demand for products, obviously the price comes down because there's not that many people trying to buy them.
Now, a smartphone's one example.
It's not the only one.
But it was a good one.
Yeah, it is a good one.
Reduce the demand for Walkmans.
Our 18 and 19 year olds are like, what the heck is a Walkman?
Exactly.
When Joe and I grew up, that was the thing, man.
You had the tape deck Walkman.
You were the man.
You had those goofy looking headphones.
Look at Joe bopping around.
I remember that.
You don't even know what Walkmans are anymore.
There's not even a reduced demand.
There's no demand.
So, you know, you have other music players and things like that, mp3 players that, you know, all of this stuff has gone the way of the woolly mammoth because of the development of the smartphone.
As I said, pedometers, other things here as well.
Computers, you know, standalone computers.
Most people are doing their email now by smartphone.
So the reduction in demand due to some form of a productivity enhancement.
Now you say, well, I thought you said productivity is stagnant.
Maybe not.
Maybe we're just measuring it the wrong way.
That's where I'm going with this.
Smartphones have eliminated the demand for a bevy of other products.
Again, keeping prices low because with no demand, you're not going to have a price hike.
Nobody wants them.
Number two here, the sharing economy.
This is a brilliant and something I talked about on prior shows before.
Maybe the sharing economy is hiding a lot of these productivity enhancements.
In other words, how we're really getting more efficient as a society, smartphones, the sharing economy, but we're not really seeing it in the numbers.
The sharing economy, folks, Uber, Airbnb, things like this where we're not producing any new assets.
In essence.
But the same assets are just being used better.
What do I mean by that?
You have an apartment, Joe, in Manhattan.
Me and you, say, you know, after this weekend, who knows, we may, we really blew up this weekend.
Say we and you get some big apartment in Manhattan we only use three, four times a year.
Those assets are unused, say, if we're there a week.
For, you know, 48, 49 weeks out of the year, nobody's there.
So Joe may say, hey Dan, I'm gonna just rent mine out to Airbnb.
So now people go up there and they use what was a- it's not new!
It's Joe's apartment, but it's a previously inefficiently used asset.
Joe was only using it for two weeks out of the year.
Now it's being used efficiently for 50, 49 weeks out of the year as well, and what does that do?
Reduces the demand for what, Joe?
Hotels.
So when you don't have as much demand for a hotel room, prices stay down.
So again, maybe we're just not measuring productivity right, and that's why some of these prices are subdued.
Same thing with cars.
You know, all day you had your car sitting around, you go to the gym, you got nothing to do, but say you work a, you know, four or five hour work day or an eight hour work day and you're just bored at night.
All of a sudden you had a car sitting in your driveway.
Now you go out, you're an Uber guy.
What is that drive-down demand for?
Taxis, limos, and cars!
But we didn't build that, you know, we're not, I mean, we are building new cars, but I'm saying the productivity enhancements don't show up in new cars, it's the cars we have now being used better.
Keeping the prices down because people aren't bidding up the prices of taxis and cabs anymore.
Interesting.
One more theory about this was demographic changes.
And this was a research they did in Japan, which I thought was really interesting, that Older workers in Japan who've been with companies their entire life.
Now, as Joe remembers, just decades ago, this was the theory of the day.
You know, when you started with a company like an IBM.
Remember, Joe, you stayed there forever.
You worked with Pan Am before they went out of business, whatever it may be, and you got your pension from there.
I say that because my father-in-law, he worked for Pan Am.
And that's what you did.
You didn't move around.
Now, the problem they're having with Japan with this lifetime stability that came in with the job market, Joe, is now some of these companies are closing.
People have been there 40 years.
And their skills, Joe, are firm-specific.
They're not specific.
I mean, even, Joe, even when we got on the podcast, you remember?
You were like, hey, Dan, some of this stuff is new to me.
SoundCloud and all this stuff.
And now, I mean, now he's three years in.
Joe's like the man on this.
But it was new.
We and him had to kind of learn some stuff together.
Even Paul, my wife, who's a web genius, we had to figure a lot of it out.
Now Joe remodeled his, and basically he's in his second career now, but the point they're making in some of the studies from Japan is a lot of older workers can't do that.
They have skills specific to that firm, the firm closes, so what are they doing?
Taking entry-level jobs in other places, not commensurate with their former skills, and pushing out younger workers.
And of course, these older workers are saving more, not spending as much as those younger workers would have.
So they're not bidding up the prices for things.
And I just thought that was another interesting thing that's happening there.
And it may have something to do with demographic changes.
So, you know, interesting stuff.
I love economics.
I've always been passionate about it.
And I thought you might find some of that interesting.
All right.
One last story under the liberals are nuts category.
I mean, I literally have an arrow pointing to this dude.
You know, liberals are nuts.
I am so disorganized here today.
It's crazy.
I was up at a regatta this weekend for my daughter.
Oh yeah?
Yeah, I saw some big supporters in Orlando.
So one of them said he listens to my show every day.
So you know who you are.
I ran into him in a restaurant.
I was eating in with my family there.
So he was cool.
He wanted to take a...
Selfie and everybody in the restaurant started looking around like, is this guy somebody famous?
I have no idea who this dude is.
I'm serious, it was the funniest thing.
Cool.
So, shout out to you.
The Farm Bill.
Farm Bill's up for reauthorization.
Why does this matter to you?
Because, again, it points to how crazy liberals are.
The first story about the unions was fascinating because they want to force you to join a union no matter what.
And even if the Supreme Court overrules it, they're going to force you to continue to paying because that's what liberals do.
They don't believe in freedom of association.
But on the Farm Bill, there's negotiating going on because the Farm Bill, Joe, is the bill largely responsible for food stamp spending.
And there is an entirely reasonable There's a proposal being put in the food stamp bill that if you are an able-bodied adult that is capable of working, you should be able to put in 20 hours of work to pay for the amount of food that they're providing, the money and resources they're providing you with.
Remember, this is able-bodied people.
We're not talking about kids, people who are disabled, people who can't work.
We're talking about able-bodied people who you are working to feed but don't want to work to feed themselves.
So they're talking about a portion of the bill that would put a 20-hour... Here's the deal.
There's a 20-hour work requirement, but states are given waivers.
They're going to start pulling these waivers.
Remember, this is able-bodied.
We're not talking about people who can't work, who are incapable of working children, older folks.
We're talking about people who are able-bodied.
And the Democrats are saying, no way, it's a non-starter.
So you're supposed to work to feed yourself and someone else who doesn't want to work, potentially to feed them.
It's just bizarre.
But this again goes into the category of liberals losing their minds.
And this is why they lose work in class America, because this is hard to justify to even the most compassionate, sympathetic person.
To say to them, wait, let me get this straight.
You're, you know, 25 years old.
You have no physical ailments that prevent you from working.
They made this very simple for you.
20-hour requirement or job training.
And job training is a very broad category.
You don't want to do any of that, but you want to continue to take money from people who are working to feed themselves and you at the same time.
And that makes sense to you?
And then you wonder why the left is losing America, folks.
It's precisely because of things like this.
This is in the liberals or nuts category.
I should have a category and show up.
I have them in my NRA TV show.
I have all these little categories I put together.
I have liberals versus liberals, dopey things liberals say, debunking liberals, the Kanky Awards, which went over great.
I appreciate that one.
Yeah, that was great.
Appreciate all the support on that.
All right, folks, that's the show for today.
I really appreciate all your support.
Go check me out tonight at NRATV.com.
I'm on at 5.30 p.m.
NRATV.com, Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV.
Check us out on Google Chromecast, too.
Thanks for all the feedback on the show.
It's been great.
I really appreciate it.
Go to Bongino.com.
Check out the show notes today.
Really good stories on there.
Take care.
See you tomorrow.
You just heard the Dan Bongino Show.
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