The Ben Shapiro Show - January 02, 2024


2024: The Year Of The Reckoning Is Upon Us


Episode Stats

Length

53 minutes

Words per Minute

203.56282

Word Count

10,989

Sentence Count

780

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

22


Summary

In this episode, we take a look back at the 2016 election, and look forward to what's to come in the next election, with the 2020 mid-term elections just around the corner, and the 2020 presidential election, in which Donald Trump is running for re-election against a man who has been accused of being a fascist and a fascist-in-chief, and who is willing to do whatever it takes to get him on the ballot, including delegitimizing Trump as a human being, and using the force of law to delegitimize him, and take him off of the ballot. And we look ahead to what we can expect in 2020, and what we should expect in the years to come, as 2020 becomes the year of the punchline, and in 2024, the year the dominoes begin to fall, and everything begins to fall. Welcome to 2024, and get ready for all the jokes and the jokes that are going to be written about Donald Trump and the Trump administration in the coming years. Get ready to be annoyed. Get ready for 2020 to be a bad year, and 2020 to become a bad decade, and maybe even worse than the previous decade, because that's what we're going to have in store for you in 2020 and beyond, and it's going to get even worse in 2020! the year that was supposed to be good, but it's actually not so good at all. . 2020 is the decade of the set-up, and now we re-up for 2020 and 2020 is gonna be the year, right? and 2020 are the year where we're gonna get it all set up, and we're all gonna get what we need to get it right, and then we'll see all the pieces coming together, and that's gonna be a little bit better than we thought we could ever get it done, and a lot better than that, right, we'll figure it out, we ll see what we all can do in 2020 we'll talk about it, we can all agree on that, we're not going to need to do, we know that, shall we say? We'll get it? We'll see you soon, folks! . . . we'll find out what that's coming, and let's see what's coming in 2020. , and we'll have a little more, we will see you next year, folks. Let's get ready to get annoyed.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to 2024.
00:00:02.000 There is one rule in American politics.
00:00:04.000 Everyone eventually gets what they deserve, usually in the funniest possible way.
00:00:09.000 I want to show you my favorite picture of all time.
00:00:11.000 This picture is from after the 2016 election when Donald Trump had just won the White House.
00:00:16.000 It is one of my favorite pictures ever.
00:00:18.000 Probably my favorite picture ever.
00:00:19.000 It's a picture of Donald Trump giving the Trump finger to the camera.
00:00:23.000 He's holding up his finger.
00:00:24.000 He's talking to the media.
00:00:25.000 Here I am.
00:00:26.000 And next to him is Barack Obama looking like he wants to die.
00:00:30.000 Because Barack Obama had a perception of himself.
00:00:33.000 That perception was that he was a world-changing character who had changed the nature of American politics forever.
00:00:38.000 That he was genteel, in order, a Lincoln-esque figure.
00:00:41.000 And in fact, reflecting Barack Obama's feelings is a bust of Abraham Lincoln in the corner of the picture.
00:00:47.000 Downcast, looking at the ground solemnly as Donald Trump holds up his finger to the camera.
00:00:53.000 Why do I show you this picture?
00:00:54.000 Because Barack Obama got exactly what he deserved in 2016.
00:00:58.000 Here he was, this supposed world historical figure, this amazing order, genteel, snazzy, and here was this supposed third-rate real estate mogul slash TV host who was taking his spot, a person who had suggested that he was born in Kenya.
00:01:14.000 Everyone gets what they deserve in politics.
00:01:16.000 Hillary Clinton got it that year as well.
00:01:18.000 Well this year, in 2024, everyone is going to get what they deserve.
00:01:22.000 Now that's both good news and bad news.
00:01:25.000 2023 felt like the year of the setup and 2024 is going to be the year of the punchline.
00:01:29.000 Or, a lot more darkly, 2023 felt like all the dominoes have now been set up And 2024 is going to see all the dominoes fall.
00:01:38.000 Watching coverage of New Year's Eve, it was hard not to feel that all the curtains are about to be pulled back.
00:01:43.000 That we've been prepped by the warm-up act.
00:01:45.000 The main show is about to begin.
00:01:46.000 Now, hovering over 2024 is, of course, the 2024 election.
00:01:50.000 And we can all feel the tension building.
00:01:52.000 I understand it's January 2nd.
00:01:53.000 I understand there are 11 months until the election.
00:01:56.000 Doesn't matter.
00:01:57.000 We can all feel the tension building up right and left.
00:01:59.000 Now, the left believes that Donald Trump is the most beatable Republican candidate.
00:02:03.000 They're asking for exactly what they want.
00:02:06.000 They want Trump.
00:02:07.000 And they could get Trump.
00:02:08.000 Good and hard.
00:02:09.000 They believe the best way to beat Trump is twofold.
00:02:11.000 First, delegitimize him as a human being, say that he's a fascist, say that he is a threat to democracy.
00:02:16.000 And second, use the actual force of law against him.
00:02:20.000 The first part, dehumanizing Trump as a human being, suggesting that everyone who disagrees with you is part of an evil agenda.
00:02:26.000 You can see the entertainment characters swing into action on the night of New Year's Eve.
00:02:32.000 Here were the morons over at Green Day singing their terrible song, American Idiot, which somehow is categorized as a piece of music.
00:02:39.000 I don't know why.
00:02:40.000 And the lead singer for Green Day has routinely changed the lyrics in order to target the right.
00:02:44.000 Here is the lead singer of Green Day changing lyrics once again.
00:02:52.000 I'm not part of a MAGA agenda.
00:03:00.000 OK, now, no one was really under the impression that Green Day was part of the MAGA agenda, but this is what it's going to be now until Election Day.
00:03:07.000 Get ready to be annoyed.
00:03:08.000 But it's not just that.
00:03:09.000 The left is also going to attempt to use all mechanisms of law to go after Trump.
00:03:13.000 This is not just true of the various prosecutions that are taking place across the country in Georgia, in New York, in Washington, D.C., in Florida.
00:03:21.000 It's also true When it comes to delegitimization of institutions that could stop them from going after Trump, legally speaking.
00:03:28.000 So, over the course of the last week and a half, it turns out that in Maine, they are also trying to take Donald Trump off the ballot in the same way that the Supreme Court of Colorado took him off the ballot in Colorado, suggesting that he was guilty of insurrection.
00:03:39.000 That is going to go to the Supreme Court.
00:03:41.000 The Supreme Court is then going to have to determine whether or not Trump can be removed from the ballot simply because some state official believes that he has committed quote-unquote insurrection despite the fact that he's never been convicted or even charged with the crime of insurrection.
00:03:54.000 Well part of this is an attempt to delegitimize the Supreme Court itself because Three of the justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by Donald Trump when he was president of the United States.
00:04:03.000 And now, Democrats are suggesting that basically every justice on the Supreme Court who Trump either appointed or who was appointed by a Republican ought to be recused from any case dealing with Trump's access to the ballot.
00:04:16.000 So therefore, if Trump is not removed from the ballot, the Supreme Court is illegitimate.
00:04:20.000 Here was Jamie Raskin doing this routine, the congressperson from Maryland.
00:04:25.000 Should any of the justices recuse themselves if they take this up?
00:04:30.000 Well, finally, the Supreme Court has developed what they're describing as a code of ethics.
00:04:36.000 It's not binding in the sense that they're not going to anyone else.
00:04:40.000 They could have gone to, for example, circuit court justices.
00:04:43.000 You could have had state Supreme Court justices on a panel.
00:04:47.000 But so they're deciding for themselves, again, whether they're in violation of their code of ethics.
00:04:54.000 Anybody looking at this in any kind of dispassionate, reasonable way would say, if your wife was involved in the big lie and claiming that Donald Trump had actually won the presidential election, had been agitating for that and participating in the events leading up to January 6th, that you shouldn't be participating in... So he should recuse himself.
00:05:16.000 He should.
00:05:16.000 Oh, he absolutely should recuse himself.
00:05:18.000 The question is, what do we do if he doesn't?
00:05:21.000 So what's the goal of what Raskin is saying here?
00:05:23.000 It's to delegitimize the Supreme Court, to delegitimize Clarence Thomas.
00:05:26.000 So the left, in pursuit of getting Donald Trump, is going to suggest that if you vote for Donald Trump, it's because you're a fascist.
00:05:32.000 And also, they're going to use all the mechanisms of law to target Donald Trump.
00:05:37.000 Which sounds an awful lot like tyranny.
00:05:40.000 So they're breaking all the systems.
00:05:41.000 Meanwhile, the right believes there is no way that Donald Trump or anyone else can lose to Joe Biden.
00:05:46.000 Hell, many people on the right believe that Donald Trump never lost to Joe Biden in the first place in 2020.
00:05:50.000 Well, that's being reinforced by Joe Biden's myriad screw-ups and clearly fading mental state.
00:05:55.000 So again, New Year's Eve, all this starts to come to the fore like right away.
00:05:58.000 Here's Ryan Seacrest at the 2024 New Year's Eve bash asking Joe Biden about the new year.
00:06:07.000 As you look back and reflect on 2023, what sort of memories, highlights stand out for you?
00:06:14.000 Well, one of the big highlights stands out for me is my dad used to have an expression.
00:06:18.000 He'd say, Joey, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck.
00:06:21.000 It's about your dignity.
00:06:22.000 It's about respect.
00:06:23.000 So many people through the Midwest and the center of the country, Their factors are shipped overseas the last couple of times out, and they're losing hope and faith.
00:06:33.000 So we brought a lot of jobs back to the United States.
00:06:36.000 People are in a position to be able to make a living now, and they've created a lot of jobs, over 14 million.
00:06:43.000 And I guess when I'm, I just feel good that the American people got up.
00:06:48.000 They've been through a rough time with pandemic, but now we're coming back.
00:06:51.000 They're back.
00:06:54.000 Oh, rambly McRambleface.
00:06:55.000 It is not going well for Joe Biden.
00:06:57.000 Every time you see a video where Jill is sitting next to Joe,
00:06:59.000 it feels like you at a Thanksgiving Day event with your parents, where mom or dad is starting to ramble,
00:07:07.000 and you just want to crawl into the earth.
00:07:09.000 That's what it feels like every single time.
00:07:11.000 And that's every clip with Joe Biden.
00:07:12.000 Joe Biden was asked about his New Year's resolution.
00:07:14.000 He went to St. Croix for a bit of a vacation because he has spent apparently something like 37%
00:07:21.000 of the past year at a getaway spot.
00:07:22.000 So why not?
00:07:23.000 And he was asked about his New Year's resolution.
00:07:25.000 Here's his New Year's resolution.
00:07:28.000 Joe Biden did share his New Year's resolution in the Caribbean yesterday.
00:07:33.000 Some reporters asked him as he came out of a fancy restaurant, and here's what Joe said.
00:07:39.000 What's your New Year's resolution, sir?
00:07:44.000 Come back next year.
00:07:47.000 Anything else?
00:07:47.000 That's the biggest one right now.
00:07:50.000 Come back next year.
00:07:51.000 His New Year's resolution.
00:07:52.000 To come back next year.
00:07:54.000 What does that mean?
00:07:55.000 We don't know!
00:07:55.000 We don't know what it means.
00:07:56.000 I think I've determined what it means.
00:07:58.000 What does it mean?
00:07:58.000 Stay alive.
00:08:02.000 That very well may be the case.
00:08:05.000 Now, here's the thing.
00:08:06.000 If the left believes they have to break all the instruments of government in order to stop Trump, and if the right believes that all of the instruments of government are broken if somehow Trump loses, well, that's not a great setup for 2024.
00:08:17.000 In fact, either side can lose.
00:08:20.000 According to the latest polling, Donald Trump is up in the RealClearPolitics polling average by about 2.4%.
00:08:25.000 That is well within any margin of error.
00:08:27.000 Virtually all polls show heavy numbers of undecided voters at this point.
00:08:31.000 Some polls show high percentages of third-party possible votes.
00:08:34.000 Why?
00:08:35.000 Because we all know this election isn't really going to be about the candidates, because nothing is going to change about your perspective on the candidates.
00:08:41.000 It's the very beginning of 2024.
00:08:42.000 If it is Trump, and if it is Biden, we know these people down to the marrow of them.
00:08:47.000 No one has no opinion about Trump.
00:08:49.000 No one has no opinion about Joe Biden, which means That this year is going to be largely about extraneous events.
00:08:55.000 And that is why Joe Biden is in serious, serious trouble.
00:08:59.000 Why?
00:08:59.000 Because as I say, if all the bills are about to come due, that's not just true for politicians and people.
00:09:04.000 That's also true on a wide variety of bad policy decisions that have been made over the course of the last several years.
00:09:10.000 All of those bills are going to come due.
00:09:12.000 We'll get to that in just one second.
00:09:13.000 First, as we head into this presidential election year, one thing you can be sure of, 2024 will be a wild ride.
00:09:19.000 You already see the impacts of inflation at the pump, at the grocery store, The dollar continues to lose buying power quicker than wages can increase.
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00:10:18.000 So speaking of policies that are coming to.
00:10:21.000 According to CBS News, just over the weekend, U.S.
00:10:25.000 immigration officials along the southern border are on track to process more than 300,000 migrants in December.
00:10:32.000 That's an all-time monthly high.
00:10:33.000 It will likely include record numbers of families traveling with children, according to internal government data obtained by CBS News.
00:10:38.000 It's also going to contain a bunch of people on the terror watch list because it literally always does.
00:10:42.000 They're a bunch of young Males, particularly, from the Northern Triangle, but also from overseas, from abroad, who are unvetted, who are going to be let into the country.
00:10:51.000 Because this is the way we have done immigration policy in this country for years, and it has greatly accelerated and exacerbated under Joe Biden.
00:10:58.000 According to CBS News, the extraordinary number of migrant arrivals this month is the most dire juncture yet of a three-year-long crisis in the U.S.-Mexico border.
00:11:05.000 Three years long?
00:11:05.000 Hmm.
00:11:06.000 I wonder what happened about three years ago.
00:11:08.000 Guys have any recollections?
00:11:09.000 Like in January, say, January 2021?
00:11:10.000 Any?
00:11:12.000 Oh yeah, it's when Joe Biden became president.
00:11:14.000 Well, that three-year-long crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has strained resources in small and large U.S.
00:11:19.000 communities.
00:11:19.000 U.S.
00:11:19.000 Border Patrol agents at the Mexican border are on course to take into custody this month a quarter of a million migrants who entered the country illegally.
00:11:26.000 Their colleagues at official ports of entry are expected to process roughly 50,000 new arrivals under a Biden administration appointment system.
00:11:33.000 Never, ever have they processed this many migrants.
00:11:36.000 Ever.
00:11:37.000 In the first 28 days of December, Border Patrol agents processed nearly 235,000 migrants who crossed the southern border illegally in between ports of entry, averaging roughly 84 apprehensions every day.
00:11:48.000 That's an insane number.
00:11:49.000 And by the way, this number is not shocking.
00:11:52.000 It is not shocking.
00:11:53.000 Why?
00:11:53.000 Because this has been happening consistently under the Biden administration.
00:11:56.000 Border Patrol processed 127,000 single adult migrants and nearly 12,000 unaccompanied children during December's first 28 days.
00:12:04.000 Now remember, an unaccompanied child is not necessarily an 8-year-old kid.
00:12:08.000 It could be a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old.
00:12:10.000 Which is a minor, but not quite what you're thinking of when you think unaccompanied minor, like a four-year-old walking up to the border or something.
00:12:17.000 But again, look at the acceleration and the pace of monthly migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border.
00:12:23.000 It's absolutely wild.
00:12:25.000 I mean, look at these numbers.
00:12:27.000 This is from the Pew Research Center.
00:12:29.000 And as you can see, they were at relatively normal numbers in like April of 2020.
00:12:34.000 They started to go up about then, but they didn't truly skyrocket until you hit the beginning of 2021, until you hit the Biden administration.
00:12:45.000 Why?
00:12:45.000 Well, because Joe Biden basically sent the signal we got an open border.
00:12:48.000 And if you show up at the border, we will process you and then we will let you into the interior.
00:12:52.000 And we will leave you there.
00:12:53.000 Which leads us, by the way, to the single greatest political stunt of all time, without a doubt.
00:12:58.000 So, Republican governors Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, in Florida, they started taking illegal immigrants in their states and they started sending them to left-wing polities.
00:13:08.000 They started sending a bunch of Illegal immigrants to Chicago and to New York and to Martha's Vineyard.
00:13:15.000 And the entire media squawked and squealed.
00:13:18.000 It was a violation of human rights.
00:13:19.000 And no one believed that because it turns out that being put on a jet to Martha's Vineyard, that's a pretty sweet deal.
00:13:24.000 Most Americans would love to be on a jet to Martha's Vineyard.
00:13:26.000 Sounds pretty great, actually.
00:13:28.000 Most Americans are fine with visiting Chicago or New York.
00:13:31.000 Here are illegal immigrants who are being shipped to America's greatest city centers, we have been told, by the illustrious media and their allies in the Democratic Party.
00:13:38.000 And yet, here they were complaining about all of this.
00:13:40.000 It was just absolutely terrible.
00:13:42.000 And it exposed, once and for all, the reality of illegal immigration.
00:13:46.000 Which is, it's all fun and games.
00:13:47.000 When everybody's being released in Brownsville, Texas.
00:13:50.000 And taking over the streets over there.
00:13:52.000 And then being gradually integrated into red states.
00:13:55.000 But, when this stuff is happening in blue cities, suddenly, you realize migrant crises They're really bad.
00:14:01.000 Again, all the chicken's gonna come home to roost in 2024, and you can see it on the faces of Democratic politicians who are beginning to— Hey, wait a second.
00:14:08.000 Is illegal immigration policy maybe bad?
00:14:11.000 Here is Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, the male Lori Lightfoot, explaining that by sending illegal immigrants from Texas to Chicago, Greg Abbott is sowing the seeds of chaos, which does raise the question, How did those people get into Texas in the first place?
00:14:24.000 Was that also Greg Abbott?
00:14:25.000 Oh wait, no.
00:14:26.000 Texas is attempting to pass a law right now that would criminalize illegal entry into Texas as a state crime.
00:14:31.000 So people could be arrested for that.
00:14:33.000 So that Texas couldn't force the border.
00:14:35.000 And the federal government is suing to stop them.
00:14:38.000 In the same way they did when Jan Brewer was governor of Arizona.
00:14:41.000 And Barack Obama's administration actually sued Jan Brewer to stop her from enforcing immigration law in Arizona.
00:14:47.000 So the federal government has a policy.
00:14:48.000 The policy is, we won't enforce federal immigration law, and if you try to, we will sue you.
00:14:54.000 But Brandon Johnson, they're gonna try to blame Greg Abbott, they'll try to blame DeSantis, they'll try to blame Republican governors.
00:14:58.000 The reason you're having 300,000 illegal entries into the United States in December alone is because of Joe Biden and the federal government.
00:15:07.000 Here is Mayor Brandon Johnson.
00:15:10.000 This is unsustainable.
00:15:12.000 None of our local economies are positioned to be able to carry on such a mission.
00:15:18.000 And what we have attempted to do is to create structure and some coordination around this humanitarian crisis.
00:15:26.000 And unfortunately, the governor of Texas, Governor Abbott, is determined to continue to sow seeds of chaos.
00:15:34.000 And last night and several nights before, a number of buses continue to arrive
00:15:40.000 in the city of Chicago throughout the country without any coordination.
00:15:43.000 Well, that sounds a little racist.
00:15:49.000 Sow seeds of chaos.
00:15:51.000 What seeds are we talking about?
00:15:52.000 Are you saying that illegal immigration into a city sows seeds of chaos?
00:15:57.000 Is that what you're saying, Mayor Johnson?
00:15:59.000 Why it's almost as though there are lots of us who have been saying that mass illegal entry
00:16:04.000 across the Southern border is bad and breaks down the social fabric
00:16:07.000 and has tremendous costs, both economically and socially to the United States.
00:16:13.000 He's allowed to say it, he's a Democrat.
00:16:14.000 And not just that, he's a Democrat of color, so he's certainly allowed to say that, apparently.
00:16:17.000 But, if a white Republican said that, it would be racist.
00:16:20.000 Or, alternatively, this is all the chickens coming home to roost in blue cities.
00:16:24.000 Mayor Eric Adams, same thing.
00:16:25.000 In New York, getting hit by a wave of illegal immigration, and he's like, I don't even know how we're gonna pay for any of this.
00:16:31.000 Yeah, we know.
00:16:32.000 Again, it is astonishing to me that New York City, which touts itself as the financial hub, not just of the United States, of planet Earth, is saying, we don't have the resources to pay for illegal immigration.
00:16:41.000 You know who probably does?
00:16:42.000 Like a 10,000 person town in South Texas.
00:16:45.000 Here's Mayor Adams.
00:16:47.000 Has there been any follow-up?
00:16:49.000 What do you need most right now from the federal government?
00:16:53.000 Well, first of all, I want to really commend my colleagues, both the mayor of Denver and the mayor of Chicago, because this national crisis is really impacting and it has the potential of destabilizing the financial obligations that we have in our cities.
00:17:09.000 And the meeting with the White House, I think much more could be done with all of our national leaders from a decompression strategy to making sure the cost of this is not falling on the laps of everyday taxpayers.
00:17:22.000 These pictures in New York.
00:17:25.000 People sleeping on the streets under American Red Cross blankets.
00:17:28.000 Just insane.
00:17:29.000 Insane.
00:17:29.000 Again, this is the cost of policy.
00:17:31.000 This is what happens in 2024.
00:17:33.000 It's going to be the year where all of it becomes perfectly clear.
00:17:36.000 Not just, by the way, with regard to illegal immigration.
00:17:38.000 That's just one of Joe Biden's bad policy decisions that is coming to fruition right now.
00:17:43.000 Also with regard to the economy.
00:17:44.000 So everybody is already whistling past the graveyard when it comes to the economy.
00:17:48.000 Oh, we've escaped the deep recession.
00:17:49.000 Oh, we've escaped the depression.
00:17:51.000 Well, all we've done is we have turned the possibility of a brief shock in the economy that would have hit bottom and then skyrocketed back up basically into a long-term stagnating cycle.
00:18:02.000 It's exactly what happened under the Obama administration.
00:18:04.000 The Obama administration had the slowest recovery from an economic crash in American history.
00:18:09.000 Extremely slow rates, economic stagnation at very high rates.
00:18:12.000 That's what you're about to see from the Biden administration because so much of the growth curve that has been created was created off the back of inflationary policies and government spending.
00:18:21.000 Businesses are starting to invest again, but they're starting to invest on the basis that they think that the Federal Reserve is going to cut the interest rates over the course of the next year, making for another round of easy money policies that they think is going to spur consumer spending.
00:18:35.000 Which, by the way, could spur inflation again, which is why there may be a disconnect between the markets and businesses and what the Federal Reserve is actually going to do.
00:18:41.000 Jerome Powell knows that if he actually lowers the interest rates, there's a good shot that inflation kicks back in Especially if you do have high levels of business spending into that economy.
00:18:51.000 We'll get into that in just one moment.
00:18:53.000 First, over the course of the break, normally I don't get a lot of sleep.
00:18:58.000 I slept pretty well.
00:18:59.000 Why?
00:18:59.000 Well, I didn't have to get up in the morning to do the show, but that also meant that I got to enjoy my Helix sleep mattress.
00:19:05.000 I've had my Helix mattress for, I don't know, seven, eight years at this point.
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00:19:56.000 Okay, so when it comes to the economy, One of the things that people are ignoring is how much of the economic growth statistics are tied into government spending.
00:20:05.000 Alicia Finley has very good piece over at the Wall Street Journal.
00:20:08.000 And here's what she says.
00:20:09.000 She says, drill into the nation's 3.7% unemployment rate, you'll find a growing welfare industrial complex beneath the seemingly strong labor market.
00:20:17.000 Government social assistance and health care account for 56% of the 2.8 million net new jobs over the past year and for nearly all gains in blue states like New York and Illinois.
00:20:26.000 Remember, government social assistance and health care.
00:20:29.000 Those are all government expenditure programs.
00:20:31.000 New York City is spending $394 a day to house and feed every illegal immigrant who's coming in.
00:20:36.000 Many informally posh hotels.
00:20:38.000 The city has made itself a welfare magnet.
00:20:40.000 The homeless population continues to swell as well.
00:20:45.000 So many of the statistics that we are seeing in terms of GDP are jogged by the amount of government spending that is currently happening right now.
00:20:54.000 Spending on Medicaid has gone up.
00:20:56.000 Illegal immigration, by the way, in this viewpoint actually helps the economy because if you are trying to increase GDP, what you do is you bring people in, you spend a lot of government services on them, and then you count that all as part of GDP.
00:21:07.000 Government spending is part of the gross domestic product statistic that everybody loves to use.
00:21:14.000 As Finley points out, President Biden won't admit it, but he has Republican states to thank for the increase in productive jobs in private industry.
00:21:19.000 The administration's bet is government spending on welfare and entitlements can continue to power the U.S.
00:21:23.000 labor market, even as job growth in manufacturing, tech, retail, and other industry flags, but social make-work projects don't improve American living standards.
00:21:30.000 And this is one of the disconnects.
00:21:32.000 You see so many Americans who are unhappy with the economy, and Democrats look at them and say, why are you so unhappy with the economy?
00:21:36.000 Look at our unemployment rate.
00:21:37.000 Look at the fact that we have good GDP statistics, quarter on quarter.
00:21:39.000 And the answer is, since Joe Biden took office, The American dollar, one dollar, would buy you the same thing in January of 2021 that would cost you almost a buck twenty to buy you now.
00:21:52.000 That is a real increase in how much things cost.
00:21:56.000 It means you need more money in order to buy the same exact things.
00:22:00.000 And all of those growth statistics that are being jogged by government spending, we understand that that's going to come due on the other end in the form of either higher taxes or austerity programs that are eventually going to come due.
00:22:10.000 We have trillions of dollars in unpaid federal liabilities at this point in this country.
00:22:14.000 Those bills will come due as well.
00:22:16.000 The disconnect is between the stats and how people feel, and people are not wrong to feel the way that they do when things cost this much more money.
00:22:24.000 Meanwhile, on national security, 2024 is certainly the year that things are going to come due.
00:22:28.000 One of the things that's going to come due is the emptying out of the American military.
00:22:32.000 We don't have enough recruits for the American military, and the entire style of recruiting for the American military is totally off.
00:22:38.000 We've spent in the wrong places when it comes to the American military.
00:22:41.000 We still have the most powerful military force on planet Earth.
00:22:43.000 We still have the best fighting men and women in the business when it comes to the American military.
00:22:48.000 We should all be extraordinarily proud of the American military.
00:22:51.000 It is also true that the United States military has been turned into a DEI enclave by a lot of the military leadership, particularly under the Biden administration, where the focus has been on how do we basically use the auspices of the single most important function of the federal government in order to press forward our left-wing agenda.
00:23:10.000 This was made clear over the course of the last week by a trans lieutenant colonel named Bree Fram, who now says, at a Fortune, Inc.
00:23:20.000 event, Inclusion is a national security imperative.
00:23:24.000 Inclusion is a national security imperative.
00:23:29.000 We fight today and we are going to fight in the future using brain power.
00:23:34.000 And if that brain, who's going to revolutionize the way we fight in space, we fight in cyber, just happens to be in a trans body, you should want them all serving alongside me.
00:23:46.000 And for your organizations, it's the same way.
00:23:50.000 Those perspectives that we get from a diverse set of individuals, it's been talked about on stage a lot regarding the science behind high-performing teams.
00:23:57.000 We need those perspectives.
00:23:59.000 But it's inclusion that actually drives that.
00:24:04.000 Hey, all of this is connected to a broader Joe Biden military policy, which is a policy of appeasement and retreat in many places, or at the very least, a policy of vacillation and wavering.
00:24:15.000 So my friend, the historian Neil Ferguson, he had a fascinating thread at the end of the year where he talks about where America stands right now.
00:24:24.000 He says future historians are going to marvel at all of this.
00:24:27.000 It will seem obvious by 2033, if not sooner, that the Pax Americana, the idea of an American hegemony dominating the globe, faced a well-coordinated challenge from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea in the early 2020s.
00:24:38.000 The first move was the invasion of Ukraine.
00:24:40.000 The second was the war of Iran's proxies against Israel.
00:24:42.000 The third will most likely be a Chinese challenge to American primacy in the Indo-Pacific, perhaps if Xi Jinping is bold, a blockade of Taiwan.
00:24:49.000 If, in the course of 2024, Ukraine's position becomes so vulnerable that its forces must withdraw from some contested territory, three immediate consequences will follow.
00:24:57.000 First, more refugees will flow from Ukraine to Europe.
00:24:59.000 Second, private investors will take their money out of Ukraine.
00:25:01.000 And third, European governments will have to get a lot more serious about their own defense spending, with all the obvious political headaches that implies.
00:25:07.000 For NATO as a whole, to hit 3.5% of GDP on defense spending would require $431 billion more per year, nearly twice the amount all countries have pledged to Ukraine since last year.
00:25:17.000 The Pax Americana seems to be ending.
00:25:18.000 The fate of Ukraine, of Israel, of Taiwan hangs in the balance.
00:25:21.000 I can't say I'm surprised, he says.
00:25:23.000 It was always very likely the overreach of the global war on terror would be requited in this way with a resurgence of isolationism.
00:25:29.000 And that's what's happening inside the Biden administration.
00:25:32.000 Now, the realist foreign policy that Donald Trump pursued was not, in fact, an appeasement-oriented foreign policy.
00:25:38.000 The idea that Europe should pay its own way when it comes to military spending and the United States would still be a muscular player in the world was not a bad idea from Donald Trump.
00:25:47.000 The idea of getting rid of NATO entirely was a bad idea, but the idea that NATO should actually be paid for by many of our allies was, of course, entirely true.
00:25:54.000 They were relying on us for years to pay the freight when it came to their military spending.
00:25:58.000 The problem is Joe Biden came into office And his strategy has basically been to say broad things that don't materialize in the way that he would like them to.
00:26:10.000 So, for example, the Ukraine war.
00:26:13.000 Joe Biden never made clear what the exact interest was in the Ukraine war.
00:26:17.000 Let's say that Joe Biden at the very outset had said, listen, the interest in Ukraine is not to reverse the gains that Russia made in 2014, because those are not reversible at this point, given the state of the war.
00:26:28.000 The purpose here is to repel any future Russian invasion of Ukraine, and we will provide military support necessary to do that.
00:26:35.000 Even in perpetuity, we'd be willing to do that.
00:26:38.000 Right now, the broad-scale perception in Russia would be that Russia is losing the war, because they did.
00:26:43.000 They tried to invade Ukraine.
00:26:45.000 They lost.
00:26:46.000 It didn't work.
00:26:46.000 The United States, through its proxy in Ukraine, was able to completely degrade the Russian ability to make large-scale war in Ukraine.
00:26:55.000 That is a victory for the United States.
00:26:56.000 And yet somehow it has turned into a loss.
00:26:58.000 Why?
00:26:58.000 Because Joe Biden never anticipated and never articulated what exactly his goal was.
00:27:03.000 Instead, he basically said, Zelensky will establish the goal over in Ukraine.
00:27:07.000 And Zelensky's goal is not the United States' goal.
00:27:09.000 Zelensky's goal is repel Russia from the Donbass region, from Crimea.
00:27:15.000 Push them out of all of those areas.
00:27:18.000 But that was never realistic.
00:27:19.000 That was never going to happen.
00:27:21.000 No matter how much military aid America provides, unless the United States is willing to start sending over F-16s, if that's not going to happen, there's no way to break the stranglehold that Russia has on those areas.
00:27:33.000 And so right now, Vladimir Putin is just waiting out Joe Biden.
00:27:38.000 Because Republicans have correctly said, we need to know what the plan is here.
00:27:43.000 And Joe Biden is not articulating a plan.
00:27:45.000 Now Putin is simply waiting it out.
00:27:47.000 So over the course of the last week, Putin said that they're going to increase the strikes on Ukraine.
00:27:51.000 Putin's bet all the way along here has been very simple.
00:27:55.000 I'm going to outlast the United States.
00:27:57.000 The history of Russian war making is expend way too much material and way too many men in pursuit of a military goal because the history of Russian military conquest says we don't really care very much about our own citizens and we are willing to throw hundreds of thousands and millions of people at a problem.
00:28:13.000 Going all the way back to World War I, the Russians were perfectly willing to sacrifice millions and millions of people charging frontally blocked positions, charging machine gun positions with no weaponry.
00:28:25.000 So the idea that they're going to expend lots and lots, like that's actually part of the Russian military mentality.
00:28:31.000 The notion that he's going to be pushed off the ball by Joe Biden basically saying Zelensky can make the case here, like that's not going to do it.
00:28:38.000 So Putin is going to continue to ratchet up the pressure, which is what he's doing.
00:28:41.000 Russian leader Vladimir Putin said moments ago that Russia will increase its airstrikes on Ukraine in the coming days, weeks, and months.
00:28:51.000 This comes as Ukraine says that Odessa on the Black Sea coast came under assault from unmanned Russian drones just hours into the new year.
00:29:00.000 One person died, at least nine were injured.
00:29:04.000 I mean, basically Putin is betting that the West is simply gonna give up on this.
00:29:07.000 And the reality is that because of failures to articulate the goals and the strategies,
00:29:12.000 the West may in fact give up on Ukraine.
00:29:13.000 Now, if that happens, it is much more likely that China is going to become ever more militant.
00:29:18.000 China is watching a West in retreat around the globe from powers that should not have the West in retreat.
00:29:23.000 Forget about Russia, which is a nuclear armed power.
00:29:25.000 When you look at the Middle East, the fact that the West is being basically challenged
00:29:29.000 by a bunch of ragtag pirates in the Red Sea is totally insane.
00:29:33.000 The fact that the West is somehow hand-wringing over a democratic ally, Israel, trying to destroy a terrorist group, Hamas, that just committed the worst act of Jew murder since World War II.
00:29:45.000 And the West is sitting around hand-wringing, what do we do?
00:29:47.000 What do we do?
00:29:47.000 How far should the Israelis go?
00:29:49.000 China's watching all of that and they can see it.
00:29:52.000 That is a West in retreat.
00:29:54.000 So over the weekend, the U.S.
00:29:55.000 Navy sank three Houthi boats that were attacking a merchant ship in the Red Sea.
00:29:59.000 This is according to ABC News.
00:30:01.000 U.S.
00:30:01.000 Navy helicopters returned fire and sank three small boats carrying Houthi militants in the Red Sea on Sunday after U.S.
00:30:06.000 warships responded to a distress call from a merchant vessel, according to military officials.
00:30:10.000 A Maersk container ship, the Singapore-flagged Hangzhou, issued a distress call at about 6.30 a.m.
00:30:15.000 local time, according to CENTCOM.
00:30:17.000 The merchant vessel said four small boats were attacking it.
00:30:20.000 Helicopters from two U.S.
00:30:21.000 ships, the USS Eisenhower and the USS Gravely, responded and issued verbal calls to the small boats, according to U.S.
00:30:26.000 officials.
00:30:27.000 Now remember, the Biden administration delisted the Houthis as a terrorist group when they came into power.
00:30:32.000 And right now, you basically have U.S.
00:30:34.000 military assets that are sitting out there and having to wait to blow up these tiny inflatables being driven by illiterate morons with badly Program drones.
00:30:45.000 It's insane.
00:30:45.000 Meanwhile, Iran is upping the game.
00:30:47.000 Iran's Alborz warship has now entered the Red Sea, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency and Reuters.
00:30:54.000 Tasnim did not give details on the Alborz mission.
00:30:56.000 They said Iranian warships have been operating in open waters to secure shipping routes, combat piracy, and carry out other tasks since 2009.
00:31:01.000 So there's the fear that Iran may be upping its game.
00:31:05.000 Meanwhile, what is the Obama and what is the Biden administration doing?
00:31:09.000 According to the Jerusalem Post, A U.S.
00:31:11.000 aircraft carrier is now being removed from this area.
00:31:14.000 So as the challenges are being upped against shipping in the Red Sea, the U.S.
00:31:19.000 is removing the USS Gerald Ford.
00:31:22.000 Instead, it's heading out of the Mediterranean.
00:31:26.000 To go where exactly?
00:31:29.000 Where else is there a massive sea problem that requires the help of this U.S.
00:31:35.000 battleship?
00:31:37.000 Why is the Ford leaving?
00:31:38.000 No one exactly knows.
00:31:41.000 So Iran is upping its aggressiveness in this area.
00:31:44.000 And meanwhile, the United States is withdrawing an American aircraft carrier.
00:31:50.000 China is looking on and thinking to itself, man, we're fools.
00:31:54.000 If given our current economic situation, we don't make a move for Taiwan again, all the bills are going to come due this year.
00:32:00.000 All the bills are going to come due this year.
00:32:02.000 And by the way, it's only going to get worse if the United States continues to strain its relationship with Israel over Israel getting rid of an overtly evil terrorist group in Hamas, which has embedded itself in a civilian population, forcing Israel to sacrifice hundreds of its own soldiers.
00:32:18.000 And also, if the United States says to Israel that Israel cannot go after Hezbollah to protect its own citizens in the north.
00:32:24.000 And weakness is taken in world politics as a sign that you are ready to allow the bad guys to win.
00:32:30.000 And China knows this, which is why China is getting more aggressive.
00:32:34.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has now urged his countrymen to brace for more economic challenges in the year ahead, sounding a cautious note as a string of weak readings highlights the many headwinds facing the world's second largest economy.
00:32:45.000 He said on the path ahead, winds and rains are the norm.
00:32:49.000 Some companies are facing business pressures.
00:32:50.000 Some people are running into difficulties finding jobs and in their daily living.
00:32:54.000 All of this could easily be the predicate to the idea that the Chinese window is closing and they need to move and they need to move right now while Joe Biden is president, as in this year.
00:33:04.000 Don't be surprised if a lot of the hotspots around the globe start to heat up even more.
00:33:09.000 We'll get to more bills that are about to come due, particularly for the American left, in just one second.
00:33:14.000 First, let's say that you decide to go on a boat ride.
00:33:18.000 And this boat ride, it's on like an amazing new ship.
00:33:20.000 It's like the best ship in the entire world.
00:33:23.000 In fact, you're on this ship, you're kind of a stowaway, and suddenly this ship gets hit Buy an iceberg.
00:33:30.000 Well, when you're not painting nude women, you might be drowning.
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00:34:15.000 That's policygenius.com slash Shapiro.
00:34:18.000 Also, it's time to start 2024 off right.
00:34:20.000 The fight to reshape our culture has never been more crucial.
00:34:22.000 At The Daily Wire, we are leading the charge.
00:34:24.000 We've got amazing things lined up for you this year.
00:34:26.000 We have a brand new series coming out called Mr. Bircham.
00:34:29.000 It's The Daily Wire's first ever animated series.
00:34:31.000 It features an all-star cast, including Roseanne Barr, Megyn Kelly, Adam Carolla, and more.
00:34:35.000 Plus, brace yourselves for The Daily Wire's highly anticipated series, The Pendragon Cycle.
00:34:39.000 We are breathing new life into the Arthurian legend inspired by the works of acclaimed Christian novelist Stephen R. Lawhead.
00:34:45.000 Filming just wrapped.
00:34:46.000 Right now you can catch a sneak peek of what's to come with our incredible Pendragon Cycle production diaries at dailywire.com.
00:34:51.000 Go check them out right now.
00:34:52.000 And of course, the biggest election probably in American history, 2024 election is coming.
00:34:57.000 The Election Wire is your source of truth, bringing you everything from the campaign trail to the debates and Election Day.
00:35:02.000 For our younger audience, DailyWire Plus members can now unlock our brand new kids app, Benkei at no additional cost.
00:35:07.000 It's where you can find shows the kids love and parents can trust.
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00:35:14.000 Your DailyWire Plus membership will give you more of me, Matt Walsh.
00:35:18.000 Michael Molls, Andrew Klavan, Candace Owens, Jordan Peterson, PragerU, that's just the beginning.
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00:35:24.000 Join the fight to reshape and take back our culture today at dailywire.com slash subscribe.
00:35:29.000 Meanwhile, speaking of all the bills that are to come due, foreign policy has implications for how things work in America as well.
00:35:35.000 The left-wing coalition in the United States has basically decided to make common cause with the most radical Jew haters in the country.
00:35:42.000 It's an amazing thing.
00:35:45.000 The fact that even the Biden administration, even as it's supportive of Israel, seems unwilling to full-scale condemn the activities of pro-Hamas rioters, and that's what you are seeing across the country, is truly an astonishing thing.
00:35:57.000 It really is an amazing thing.
00:35:58.000 In fact, over the course of the holiday, police arrested, according to the Daily Mail, pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked entry to New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport and LAX on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
00:36:08.000 So first of all, They should have arrested them, like, immediately.
00:36:11.000 They didn't.
00:36:12.000 Instead, they allowed them to delay things for literally hours.
00:36:14.000 It wasn't just that.
00:36:16.000 It wasn't just that they delayed things.
00:36:17.000 There were pro-Hamas people near JFK who literally released a giant balloon in an attempt to obstruct air traffic, which is actually dangerous.
00:36:27.000 Like, you can crash a passenger jet that way.
00:36:30.000 And they did it in an attempt to stop the air traffic.
00:36:33.000 In solidarity with Hamas, according to the Daily Mail, travelers were forced to get out of their cars and walk to the airport with their luggage in New York after activists demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war blocked the road leading to one of the country's biggest and busiest airports on Wednesday.
00:36:48.000 Police said 26 arrests were made for disorderly conduct and impeding vehicular traffic and the roadway was reopened at 11.50 a.m.
00:36:55.000 The police were notified of the protest activity around 11.30 a.m.
00:37:00.000 Just ridiculous and insipid, of course.
00:37:02.000 The NYPD actively put out a statement, quote, Or, alternatively, you could just arrest people who are obstructing the traffic.
00:37:10.000 Like, right away.
00:37:10.000 to travel to the airport ahead of time.
00:37:12.000 There are planned protests today and will cause delays.
00:37:14.000 We don't want anyone to miss their flights.
00:37:15.000 Safe travels and happy new year.
00:37:16.000 Or alternatively, you could just arrest people who are obstructing the traffic, like right away.
00:37:21.000 You could just do that instead of allowing them to string their dumb banners all the way across the street.
00:37:26.000 Fox 11 in Los Angeles declared an unlawful, said that authorities declared an unlawful assembly
00:37:32.000 when the pro-Hamas protesters blocked traffic outside LAX.
00:37:36.000 Crew at the scene said the group of protesters carried signs that read messages like, ceasefire is not enough and free Palestine.
00:37:43.000 Apparently, it turned into a chaotic scene when police arrived around 9.30am and protesters reportedly ran off in different directions while some were taken into custody.
00:37:50.000 By 10.10am, a dozen protesters had been detained.
00:37:54.000 And, by the way, the Procomos protesters spent their weekend basically ruining everybody else's weekend.
00:37:59.000 Here are some Procomos protesters occupying Boston Common over in Boston in anticipation of New Year's Eve activities.
00:38:05.000 And just being delightful, as they always are.
00:38:07.000 Biden, Biden, pick a side!
00:38:11.000 Fight, fight, pick a side!
00:38:14.000 Defy our genocide!
00:38:15.000 Defy our genocide!
00:38:17.000 Biden, Biden, pick a side!
00:38:19.000 Fight, fight, pick a side!
00:38:21.000 Defy our genocide!
00:38:22.000 Ruining everybody's New Year's Eve.
00:38:24.000 While they accuse Israel of genocide on behalf of an actual genocidal terrorist group.
00:38:29.000 Meanwhile, pro-Hamas protesters in New York City were chanting for the Houthis.
00:38:35.000 It should be noted at this point that if you're chanting for the Houthis, you should summarily be exported from the United States.
00:38:40.000 If you're not an American citizen, you have no right to be here.
00:38:42.000 You should leave.
00:38:43.000 Go away.
00:38:43.000 The Houthi slogan, by the way, is, quote, God is the greatest.
00:38:47.000 Death to America.
00:38:48.000 Death to Israel.
00:38:49.000 A curse upon the Jews.
00:38:50.000 Victory to Islam.
00:38:52.000 Here are protesters in New York City chanting in favor of the Houthis.
00:38:56.000 Yemen, Yemen, make us proud.
00:39:04.000 They're literally stopping shipping.
00:39:08.000 They're chanting in favor of attacking ships.
00:39:14.000 If any of these people are here in a green card, revoke the damned green card.
00:39:17.000 Get out.
00:39:18.000 Get out.
00:39:19.000 And by the way, there will be consequences to the political party that decides to side with this crap.
00:39:23.000 If you are the Democratic Party and you decide that you cannot expel these people from your midst, there should be political consequences to all of that.
00:39:30.000 Protesters didn't just stop there.
00:39:32.000 They set off smoke bombs on the Brooklyn Bridge last night.
00:39:34.000 Just amazing stuff.
00:39:36.000 How many kids did you kill today?
00:39:40.000 And where do you live?
00:39:42.000 USA Today!
00:39:44.000 How many kids?
00:39:46.000 Again, any party that decides that they need these people for allies deserves everything that it gets them.
00:39:51.000 The bills are all going to come due this year.
00:39:53.000 There's one final bill that's going to come due this year as well, and it may come due today.
00:39:57.000 Supposedly, some of the list of people who visited Epstein Island is going to come out today.
00:40:03.000 Court filings, according to the Daily Mail, set to be unsealed, may determine who exactly went to Little St.
00:40:09.000 James, that's Jeffrey Epstein's rape island.
00:40:12.000 According to the Daily Mail, the Jeffrey Epstein file, set to be unsealed this week, may finally reveal exactly how close that pedophile was with, say, Bill Clinton, and whether or not the former president visited his private Caribbean island, Little St.
00:40:23.000 James.
00:40:24.000 The files, part of the defamation case Virginia Roberts brought against Ghislaine Maxwell, who is of course the procurer for Jeffrey Epstein, could give fresh insight into previous claims by Roberts that Clinton was on Petto Island, a claim later repeated by Clinton's former aide, Doug Band.
00:40:38.000 Roberts said she saw Clinton go off into the night with a beautiful woman on each arm, which would be wildly in character for Bill Clinton.
00:40:45.000 Clinton has adamantly denied ever being on Epstein's island.
00:40:47.000 Roberts made no allegations of wrongdoing by Clinton, nor is there any indication the sealed records contain evidence of illegal conduct by the former president.
00:40:53.000 Although, of course, there is a photo of Clinton enjoying a neck massage from a Jeffrey Epstein victim in photographs obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail.
00:41:03.000 He is sitting and laughing as a woman named Shante Davies, then 22, And who acted as Epstein's personal masseuse rubs his shoulders.
00:41:09.000 Because why not, man?
00:41:10.000 That's Bill Clinton all over.
00:41:13.000 Solid stuff there from the former president of the United States.
00:41:15.000 Who else will be in Epstein's files?
00:41:18.000 It'll be fascinating to find out.
00:41:20.000 That is a bill that is going to come due.
00:41:21.000 Now here's the thing.
00:41:22.000 It feels like all the institutions are broken.
00:41:24.000 All of them.
00:41:25.000 The moral institutions.
00:41:26.000 The elite who are supposed to lead us.
00:41:28.000 Those people?
00:41:29.000 They're broken as well.
00:41:31.000 In 2024, when it comes to the election, somebody is going to lose that election.
00:41:35.000 All of this is now being telescoped.
00:41:37.000 Every bit of social disconnect, every bit of social fracturing is being telescoped into the 2024 election.
00:41:43.000 And someone is going to win and someone is going to lose.
00:41:45.000 And when that happens, all hell is likely to break loose.
00:41:48.000 No matter who wins or who loses, things are gonna get really super ugly.
00:41:52.000 And that is a consequence of the lies that have been told for years.
00:41:56.000 Those lies eventually come due when you lie.
00:42:00.000 People eventually feel the consequences of that lie.
00:42:03.000 Both sides in America right now promise the moon and neither side actually acknowledges reality.
00:42:09.000 So here are just some more realities that are going to keep slapping us in the face over and over and over again.
00:42:13.000 America's enemies aren't simply going to stop because we decide to withdraw from the world.
00:42:17.000 That's what we're seeing on foreign policy.
00:42:18.000 Withdrawing from the world is not a solution.
00:42:20.000 It just gets worse.
00:42:21.000 The world becomes a worse place.
00:42:22.000 Technology is not going to stop developing just because a politician promises you it will.
00:42:27.000 And redistributionism is not going to be a mechanism for fixing any of that.
00:42:32.000 Government is not the solution to life's unfairness.
00:42:35.000 Far more often, it is the cause of life's unfairness.
00:42:38.000 We can't keep spending endless amounts of money.
00:42:41.000 That redistributionism is not going to solve for lack of productivity.
00:42:45.000 If you think the bill is going to come due in 2024, it's going to keep coming due because bills always come due.
00:42:51.000 We have been living in the aftermath of the industrial era in which the United States had massive embedded advantages over the rest of the world due to the rest of the world basically collapsing during World War II.
00:43:01.000 And the United States jetted far ahead of everybody else.
00:43:04.000 And then we lived fat on the land.
00:43:06.000 And it turns out that we undercut our own moral credibility by getting rid of all the intermediate social institutions.
00:43:10.000 We got rid of churches.
00:43:11.000 We got rid of families.
00:43:12.000 And we decided we could be atomistic individuals who didn't even have to develop their own skills because we were so fat.
00:43:17.000 And we were so happy.
00:43:18.000 And then if all that was bad, we could just borrow, we could have government fix all of our problems.
00:43:22.000 The bill comes due on that stuff.
00:43:25.000 Americans have put our failure to recognize reality on the credit card for generations.
00:43:31.000 For generations.
00:43:32.000 Don't worry, we'll always be able to pay for it later.
00:43:34.000 Well, 2024 might be the year that we pay for it.
00:43:37.000 It might be the year that we pay for it.
00:43:39.000 Because we're always going to pay for it at some point.
00:43:41.000 Now, meanwhile, it is fascinating to watch as the Republican primaries play out.
00:43:45.000 So right now, if you look at the polling data, Donald Trump is well ahead in literally every state.
00:43:51.000 In Iowa, the latest results from the polling data have Donald Trump up over his opposition by a significant margin.
00:43:59.000 The RealClearPolitics polling average in Iowa has Donald Trump leading his opponents by up to 30 points.
00:44:04.000 The New Hampshire primaries, Trump is leading his opponents by upwards of 20 points.
00:44:09.000 If Trump wins Iowa, it may as well be all over but the crying.
00:44:12.000 Now, remember, Iowa is a caucus state.
00:44:13.000 The primary is taking place on the 15th of this month.
00:44:17.000 So we now have about a little under two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
00:44:21.000 It is quite possible that the polling results from Iowa are not going to be reflective of the actual results because, again, it's a very weird system.
00:44:26.000 The way the Iowa caucuses work is that if your first choice does not make the runoff, then you can switch to your second choice.
00:44:32.000 So let's say you vote for Nikki Haley, and Nikki Haley isn't in the top two.
00:44:34.000 It's Trump versus DeSantis.
00:44:36.000 Your second choice then flips into play.
00:44:38.000 So if you voted for Haley and then DeSantis, for example, then your vote would move from one to the other in terms of the top result.
00:44:44.000 There's all sorts of weirdnesses to the caucuses that don't really exist with regard to the other primaries.
00:44:49.000 Suffice it to say that if Trump wins the Iowa caucuses, it is very difficult to see how exactly he doesn't win in New Hampshire, particularly because Nikki Haley has been making some boo-boos and because Chris Christie is still in the race.
00:45:00.000 It is astonishing to me that Chris Christie continues to stick around.
00:45:05.000 Chris Anunu, who is the governor of New Hampshire, who's backing Nikki Haley, he says, like, why is Christie even in this race?
00:45:10.000 I'm so confused.
00:45:13.000 Nikki Haley is the first female minority governor in the country's history.
00:45:17.000 She's the one that stood up and insisted, didn't take compromises, insisted that the confederate flag get removed from the statehouse lawn.
00:45:24.000 I don't think anyone's questioning her credibility and credentials when it comes to race and equity and equality in this country.
00:45:30.000 So, folks understand that.
00:45:31.000 They know what she's about.
00:45:32.000 It's a non-issue.
00:45:33.000 Chris Christie's a friend, but his race is at an absolute dead end.
00:45:37.000 He's going to say anything he can.
00:45:38.000 This is a two-person race, right?
00:45:40.000 It's between Trump and Nikki Haley.
00:45:41.000 Everyone understands that.
00:45:42.000 He knows his voters, who want to see Trump defeated, are all coming over to Nikki Haley.
00:45:48.000 In fact, the only person that wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump, right?
00:45:51.000 I mean, think about the irony of that.
00:45:53.000 So the fact that Chris is out there trying to attack her, trying to make ways, that's not surprising.
00:45:59.000 Now again, these primaries by the polling data and polls in elections, they're not particularly competitive at this point.
00:46:05.000 The fact that Chris Christie is staying in and he has no shot at the nomination whatsoever is so insane.
00:46:09.000 If he actually doesn't like Donald Trump the way he says he doesn't, staying in in New Hampshire makes no sense at all.
00:46:13.000 But Chris Christie is such a creature of ego.
00:46:15.000 It is absolutely astonishing.
00:46:17.000 Over the course of the last week, Nikki Haley came in for some serious criticism while we were off the air because she was asked about the causes of the Civil War and she gave this answer.
00:46:26.000 Thank you, Ambassador.
00:46:27.000 Thank you.
00:46:29.000 What was the cause of the United States Civil War?
00:46:32.000 Well, don't come with an easy question or anything.
00:46:39.000 I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run.
00:46:44.000 The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do.
00:46:47.000 What do you think the cause of the Civil War was?
00:46:53.000 Now, she was racked up and down for this.
00:46:56.000 Now, the cause of the Civil War was indeed slavery, although at the beginning of the Civil War, Lincoln said it was not slavery.
00:47:02.000 Lincoln did openly say at the beginning of the Civil War that it was about retaining the union of the country, and that if he could retain the union of the country by retaining slavery, he would do it.
00:47:10.000 So, slavery was the underlying issue that drove a wedge into the middle of the Union, obviously, and that's why you had the Confederate states that were pro-slavery and the Northern states that were not pro-slavery, and the Civil War effectively ended with the abolition of slavery.
00:47:24.000 With that said, what Nikki Haley is saying is secondarily correct, that you did have an argument that was taking place over the powers of the federal government versus the power of state governments, and in which Abraham Lincoln made the case that the Declaration of Independence's guarantees of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ought to be extended to everyone who lived in the United States and should be a citizen of the United States, including, of course, black Americans.
00:47:47.000 But this provided an opening for everybody to attack Nikki Haley, which was a boo-boo that she could really not afford.
00:47:53.000 She did clarify her statements a little bit later.
00:47:54.000 Here's what she had to say.
00:47:56.000 You know, I've done 150 town halls, more than that now, and we shake every hand, we answer every question, and I stay until the last person leaves.
00:48:05.000 And we take questions from everybody.
00:48:08.000 Republicans, Democrats, Independents, whoever shows up.
00:48:10.000 We don't screen them, we let them ask whatever they want.
00:48:13.000 And we had a question there, and yes, of course, the first thing I should have said was slavery.
00:48:18.000 I completely agree with that.
00:48:20.000 When you grow up in the South, slavery is a given.
00:48:24.000 Like, when you think of the Civil War, you know it was about slavery.
00:48:26.000 That's not, you know, that's never been in question.
00:48:30.000 And, you know, you look, in fact, I'm a Southern governor who actually asked and got the Confederate flag to come down in front of the Statehouse.
00:48:40.000 Okay, again, the fact that she had to defend herself on this, does anyone really believe that Nikki Haley is like pro-slavery or doesn't understand the Civil War?
00:48:46.000 Of course not.
00:48:47.000 These sort of weird questions, and it doesn't mean she didn't give a bad answer there.
00:48:50.000 She did give a bad answer there, as she had to clarify it.
00:48:53.000 But, is any of this gonna matter at all?
00:48:55.000 Probably not.
00:48:56.000 Other things that don't matter?
00:48:57.000 Anything Donald Trump says or does.
00:48:59.000 This has been the entire dynamic of the primaries is that no matter what Trump does, and I think it's one of the reasons why, for example, DeSantis supporters are almost beside themselves because they're saying, we're more conservative than everything Donald Trump says he is for.
00:49:10.000 And yet no one seems to care.
00:49:12.000 The big case of that over the course of the last week is that Donald Trump has been calling for the defunding of the FBI because the FBI, of course, has been militarized against him in a wide variety of ways.
00:49:22.000 Well, he then said that he wanted a new FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
00:49:28.000 He put out a statement saying, quote, The FBI headquarters should not be moved to a faraway location, but should stay right where it is, in a new spectacular building in the best location on our now crime-ridden and filthy, dirty, graffiti-scarred Capitol.
00:49:38.000 They should be involved in bringing back D.C., not running away from it, especially the violent crime there was talk about moving it outside of Washington, D.C.
00:49:44.000 Fellow Republicans were like, what the hell?
00:49:46.000 Like, aren't you the one who's been railing against the FBI?
00:49:49.000 Governor DeSantis said Donald Trump failed to drain the swamp, so perhaps it is not surprising That he is seeking to deepen the swamp by building a massive new FBI building in D.C.
00:49:58.000 Actually, draining the swamp requires taking power out of D.C., not cementing power inside D.C.
00:50:04.000 With that said, is that going to have any impact on Trump?
00:50:05.000 Of course not.
00:50:06.000 It's not going to have any impact on Trump.
00:50:07.000 This is why I say that when it comes to the 2024 election, basically only exogenous circumstances are going to change how the election goes.
00:50:14.000 Everyone has their opinion of Trump.
00:50:15.000 Everybody has their opinion of Biden.
00:50:17.000 That kind of is what it is.
00:50:18.000 Okay, I would be remiss if I did not comment at the beginning of this year
00:50:22.000 on a couple of new laws to take effect in my old home state of California.
00:50:27.000 I gotta say the dumbest state in America, truly an idiotic state, or at least governed by idiots.
00:50:33.000 So California has now announced that they have gender neutral toy aisles mandated in law.
00:50:40.000 So in California, if you open a toy shop, you must have a gender neutral toy aisle.
00:50:44.000 The law, which went into effect on Monday, stems from a 2021 bill in the California legislature
00:50:49.000 requiring toy retailers with a physical location in the state and at least 500 employees
00:50:54.000 to maintain a gender neutral section or area to be labeled at the discretion of the retailer.
00:50:58.000 California Assemblymember Evan Lowe said he was inspired to introduce this bill by an 8-year-old girl who asked, why should a store tell me what a girl's shirt or toy is?
00:51:04.000 So first of all, you should never be inspired by anything a child says.
00:51:07.000 Just gonna tell you, not to make political action anyway.
00:51:09.000 I'm inspired by my children all the time.
00:51:11.000 They're wonder at the world.
00:51:12.000 I am not inspired by their generalized wisdom because they're children.
00:51:16.000 That's stupid.
00:51:17.000 And my kids ask dumb questions all the time.
00:51:19.000 The answer to why should a store tell me what a girl's shirt or a toy is, is the marketing people at the company are seeking to make it clear to parents where they can go for the quickest access to, say, a doll or a Nerf gun.
00:51:31.000 That is why.
00:51:33.000 Doesn't mean you can't get a gift for your daughter from the boy toys, and doesn't mean the opposite.
00:51:39.000 But, like, by and large, my son likes Nerf guns and footballs, and my daughters like girly things, because boys and girls are real things that exist in the world.
00:51:51.000 The fact that California is now mandating this nonsense is so ridiculous.
00:51:54.000 By the way, of course, they're just targeting the big retailers.
00:51:56.000 If you're a small toy store, they understand that it would look really bad to go after, like, mom and pop's toy shop, because they have a girl aisle with dolls and a boy aisle with footballs.
00:52:04.000 Her bill will help children express themselves freely and without bias.
00:52:07.000 We need to let kids be kid said low.
00:52:08.000 First of all, these kids aren't shopping for themselves.
00:52:10.000 They're like eight.
00:52:12.000 My kid doesn't have a credit card.
00:52:13.000 Is yours?
00:52:13.000 If so, you're doing it wrong.
00:52:15.000 It's weird.
00:52:17.000 I'm with them!
00:52:17.000 Store is failing to comply with the new law could be subjected to a $250 penalty for the
00:52:21.000 first violation and up to 500 bucks for subsequent infraction.
00:52:25.000 According to the bill text outline, we should all have compassion for individuals experiencing
00:52:28.000 gender dysphoria, said California Family Council President Jonathan Keller.
00:52:32.000 But activists and state legislators have no right to force retailers to espouse government
00:52:35.000 approved messages about sexuality and gender.
00:52:37.000 By the way, one of the great things about supposed gender neutral districts and areas
00:52:43.000 like this is that they very often tend to exacerbate exactly the gender differentiation
00:52:49.000 that is reality.
00:52:50.000 So if you go to the Nordic countries, for example, and all sorts of social welfare programs
00:52:54.000 that are designed to alleviate the differences between men and women.
00:52:58.000 And so women, because of all those welfare programs, tend to go into fields that women like to go into and men tend to go into, you know, like engineering and stuff.
00:53:06.000 That's not the only stupid California law going into effect.
00:53:08.000 A new California law will also create an emergency alert system called an ebony alert.
00:53:14.000 What exactly is an ebony alert?
00:53:15.000 It's a new kind of alert for when a black youth or young black woman is reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.
00:53:22.000 So why exactly do you need an ebony alert as opposed to, you know, just like an amber alert?
00:53:29.000 Because apparently... apparently...
00:53:33.000 Nothing.
00:53:34.000 There's no actual rationale other than the suggestion that black people are being treated in discriminatory fashion by the Amber Alerts, which is just insane.
00:53:42.000 California, world's dumbest area.
00:53:45.000 No wonder they want Gavin Newsom to run for president.
00:53:47.000 All right, guys, the rest of the show continues right now.
00:53:49.000 You're not going to want to miss it.
00:53:50.000 We'll get to an interesting debate between Bill Maher and Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame on vaccination.
00:53:56.000 If you're not a member, become a member.
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