The Ben Shapiro Show - The Loudoun County Sex Assault Cover-Up | Ep. 1355

00:00:00.000 Loudoun County Public Schools didn't report multiple alleged sexual assaults.

00:00:04.000 Joe Biden claims success in his COVID policy while ignoring the fact.

00:00:07.000 And the White House says that inflation and supply chain bottlenecks are high-class problems.

00:00:11.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:11.000 This is the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:13.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

00:00:21.000 Protect your online privacy today at expressvpn.com slash ben.

00:00:25.000 We'll get to all the news in just one moment.

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00:01:30.000 Okay, so...

00:01:31.000 The Daily Wire has been all over the situation in Loudoun County, which has national implications because obviously it's going to be very important for this Virginia gubernatorial race.

00:01:39.000 And should Terry McAuliffe lose the gubernatorial race in Virginia, basically that's the end of Joe Biden's agenda.

00:01:44.000 Because a bunch of moderate Democrats across the country are going to look at their seats and think, if Terry McAuliffe loses in Relatively blue Virginia.

00:01:52.000 That means that the American public are not happy with the agenda that we are currently pushing.

00:01:56.000 And at that point, Joe Biden's agenda is basically dead until after the midterms and probably beyond that.

00:02:00.000 The midterms don't look like they're shaping up well for him.

00:02:02.000 So everyone is focusing in on Loudoun County.

00:02:05.000 Our reporter Luke Rosiak over in Loudoun County has been doing an unbelievable job of uncovering the predations of the school board in Loudoun County and the Democratic Party infrastructure In places like Virginia and Loudoun County with regard to school boards.

00:02:20.000 By the way, the kind of work that Luke is doing, that's really expensive and difficult work that can only happen because of our Daily Wire members.

00:02:26.000 If you're already a member, thank you for making that happen because honestly, your membership helped pay for Luke.

00:02:30.000 But if you're not a member, you really should join up and help our reporters do the kind of work that Luke is doing.

00:02:34.000 It's making a huge difference out there.

00:02:36.000 Head on over to Daily Wire right now and grab a membership.

00:02:38.000 Obviously, this has become a flashpoint Because the National School Board Union came out and basically requested that the FBI and DOJ investigate people who are going to school board meetings and sounding off on how the school boards were not doing their job in terms of educating and protecting their kids.

00:02:56.000 Well, The biggest story of the last couple of months came out via Luke a little bit earlier this week.

00:03:02.000 That was the story surrounding a father who was made the face of the quote unquote domestic terror movement by the national media.

00:03:09.000 It turns out that that father was royally ticked off at one of these meetings, not because he was a domestic terrorist, but because As it turns out, there's fairly good evidence, and he alleges, that his daughter was raped in a public school bathroom by a bisexual boy wearing a skirt, and that the Loudoun County School Board refused to acknowledge that the sexual assault had even taken place, which might piss off even the best of us.

00:03:32.000 And so this became a national story.

00:03:34.000 Well, now it turns out there is even more.

00:03:36.000 According to Luke Rosiak this morning, Loudoun County Public Schools did not record multiple known incidents of alleged sexual assault in schools dating back several years, despite a law that requires statistics about school safety incidents to be reported to the public, and which includes provisions holding school superintendents personally liable for violations, a Daily Wire review of public records found.

00:03:55.000 After the Daily Wire raised the discrepancy with the Virginia Department of Education, the VDOE spokesman Charles Pyle said, VDOE is reviewing the discipline, crime and violence data submissions of Loudoun County Public Schools and is in communication with LCPS to determine whether the division's reporting is accurate and whether the division is in compliance with state and federal law. The same law could have implications for Loudoun County Superintendent or Principal in the wake of a May 28th alleged sexual assault in a bathroom, an incident first reported by the Daily Wire on Monday.

00:04:24.000 On June 22nd, Superintendent Scott Ziegler told the public, quote, Virginia law requires that reports shall be made to the division superintendent and to the principal or his designee on all incidents involving sexual assault.

00:04:38.000 The Daily Wire asked LCPS questions last week, including, quote, has Stonebridge ever reported the may allege sexual assault in any statistics or made anyone aware of it? LCPS hid behind state law with Director of Communications Joan Salgren replying, quote, any information related to student information is confidential under state and federal laws regarding student privacy. However, state law actually requires statistics on assault and other incidents in schools to be reported to the public in the form of annually updated statistics available on a public database called Safe Schools Information Resource

00:05:07.000 administered by the Virginia Department of Education.

00:05:10.000 In other words, the school board and the school does not have to report to the public the name of the people involved, the juveniles involved, but they do have to report the numbers.

00:05:18.000 LCPS reported to the state that Stonebridge had zero sexual assaults for the 2020-2021 school year, which includes May 28, 2021.

00:05:26.000 Virginia law says the division superintendent shall annually report all such incidents to the DOE for the purpose of recording the frequency of such incidents on forms that shall be provided to the department and shall make such information available to the public.

00:05:40.000 The issue with missing sex assault statistics in Loudoun is not limited to the latest case, raising the prospect that untold numbers of sexual assaults and other infractions have gone unreported.

00:05:48.000 In October 2018, in a case that was widely reported by the media at the time, three football players at Tuscarora High were arrested and charged with sexual assault.

00:05:57.000 A source told local media, it's believed a younger player was held down by teammates who inserted objects into the victim in a locker room.

00:06:04.000 As a spokesperson for LCPS said at the time, the case will be subject to disciplinary action.

00:06:09.000 The annual report for Tuscarora that year reported zero instances of sexual offenses against students.

00:06:15.000 LCPS provided no response at all to the Daily Wire's questions about the reason for the zero figures despite having two days to do so.

00:06:21.000 While the suspect in the May 28th alleged assault was not arrested until July 8th, following the conclusion of an investigation, police officers were present at the school that day, law enforcement was notified, and a police report was filed, though it was not clear who filed the report.

00:06:34.000 Pyle, the state spokesman, said that the SSSR's mandatory reporting is not contingent on the filing of charges by law enforcement or subsequent convictions.

00:06:42.000 In other words, if this was reported to the cops, that just means that it has to be reported in the stats.

00:06:47.000 But it wasn't reported in the stats.

00:06:50.000 Additionally, the safety stats for that school year were not due to the state until July 16th.

00:06:54.000 And in the case of Tuscarora, the school year did not end until months after the incident and arrest, yet the district still reported zero and has for every single year since.

00:07:03.000 On Wednesday, LCPS put out a statement.

00:07:05.000 It did not send it to the Daily Wire.

00:07:06.000 it said, quote, Loudoun County Sheriff's Office was contacted within minutes of receiving the initial report on May 28th. Once a matter has been reported to law enforcement, LCPS does not begin its investigation until law enforcement advises LCPS it has completed the criminal investigation.

00:07:19.000 Furthermore, we can't discipline any student without following Title IX grievance processes.

00:07:23.000 But an email from Stonebridge Principal Tim Flynn, which was sent to the entire community at 448 the day of the alleged rape, told students and parents that, quote, there was an incident in the main office area today that required the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office to dispatch deputies to Stonebridge. This corresponds to the story offered by Scott Smith, the victim's father, who said the police arrived because the school called them on him for making a scene about his impression it was not treating the incident seriously.

00:07:49.000 So this is a disaster area for Loudoun County.

00:07:51.000 If it turns out that the Loudoun County schools have not been reporting these stats on sexual assault to the public, just another indicator that when you have institutions that are very powerful, they have every incentive to cover up all of the bad things happening within those institutions.

00:08:06.000 This is true across institutions.

00:08:08.000 People develop institutional loyalty when they work for those institutions.

00:08:12.000 They don't want to report the bad stuff happening inside the institutions.

00:08:16.000 And that's how you end up with children being put in danger.

00:08:19.000 Now, for the left, they don't care, apparently, if those children are put in danger by the public schools.

00:08:24.000 There are a wide variety of cases in which teachers have made prey out of their students in public schools across the country.

00:08:32.000 Those statistics are, in fact, somewhat available.

00:08:35.000 It's a national story when it's the Catholic Church.

00:08:37.000 It's not a national story when it turns out that it's the public school system, obviously, even though there are many, many more members of the public school system in the United States than there are members of the Catholic Church who are subject to priest predation.

00:08:49.000 There's certainly an ideological component here.

00:08:53.000 And meanwhile, the family of that girl who was allegedly raped in her school bathroom is now pursuing civil action against the Loudoun County Public Schools under Title IX.

00:09:02.000 So there will, in fact, be a lawsuit.

00:09:05.000 The parents of the young girl stated, quote, subsequent to the sexual assault on our daughter, Loudoun County Public Schools formalized the policy regarding restroom use that was easily exploitable by a potential sexual assailant.

00:09:14.000 Because of poor planning and misguided policies, Loudoun Schools failed to institute even minimal safeguards to protect students from sexual assault.

00:09:21.000 The lawyer for the family says the conduct of Loudoun County Schools and the Loudoun School Board directly resulted in the brutal rape of Smith's daughter at Stonebridge High.

00:09:28.000 It only takes an instant to see how Loudoun County Schools have adversely affected this family and have harmed their daughter.

00:09:35.000 So, all of this has resulted in some pretty bad...

00:09:40.000 News for Terry McAuliffe, who's running for governor of Virginia and who is completely in hock to the teachers unions in the state of Virginia.

00:09:47.000 He was asked yesterday about whether parents should be in charge of education.

00:09:51.000 And this, of course, remains a major issue right across the country.

00:09:54.000 Parents would like to be in charge of their children's education.

00:09:57.000 Public schools are delegated your kids to educate them in the ways that you see fit.

00:10:01.000 They are not delegated to the power to educate them solely as they see fit.

00:10:07.000 Because, frankly, they are not qualified to do so nor empowered to do so.

00:10:11.000 That is not the purpose of local public schools.

00:10:14.000 And the federalization of the process has made this worse.

00:10:16.000 It's created a massive disconnect between the bureaucrats who are supposed to educate your children and you.

00:10:21.000 This is why, increasingly, parents are taking their kids out of the public schools, putting them in private schools, homeschooling them, trying to find charter schools, doing anything they can to remove the monopoly on indoctrination now provided by liberal teachers' unions and the state-run schooling system.

00:10:39.000 So Terry McAuliffe was asked about all of this because he had said in open debate with Glenn Youngkin in Virginia that parents essentially have no interest in the education of their kids.

00:10:47.000 It's really the state's job to educate the kids.

00:10:49.000 Here's Terry McAuliffe erupting when asked about it.

00:10:51.000 Who do you think should be in control of education if not Virginia parents? 0.80

00:10:55.000 vaccinated yet. That's the question I want to know. Do you think you're in control of education? If not Virginia parents, I'll build education.

00:11:05.000 That's why Fox News has me leading when you'll destroy Virginia's education system. What a joke. Terry McAuliffe is.

00:11:14.000 So he's asked whether parents should be in control of education.

00:11:14.000 What a joke.

00:11:17.000 And he starts lecturing the guy about a mask.

00:11:19.000 They are standing outside.

00:11:20.000 He's literally walking to his car.

00:11:22.000 If you can't see the clip, he's literally walking to his car and just yelling at this reporter, saying that he should be wearing a mask.

00:11:27.000 And then he says, I'll take care of education.

00:11:29.000 Glenn Youngkin will destroy it.

00:11:30.000 Yeah, sure.

00:11:32.000 Sure.

00:11:33.000 So Terry McAuliffe is in real trouble in this race.

00:11:35.000 This should not be a close race.

00:11:37.000 The Virginia The political map has been turning blue for quite a while right now.

00:11:43.000 The results in Virginia in the 2020 election were heavily in favor, of course, of Hillary, in favor of Joe Biden. 0.69

00:11:51.000 Joe Biden won the state by 10 points in 2020.

00:11:54.000 Right now, Youngkin is running, who's a relative no-name, is running neck and neck with Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor.

00:12:00.000 It's the fact that this is even close.

00:12:01.000 It's a referendum on how bad people think democratic governance is, even in democratic states.

00:12:07.000 This has relegated Terry McAuliffe to basically trying to treat Glenn Youngkin as though he is Donald Trump and also Greg Abbott, which of course is not true.

00:12:15.000 Here is Terry McAuliffe trying to say that Glenn Youngkin is going to ban abortion in the state of Virginia, which of course is not going to happen.

00:12:20.000 I mean, unfortunately from my point of view, but that's not what's going to happen in the state of Virginia.

00:12:24.000 I protected women's rights.

00:12:26.000 He is going to ban abortions.

00:12:28.000 We got him on tape saying that.

00:12:29.000 Wants to ban abortions in Virginia.

00:12:31.000 And I'll tell you, Andrew, that's a real issue for everyone today.

00:12:34.000 For 50 years, we thought the Supreme Court would protect everybody with Roe v. Wade.

00:12:38.000 Trump's Supreme Court, if Glenn Youngkin is elected governor of Virginia, abortions will cease.

00:12:43.000 And I gotta tell you, it's dangerous for women, dangerous for doctors, and you can't bring businesses. 1.00

00:12:47.000 I've recruited Amazon to Virginia.

00:12:49.000 They're not coming to a state that discriminates.

00:12:51.000 He's having a really tough time, McAuliffe, putting a target on Junkin's back because McAuliffe is the issue here, not Trump and not Junkin.

00:12:58.000 And when it comes to education, Americans have very simple questions to ask, like, why are you guys doing an unbelievably crappy job?

00:13:04.000 Brand new report out says the nation's 13 year olds are less proficient in math and reading than they were almost a decade ago.

00:13:10.000 That is not because of the COVID pandemic.

00:13:12.000 That was data collected before the start of the pandemic and released on Thursday according to the National Assessment of Education Progress, this is Politico reporting.

00:13:19.000 This is the first time these scores have dropped in either subject in the 50-year history of the test.

00:13:26.000 The students who struggled the most with the exam have fallen further behind.

00:13:29.000 A worrisome result that suggests learning loss exacerbated by the pandemic could be catastrophic.

00:13:33.000 Math scores fell furthest among students whose performance ranked in the 10th and 25th percentiles, meaning test-takers with the lowest math scores in 2020 did worse than students who struggled the most when the test was last administered in 2012.

00:13:45.000 The data also shows the achievement gap between white and black test-takers widened.

00:13:49.000 Nationally, math scores for 13-year-olds fell on average by 5 points.

00:13:52.000 Reading scores declined on average 3 points.

00:13:55.000 None of these results are impressive, said the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.

00:14:00.000 They're all concerning.

00:14:01.000 The math results were particularly daunting.

00:14:05.000 So basically, your schools are failing to educate kids, particularly the kids who are at the lowest end of the spectrum.

00:14:11.000 And meanwhile, they're indoctrinating them in all the worst values and not protecting them.

00:14:15.000 And you wonder why we have a schools crisis right now?

00:14:17.000 You wonder why so many parents are interested in pulling their kids out of school?

00:14:20.000 And you wonder why so many people are looking askance at democratic administrations who seem solely concerned with pleasing teachers unions?

00:14:27.000 You wanna know why so many Americans are upset with maybe the FBI and the DOJ doing the bidding of the very people who are failing to educate their kids and then claiming complete plenary authority over those children?

00:14:38.000 None of this is good news for Democrats.

00:14:40.000 Obviously.

00:14:41.000 Meanwhile, as the cascade of bad headlines is just swamping the Democrats right now, the Biden administration is struggling for a narrative.

00:14:52.000 The narrative that they are now coming up with is that they have defeated COVID.

00:14:55.000 Yes, yes, it was them.

00:14:57.000 They did it.

00:14:57.000 It was the mandatory vaccine mandate.

00:14:59.000 Sure, it was that.

00:15:01.000 So yesterday, Joe Biden wandered out to a microphone and he spoke for a grand total of seven minutes and then he turned around and then he left.

00:15:09.000 Okay, so, I mean, that's all he can be expected to do.

00:15:12.000 He shows up every day, he talks for like 37 seconds, and then he sort of collapses out of the room and is dragged back to his casket where they perform some sort of resuscitory action upon him.

00:15:26.000 And then he breathes lightly until the next day when they pull him out of the casket again and wheel him out.

00:15:30.000 So, President Biden yesterday, he came out and he said, our plan is working.

00:15:35.000 Oh, interesting.

00:15:36.000 Okay, explain, Mr. President.

00:15:39.000 I want to provide a brief update on my plan that announced in early September to accelerate the path out of this pandemic.

00:15:46.000 It's working.

00:15:47.000 We're making progress.

00:15:49.000 Nationally, daily cases are down 47 percent.

00:15:54.000 Hospitalizations are down 38 percent over the past six weeks.

00:15:58.000 Over the past two weeks, most of the country has improved as well.

00:16:03.000 Case rates are declining in 39 states and hospital rates are declining in 38 states. 0.99

00:16:09.000 OK, let me point out how stupid this is. 1.00

00:16:11.000 OK, the reason that this is unbelievably stupid is because there are several reasons. 1.00

00:16:15.000 Reason number one, the states that have seen the largest scale declines are states that have completely ignored Joe Biden. 0.98

00:16:21.000 Florida never had vaccine mandates.

00:16:23.000 In fact, Ron DeSantis has been fighting vaccine mandates pretty much every step of the way and has vaccination rates that are about the same as the vaccination rates in California, for example.

00:16:32.000 They're not wildly different.

00:16:34.000 Hey, Joe Biden is suggesting that it is him yelling about vaccines that has caused the pandemic to wane, that old man shouting at clouds made the pandemic wane.

00:16:42.000 Nope!

00:16:43.000 All that happened is that the pandemic hits populations who spend lots of time indoors, and then it wanes because it passes through the population.

00:16:51.000 This is what pandemics do.

00:16:54.000 But this is Joe Biden's tried and true method, right?

00:16:55.000 There's a parade already moving.

00:16:56.000 He jumps out in front of it and claims credit for the parade.

00:16:59.000 He did this with the vaccine rollout itself.

00:17:01.000 He didn't have one iota to do with the development of the vaccine.

00:17:04.000 His vaccine rollout plan was the same as Trump's.

00:17:06.000 And then he jumped in front of the parade and he was like, well, here I am and look at how I did it.

00:17:11.000 It was me.

00:17:11.000 Success.

00:17:13.000 And now he's doing the exact same thing.

00:17:15.000 So the pandemic wanes, mostly in red states where it had spiked.

00:17:18.000 And he's like, look what I did.

00:17:20.000 Jill, look at me.

00:17:21.000 I'm great.

00:17:24.000 Amazing, amazing how he jumps in front.

00:17:27.000 This is constantly the policy of bad bureaucrats.

00:17:30.000 Is that the problem already starts to solve itself and then they jump in front of it and they go, oh, it was me.

00:17:35.000 I did it.

00:17:36.000 OK, so according to Joe Biden, Joe Biden solved the pandemic by yelling at clouds.

00:17:42.000 In reality, his plan has not worked.

00:17:45.000 It is also worthy of noting at this point that all the vaccine mandates that he supposedly used in order to get the vaccine rates up, the only one that has actually been implemented to this point is the federal contractor mandate.

00:17:55.000 There is still no rule from it's been like almost two months now.

00:17:58.000 There is still no rule from OSHA that actually mandates that employers over 100 employees have to have to vax their people.

00:18:06.000 So to credit his vaccine mandates with the uptick in vaccination rates is a stretch in and of itself.

00:18:13.000 It is quite possible that one of the reasons you saw an uptick in vaccination rates is specifically because people looked at the Delta variant.

00:18:18.000 They said, OK, I now have a choice.

00:18:19.000 I can either get Delta or not get Delta.

00:18:21.000 I prefer not to get Delta.

00:18:23.000 I prefer to get the vaccine.

00:18:24.000 And then if I get a breakthrough case, it'll be mild.

00:18:26.000 But again, Joe Biden is going to claim credit for everything.

00:18:28.000 Now, what's amazing about Joe Biden and our current authoritarians?

00:18:32.000 is that they truly believe that you are bad.

00:18:35.000 You are divisive because you refuse their authoritarian mandates.

00:18:38.000 This is an incredible statement from Joe Biden, what we're about to play.

00:18:41.000 So Joe Biden is talking about divisiveness.

00:18:43.000 Now, Joe Biden came into office on the pledge that he was going to unify.

00:18:47.000 He instead has proposed an agenda that looks very much like Bernie Sanders's economic agenda.

00:18:52.000 And he's proposed a COVID agenda that is full top-down authoritarian in many ways.

00:18:57.000 So he has completely run beyond his own political mandate.

00:19:01.000 So Joe Biden came into office with a political mandate.

00:19:03.000 It was to be dead, right?

00:19:04.000 Not alive. 0.54

00:19:05.000 Not Trump.

00:19:06.000 And moderate.

00:19:08.000 Two of those three he has fulfilled.

00:19:10.000 He is dead.

00:19:10.000 He is not Trump.

00:19:11.000 But he is certainly not moderate.

00:19:14.000 And yet, according to Joe Biden, it is you, you, who are dividing the country.

00:19:19.000 You won't listen to him, and you won't do what he wants.

00:19:21.000 You're dividing the country.

00:19:22.000 Now, I noted this literally the day of his inauguration.

00:19:24.000 In his speech, he kept talking about unity, and I said, well, there are two types of unity.

00:19:27.000 There's unity in the sense that we'll leave you alone, and then we'll try to find some higher purpose we can all pursue together.

00:19:34.000 But it's mostly gonna be us leaving you alone, right?

00:19:36.000 Unity requires us to go weapons down.

00:19:39.000 Or unity could be, you do exactly what I want at point of gun, and now we're unified, aren't we?

00:19:43.000 It's pretty obvious which way Joe Biden has moved.

00:19:45.000 So yesterday, Kerry was saying that vaccine mandates should not divide us.

00:19:48.000 I have an idea.

00:19:49.000 Don't do them then!

00:19:51.000 Let's be clear.

00:19:53.000 Vaccination requirements should not be another issue that divides us.

00:19:58.000 That's why we continue to battle the misinformation that's out there.

00:20:03.000 And companies and communities are setting up there, stepping up as well to combat the misinformation.

00:20:11.000 Southwest Airlines.

00:20:14.000 At the head of the pilot, the head of the pilot's union and its CEO, dismissed critics who claim vaccination mandates contributed to flight disruptions.

00:20:21.000 Well, who are you going to believe?

00:20:23.000 Joe Biden about the vaccine mandates contributing to flight disruptions?

00:20:26.000 Or your own lying eyes, which demonstrate that there was really no weather problem in the United States and Southwest was the only airline that had been significantly affected?

00:20:34.000 Who are you going to believe about that?

00:20:35.000 Or the Southwest employees we've been talking to here at Daily Wire, who are explaining exactly why people are sicking out?

00:20:41.000 Okay, so there is such an authoritarian streak in this guy.

00:20:44.000 He mandates that you do a thing.

00:20:46.000 If you don't do the thing, you're being divisive.

00:20:48.000 If you refuse to acquiesce to his demands, you are the divisive one.

00:20:52.000 You're a very divisive person for not doing exactly what Joe Biden is telling you to do.

00:20:55.000 That's an unbelievably authoritarian and tyrannical statement.

00:20:59.000 And then Joe Biden just scampers away.

00:21:01.000 When I say scampers, I mean he walks very slowly away because he's not capable of scampering anymore.

00:21:04.000 Those legs ain't gonna do it. 1.00

00:21:05.000 So here is Joe Biden just walking away after seven minutes in the glare of the public spotlight.

00:21:11.000 Thank you very much.

00:21:17.000 And then Joe Biden kind of, he kind of fades away.

00:21:20.000 Joe Biden, old presidents don't die.

00:21:23.000 They just walk away.

00:21:25.000 There's that president of the United States just sort of, he came out for a moment and then he went back down into his hole, which means I believe six more weeks of winter.

00:21:34.000 So here's the thing.

00:21:35.000 It is pretty obvious that whatever surge we had and waning we had had nothing to do with Joe Biden.

00:21:41.000 According to the New York Times, after a brutal summer surge driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, the coronavirus is again in retreat.

00:21:47.000 The United States is recording roughly 90,000 new infections a day, down more than 40% since August.

00:21:52.000 Hospitalizations and deaths are falling, too.

00:21:54.000 The crisis is not over everywhere.

00:21:56.000 The situation in Alaska is particularly dire.

00:21:58.000 But nationally, the trend is clear, and hopes are rising that the worst is finally behind us again.

00:22:02.000 Over the past two years, the pandemic has crashed over the country in waves, inundating hospitals and then receding, only to return after Americans let their guard down.

00:22:09.000 I love how the New York Times puts that.

00:22:12.000 So it's that Americans let their guard down that causes the pandemic to spike.

00:22:16.000 Except that it's spiking in blue areas too.

00:22:19.000 It is all about, are you in proximity to other people?

00:22:22.000 When it's cold outside, people go inside and then they get infected.

00:22:24.000 When it's really hot outside, people go inside and then they get infected.

00:22:27.000 Okay, that's all. 0.96

00:22:29.000 And this baseline notion that if you get infected, it's because you have been sinful in some way is ridiculous. 0.58

00:22:35.000 A lot of the people who are getting infected are people who got vaxxed.

00:22:37.000 They're just getting breakthroughs.

00:22:40.000 The New York Times says it's difficult to tease apart the reasons the virus ebbs and flows in this way and harder still to predict the future.

00:22:47.000 No, it's actually not all that difficult to explain.

00:22:49.000 I just did it in two sentences.

00:22:50.000 As winter looms, there are real reasons for optimism.

00:22:52.000 Nearly 70% of adults are fully vaccinated.

00:22:55.000 Many children under 12 are likely to be eligible for their shots in a matter of weeks.

00:22:58.000 Federal regulators could soon authorize the first antiviral pill for COVID-19.

00:23:02.000 By the way, Joe Biden said yesterday that parents are going to sleep more solidly at night knowing that their children won't be in danger because of the vaccine.

00:23:11.000 Those of us who've been watching the stats have been sleeping solidly at night about our kids for a long time.

00:23:14.000 I wasn't sleeping solidly about my parents.

00:23:16.000 My parents are 65.

00:23:17.000 I've been sleeping very solidly about my 7, 5, and 1 year old because kids aren't dying of this in anything remotely like significant numbers.

00:23:27.000 Hey, that is not morally significant numbers.

00:23:28.000 Every kid who dies is a morally significant life.

00:23:31.000 But if you're talking about statistical significance, the grand total number of kids who have died in the United States from COVID-19 without serious pre-existing conditions, according to Dr. Martin McCary of Johns Hopkins University, is currently between 10 and 20.

00:23:46.000 Not 10 and 20,000.

00:23:48.000 10 and 20.

00:23:48.000 Hey, that is not the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night.

00:23:53.000 I am not kept awake at night by the fact that my child is in significant danger if 10 to 20 kids across a country of 330 million people have died of COVID without pre-existing conditions.

00:24:06.000 Okay, but again, you must be cudgeled into the belief that these people have solved the problem as opposed to, you know, the virus just doing what the virus does.

00:24:18.000 And my favorite thing about all of this is that we're supposed to believe all these folks, right?

00:24:21.000 You heard Joe Biden a moment ago talking about how, you know, none of this should be divisive.

00:24:25.000 We should just be listening to our authorities.

00:24:27.000 We should be listening to our institutions.

00:24:28.000 Except that our institutions have routinely lied to us.

00:24:31.000 Aside from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who shifts his opinion every 5.3 seconds, depending on whatever Joe Biden wants from him that day. 0.88

00:24:37.000 Our media are just liars.

00:24:39.000 So, honestly, one of the funniest things that I've seen in the past couple of months, Joe Rogan did a segment with Sanjay Gupta of CNN, and honestly, flowered Gupta's widow because Rogan just destroyed him.

00:24:51.000 It really is quite incredible.

00:24:53.000 He had Gupta on, and he asked him, so, Sanjay, I have a question.

00:24:57.000 I took ivermectin.

00:24:59.000 It is not a horse dewormer.

00:25:00.000 It is a medication.

00:25:01.000 Your entire network claimed that it was a horse dewormer.

00:25:04.000 Why don't you tell the members of your network it is not a horse dewormer and tell them to stop lying to people?

00:25:09.000 So then Sanjay Gupta went back on TV on CNN and he had his chance and he said nothing because he's getting paid by CNN.

00:25:16.000 So here is Don Lemon trying to explain it's fine to call Ivermectin a horse dewormer even though that is not the form of Ivermectin that Joe Rogan was taking.

00:25:24.000 I know it's in large part a tongue-in-cheek interview, you know, because it's Joe Rogan and there's lots of you jockeying back and forth, but he did say something about ivermectin that I think wasn't actually correct, about CNN and lying, okay?

00:25:38.000 Ivermectin is a drug that is commonly used as a horse dewormer.

00:25:45.000 So it is not a lie to say that the drug is used as a horse dewormer.

00:25:49.000 I think that's important and it is not Approved for COVID.

00:25:55.000 Correct?

00:25:56.000 That's right.

00:25:57.000 That's not right.

00:25:59.000 It's not approved for COVID by the FDA.

00:26:02.000 But the notion that ivermectin, which comes in a variety of forms, that Joe Rogan was like taking a tube of horse paste and then ingesting it is insane.

00:26:11.000 And Sanjay Gupta admitted that to Joe Rogan.

00:26:14.000 And then he went on CNN and then he nodded along while Don Lemon continues to lie about it.

00:26:18.000 It's unreal.

00:26:19.000 But don't worry.

00:26:20.000 These are not the divisive people.

00:26:22.000 You are divisive.

00:26:23.000 You're divisive for not listening to them.

00:26:25.000 Meanwhile, These experts, the one who are going to fix everything, this is the story of the day.

00:26:30.000 It is unreal to me.

00:26:32.000 So, these experts, the people who are going to fix all your problems, right?

00:26:35.000 They're going to hit that magic button.

00:26:36.000 All the problems are going to be fixed.

00:26:37.000 It's going to be incredible.

00:26:39.000 Pete Buttigieg is the Secretary of Transportation.

00:26:42.000 We are currently having, in the United States, the worst shipping crisis in my lifetime.

00:26:46.000 And I'm nearly 40 years old.

00:26:47.000 This is the worst shipping crisis we've had in the United States in my lifetime.

00:26:50.000 The Secretary of Transportation, you might think, might have some things to do, right?

00:26:54.000 I mean, we've had this shipping bottleneck.

00:26:55.000 It's been ongoing in the United States since the summer.

00:26:58.000 You might think that the Secretary of Transportation would be necessary.

00:27:03.000 Pete Buttigieg was on paternity leave since August.

00:27:09.000 Hey, Politico is now reporting that Pete Buttigieg was just gone.

00:27:15.000 And no one noticed.

00:27:16.000 That's how important Pete Buttigieg is. 0.97

00:27:18.000 I mean, while he was waxing philosophic about the beauty of the smells of the airport, Pete Buttigieg was actually spending the last two months, this brilliant young mind from South Bend, Indiana, who couldn't fill a damn pothole over there.

00:27:29.000 Pete Buttigieg has been home with his husband, Chasen, and their two children.

00:27:35.000 And yeah, that's great.

00:27:40.000 So, that's exciting stuff.

00:27:45.000 He's just been gone for two months and no one noticed. 0.99

00:27:48.000 Which means that he is a complete useless person. 0.97

00:27:51.000 I mean, I have a question for you. 0.97

00:27:52.000 If you just went MIA for two months, right?

00:27:54.000 You just went MIA.

00:27:56.000 Didn't bother to replace you.

00:27:57.000 Nobody bothered to tell anybody.

00:27:58.000 You just went MIA.

00:27:59.000 How long do you think you would keep your job?

00:28:01.000 This means that your job is more vital than people to judges.

00:28:05.000 By the way, according to internal Democratic polling, he's second only to Kamala Harris in terms of who the Democrats want to see run for president again.

00:28:11.000 A man so useless that he took two months off in the middle of a shipping crisis as the head of the Department of Transportation to be home with two babies.

00:28:20.000 That's... Again, nothing against paternity leave, although I will say I think two months is a very long time for paternity leave, especially when there's no physical recovery involved. 0.93

00:28:29.000 But with that said, If you're going to take paternity leave and you're in a real important job and you're a public servant, shouldn't somebody know about it?

00:28:40.000 According to Politico, they didn't previously announce it, but Buttigieg's office told West Wing Playbook the secretary has actually been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Jason, and their two newborn babies.

00:28:52.000 A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said, quote, Amazing.

00:28:55.000 Amazing.

00:28:55.000 These are the people we need in charge.

00:28:56.000 for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated.

00:29:00.000 He's been ramping up activities since then.

00:29:02.000 As he does that, Buttigieg will continue to take some time over the coming weeks to support his husband and take care of his new children, the spokesperson added.

00:29:09.000 Amazing, amazing.

00:29:12.000 These are the people we need in charge.

00:29:13.000 They're going to fix everything.

00:29:16.000 They're so good at that they just went completely AWOL for two months and no one even noticed This is office space now.

00:29:24.000 It's Ron Livingston from office space.

00:29:27.000 I'm not going to quit.

00:29:28.000 I'm just not going to work anymore.

00:29:29.000 I think I'm done working.

00:29:30.000 What is it that you say you do here exactly?

00:29:34.000 But here's the thing.

00:29:35.000 Democrats are just going to continue to pretend that nothing bad is happening.

00:29:38.000 It's truly incredible.

00:29:40.000 So, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Larry Summers, who's the Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, he points out that we are now in a very serious economic position.

00:29:49.000 We have massive inflation, it is now permanent, or semi-permanent.

00:29:53.000 We have a serious shipping bottleneck that is not going to be solved anytime soon.

00:29:56.000 We have millions of workers who are quitting the workforce.

00:30:00.000 4.3 million workers left the workforce last month.

00:30:03.000 And here is Larry Summers pointing out this is all kind of serious, is it not?

00:30:07.000 In the 60s, we saw, before there were any adverse supply shocks, we saw inflation move from having a one handle in 1966 to having a six handle by 1969.

00:30:21.000 And we've got much larger budget deficits today than we did then.

00:30:25.000 We've got much more in the way of supply bottlenecks emerging much sooner than we did then.

00:30:34.000 So I think we're looking at a very serious kind of situation.

00:30:42.000 Meanwhile, the CEO of Morgan Stanley says, remember all those times they kept telling you over and over that inflation was transitory, it was going to go away soon?

00:30:49.000 Joe Biden's been saying that for months.

00:30:51.000 James Gorman, the CEO and chairman of Morgan Stanley's like, yeah, not so much.

00:30:56.000 I'm not a buyer of this story that it's all transitory, the inflation story.

00:30:59.000 It's not transitory.

00:31:01.000 I mean, wage inflation is real, and the supply chain interruptions, and you were talking about some of the natural gas and other things, have clearly been real.

00:31:09.000 Some of that is temporary, but not all of it.

00:31:11.000 So I think we're in a period where inflation is going to tick up.

00:31:15.000 Yep.

00:31:17.000 But here's the thing.

00:31:17.000 According to this administration, this isn't a big deal.

00:31:20.000 These are high class problems.

00:31:23.000 So Jason Furman, who is some sort of a reporter slash commentator.

00:31:27.000 He said, most of the economic problems we're facing, inflation, supply chains, et cetera, are high class problems. 1.00

00:31:33.000 We wouldn't have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10%.

00:31:35.000 We would instead have had a much worse problem.

00:31:38.000 And Ron Klain, who is the White House chief of staff, and he spends all day on Twitter.

00:31:42.000 Remember that time that Trump was bad because he was on Twitter all day?

00:31:45.000 So Ron Klain, who's on Twitter like all day long, like all day, he tweets this.

00:31:51.000 Meaning he agrees with this.

00:31:52.000 So he agrees that inflation and supply chain problems are quote-unquote high-class problems.

00:31:59.000 These are good problems.

00:32:00.000 It's a good problem that you're paying like a crap load of money at the store for basic goods.

00:32:05.000 It's a great problem that you can't get Christmas presents for your kids.

00:32:09.000 These are great problems to have, aren't they?

00:32:11.000 Because apparently, according to this administration, the only two alternatives are 1.

00:32:14.000 10% unemployment and 2.

00:32:17.000 Massive inflation and supply chain bottlenecks.

00:32:20.000 Or alternatively, your policy created the problems.

00:32:24.000 Your policy is creating these problems.

00:32:27.000 So Jen Psaki was asked about this, and honestly, she is just... She's the night nurse for this administration.

00:32:32.000 They crapped the bed, she tries to clean it up.

00:32:34.000 I kind of feel bad for her, except she volunteered into the job.

00:32:36.000 Here's Jen Psaki. 1.00

00:32:38.000 So Jason Furman, of course, is more than capable of speaking or tweeting for himself, obviously, and providing any additional context.

00:32:44.000 But what the point is here is that we are at this point because we've made progress in the economy.

00:32:51.000 And what would be worse, in our view, is if the unemployment rate was at 10%, people were out of work, hundreds of thousands of people were still dying of COVID, and people weren't able to lose their homes.

00:33:02.000 So that's the full context.

00:33:05.000 Oh, that's it.

00:33:05.000 Yeah, it's all good.

00:33:06.000 Full context.

00:33:07.000 I'm so glad.

00:33:08.000 I'm so glad that she's now provided the full context.

00:33:10.000 It turns out that Democrats can always claim that the alternative is complete destruction of all that is good, as opposed to, you know, the mostly destruction of all that is good that is happening right now.

00:33:20.000 In a second, I want to get to the underlying rationale for why so many Democrats seem pretty sanguine about all this.

00:33:25.000 Because for most people who are out there, it makes a difference if they're paying higher bills.

00:33:28.000 For most people who are out there, it makes a difference if they are losing in terms of real wages.

00:33:32.000 For most people out there, it matters if they can get Christmas presents for their kids.

00:33:35.000 This stuff tends to matter to people.

00:33:37.000 So why are Democrats so sanguine about it?

00:33:38.000 There's something ideological to it.

00:33:39.000 We'll get to it in just one second.

00:33:41.000 First, let us talk about the simple fact that you need a good night's sleep.

00:33:44.000 You've heard me talk about my Helix Sleep Mattress, which I rely upon each and every evening.

00:33:48.000 But Helix doesn't just do mattresses anymore.

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00:33:56.000 They're making premium customizable sofas and chairs shipped directly to your door.

00:34:00.000 What makes an all-form sofa really cool?

00:34:02.000 Well, for starters, it's the easiest way you can customize a sofa using premium materials at a fraction of the cost of traditional stores.

00:34:08.000 You can pick your fabric.

00:34:09.000 It is spill-stain, scratch-resistant.

00:34:10.000 That stuff is very handy when you have kids.

00:34:12.000 The sofa color, the color of the leg, sofa size, and shape makes sure it is perfect for you and your home.

00:34:16.000 They're great, by the way.

00:34:17.000 They're delivered directly to the door.

00:34:18.000 They're very easy to put together.

00:34:20.000 I have an all-form sofa.

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00:34:36.000 They also have a forever warranty, literally for all time.

00:34:39.000 Allform is offering 20% off all orders for our listeners at allform.com slash Ben.

00:34:43.000 To find your perfect sofa, check out allform.com slash Ben.

00:34:46.000 That's allform.com slash Ben.

00:34:49.000 We're going to get to more in a moment, including the real question as to why Democrats seem so sanguine about all of this.

00:34:55.000 First, it is that glorious time of the week when I give a shout out to a Dailyware member.

00:34:58.000 Today, it's David Burnett on Instagram, who knows what it takes to excel during the long hospital work hours.

00:35:04.000 In this picture, David and his wife are in an operating room, dressed in their scrubs and proudly displaying the world's most elite tumbler.

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00:35:21.000 Look out world, you can't flee the truth forever.

00:35:23.000 True.

00:35:24.000 True dat, as the children say.

00:35:26.000 Thanks for the pic, and for being a Daily Wire member.

00:35:29.000 Also, we had a lot of exciting announcements to make at our showing of Backstage at the Ryman this past Tuesday, because the Daily Wire is fulfilling our promise of bringing you even more non-woke content you literally will not find anywhere else.

00:35:39.000 A very special guest helped us deliver one of those announcements, our good friend Adam Carolla, comedian and host of The Adam Carolla Show.

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00:36:02.000 There's no better time to join us than right now.

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00:36:09.000 That is dailywire.com slash subscribe code 2022 for 25% off a new Daily Wire membership and stay tuned for more updates and new content.

00:36:18.000 Plus.

00:36:19.000 It has been an exciting week for The Daily Wire.

00:36:21.000 This weekend's Sunday special is only making it better.

00:36:23.000 I'm joined by none other than Barry Weiss, the iconoclastic writer, journalist, and now the voice of her own excellent podcast called Honestly with Barry Weiss.

00:36:31.000 We sat down to make sense of all that is going on today.

00:36:33.000 It's truly worth the listen.

00:36:35.000 Really important conversation.

00:36:36.000 Here's a sneak peek.

00:36:38.000 There's one word that sums up how we've gotten to this insane pass, and it's cowardice.

00:36:43.000 The number one ingredient that, if it were present, would change the outcome of almost all of these stories, all of the smearing of good people for maybe at worst making a mistake, is courage.

00:36:56.000 It's a story of cowardice and courage, the moment that we're in.

00:37:03.000 Ferry is a fascinating character.

00:37:05.000 Her evolution is really, really interesting.

00:37:07.000 And she is a creative thinker who's really got some stones.

00:37:10.000 Go check it out this Sunday at dailywire.com or on my YouTube channel, Ben Shapiro.

00:37:14.000 Daily Wire members get access to special bonus content from Sunday's special episode, so don't miss out.

00:37:18.000 Join Daily Wire today.

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00:37:23.000 Okay, so the big question here is why Democrats seem so sanguine about the current financial situation.

00:37:34.000 And maybe the reason is they're happy to transform more.

00:37:36.000 There's an article in the Wall Street Journal today talking about scarcity of labor.

00:37:39.000 It says 4.3 million workers are missing.

00:37:42.000 Where did they go?

00:37:44.000 Scarce labor is becoming a fixture of the U.S.

00:37:45.000 economy, reshaping the workforce, prodding firms to adapt by raising wages, reinventing services, and investing in automation.

00:37:51.000 More than a year and a half into the pandemic, the U.S.

00:37:53.000 is still missing around 4.3 million workers.

00:37:55.000 That's how much bigger the labor force would be if the participation rate, the share of the population 16 or older, either working or looking for work, returned to its February 2020 level of 63.3%.

00:38:03.000 In September, it was just 61.6%.

00:38:08.000 The absence comes as U.S.

00:38:09.000 employers are struggling to fill more than 10 million job openings and meet soaring consumer demand.

00:38:15.000 In another sign of how tight the labor market is, jobless claims fell to 293,000 last week, the first time since the pandemic began that they fell below 300,000, according to the Labor Department.

00:38:24.000 Workers are quitting at or near the highest rates on record in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, trade, transportation, and utilities, as well as professional and business services.

00:38:33.000 Participation has fallen broadly across demographic groups and career fields, but has dropped particularly fast among women, workers without a college degree, and those in low-paying service industries like hotels, restaurants, and childcare.

00:38:44.000 Many economists expected that people would come back to work, but some economists are concerned that worsening worker shortages reflect longer-term shifts, such as the pandemic-driven acceleration of retirements that will not reverse.

00:38:55.000 Many expect the labor shortage to last at least several more years.

00:38:58.000 Some say it's permanent.

00:39:00.000 Of the 52 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal, 22 predicted participation would never return to its pre-pandemic levels.

00:39:07.000 So where exactly are all of these people going?

00:39:11.000 Well, many of them are either going back home.

00:39:14.000 If you're married, if you're a married couple, maybe mom is going back home and dad is picking up some extra hours, which is fine.

00:39:20.000 Or maybe people are just, you know, staying out of jobs because they think the government's going to pay for them.

00:39:25.000 Goldman Sachs said in a note this month that enhanced unemployment benefits have likely contributed to the shortage.

00:39:31.000 When the pandemic began, Jesse Stromlich was a senior engineering manager at a small software firm in Portland, Oregon, supervising a couple dozen employees.

00:39:38.000 In the pandemic, there were a lot of challenges in our business I was called upon to deal with, said Stromlich.

00:39:42.000 Just tapping that button all the time is really tiring.

00:39:44.000 The birth of his son last November added to his doubts about whether the job's rewards were worth the sacrifices.

00:39:49.000 He initially looked for other opportunities.

00:39:50.000 When a friend suggested he take time off entirely, Stromlich was intrigued.

00:39:54.000 Is that even a thing you can do in capitalism, he recalls thinking?

00:39:57.000 His wife, a nurse midwife, supported the move.

00:39:59.000 The federal government has allowed borrowers like his wife to suspend student loan payments through January 2022.

00:40:04.000 The couple also refied their mortgage at a lower interest rate.

00:40:06.000 Okay, so this is all government policy now, right?

00:40:09.000 The government has prevented people from having to pay back their student loans and they're artificially lowering the mortgage rates.

00:40:15.000 Those adjustments have saved around $2,000 a month.

00:40:18.000 Stromlich's planned three months off has now stretched to five months and might last until the end of the year.

00:40:23.000 Two years ago, I was thinking I want to get as high as I can on the corporate ladder, he said.

00:40:26.000 It just interests me less now if it comes with the sacrifice to my mental health and my connection with my family.

00:40:33.000 Employers are overhauling their business models to adjust for the labor shortages.

00:40:37.000 Okay, bottom line is this.

00:40:38.000 People look at the way the Democrats are running things and they believe In their heart of hearts, apparently, that there will never be a cost to this.

00:40:46.000 They can stay out of the workforce and people will just take care of them.

00:40:49.000 There will be programs that are designed to artificially either boost wages for one of the people or that will pay them just to stay home.

00:40:58.000 Paul Krugman, for one, is celebrating this as the Keynesian he is.

00:41:02.000 He says, It's not surprising many workers are either quitting or reluctant to return to their old jobs.

00:41:08.000 The harder question is why now?

00:41:09.000 Many Americans hated their jobs two years ago, but they didn't act on those feelings as much as they are now.

00:41:13.000 What changed?

00:41:14.000 Well, it's only speculation, but it seems quite possible the pandemic, by upending many Americans' lives, also caused some of them to reconsider their life choices.

00:41:21.000 Not everyone can afford to quit a hated job, but a significant number of workers seem ready to accept the risk of trying something different.

00:41:26.000 Except that, if you look statistically, the people who are not going back to work are people who are at the lower end of the economic spectrum, not people who are middle class and upper end.

00:41:34.000 It is people who are more likely to end up on the dole.

00:41:38.000 But according to Krugman, this is a good thing.

00:41:39.000 He says, while this new choosiness by workers who feel empowered is making consumers and business owners' lives more difficult, let's be clear.

00:41:45.000 Overall, it's a good thing.

00:41:48.000 American workers are insisting on a better deal.

00:41:50.000 It's in the nation's interest they get it.

00:41:51.000 A good thing for whom?

00:41:53.000 Prices have been skyrocketing because of lack of labor.

00:41:56.000 The people who are working are getting raises, but those raises are not commensurate with the inflation rates.

00:42:01.000 Meanwhile, we have to blow out the debt to keep up with the price-adjusted increases for mandatory programs like Social Security.

00:42:09.000 And the Biden administration wants to blow out more money in order to pay for all those people who don't want to work.

00:42:13.000 Remember when AOC at one point said that we need to create a system where we pay for everybody who is either unable or unwilling to work?

00:42:19.000 She wasn't kidding.

00:42:20.000 And many Democrats feel this way.

00:42:22.000 There's a fascinating article in The Nation, which of course is a far-left source, My guy named Aaron Benavev, Ben and Av, called Making a Living, the history of what we call work.

00:42:31.000 And he really kind of spills the beans on what it is that the left would like here.

00:42:35.000 What the left would like is to change your consuming habits so you are satisfied with less and so we can redistribute everything in the way that the left would like.

00:42:43.000 What they want is economic stagnation and redistribution.

00:42:46.000 That is the goal of the left at this point.

00:42:49.000 They see work as an inherent bad.

00:42:51.000 And there's a belief in the minds of the left about human nature.

00:42:54.000 And that belief is that if you are freed from the predations of work, all work being a form of exploitation, if you are freed from the predations of work, you will become a poet and an artist.

00:43:02.000 You remember Nancy Pelosi actually said this.

00:43:04.000 Nancy Pelosi at one point said that she wanted to free people from job lock through Obamacare, right? 0.96

00:43:09.000 You wouldn't be locked to your job because you need healthcare.

00:43:11.000 And then maybe you'd be able to wander around and create art and poetry because that's exactly what people typically on welfare do.

00:43:17.000 I mean, if you've ever looked at the crowd of people creating great art, great poetry in this country, it is predominantly coming from people who are requiring government benefits.

00:43:25.000 Those are the people who are just the heart and soul of creativity and innovation in the United States.

00:43:32.000 So according to this author in The Nation, he's writing about a book called Work!

00:43:36.000 A Deep History from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots by an anthropologist named James Sussman.

00:43:45.000 And the basic idea of this book is that for the vast majority of human history, human beings have lived as hunter-gatherers on diets consisting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, insects, fish, and game.

00:43:56.000 The idea behind this book is that while the myth goes that people live in scarcity when they're hunter-gatherers, that they're living in relative privation on the edge of starvation or death, that's not actually true.

00:44:08.000 According to the book, fire predigests food.

00:44:11.000 When you roast the flesh of a woolly mammoth, the process yields significantly more calories than if the food was left uncooked.

00:44:15.000 Mastering fire thus made for a radical increase in humanity's free time because early humans were able to get more out of the food that they had and therefore they had a lot of free time.

00:44:25.000 According to that author, free time subsequently shaped our species' cultural evolution.

00:44:29.000 Leisure afforded long periods of hanging around with others which led to the development of language, storytelling, and the arts.

00:44:34.000 Human beings also gained the capacity to care for those who were too old to feed for themselves, a trait we share with few other species.

00:44:41.000 So again, the idea is that we should be more like the hunter-gatherers.

00:44:46.000 We should abandon the way that we see production entirely and instead we should aim for a system in which we basically do the subsistence minimum and we can spend the rest of our time hanging out and partying and having ourselves a good time.

00:45:01.000 This is the basic idea here.

00:45:04.000 Now, the question is why that hasn't happened, right?

00:45:06.000 So one of the questions is why, if that's true, if human beings just want to basically cover their basic needs and then move on with their lives and hang out and party, why aren't more humans doing this?

00:45:15.000 The answer for the left is that you have all been corrupted by the capitalist system, which makes you want things.

00:45:20.000 And because you want things, this leads you to the chaining of yourself to the machine.

00:45:24.000 You chain yourself to the work.

00:45:27.000 According to this author for The Nation, John Kenneth Galbraith provided one plausible answer in The Affluent Society.

00:45:32.000 In it, he suggested that John Maynard Keynes had underestimated the degree to which we can manipulate it into seeing our relative wants as absolute needs, meaning stuff that's marginal to us, we can see them as absolute needs.

00:45:41.000 Now, most economists on the right will say there's no such thing, really, as a prioritization of need that is absolute.

00:45:50.000 Beyond, like, full-on basic necessities, like you have to have enough food and water to live, aside from that, we all prioritize our needs differently, and we get to make those choices subjectively.

00:45:58.000 But what the left would like to do is force you to prioritize your needs in the way that the left wants you to prioritize your needs, and then redistribute all income to create a new kind of human being, a new kind of altruistic, wondrous human being, who's more like the hunter-gatherers.

00:46:12.000 Now, never mind that hunter-gatherer societies tend to have life expectancies that are really, really low.

00:46:18.000 Like in the middle of this article, the author cites the Coon-Bushmen. 1.00

00:46:20.000 Okay, the Coon-Bushmen have an average life expectancy of somewhere between 40 and 50 years old. 1.00

00:46:25.000 Also, it turns out that prosperity comes with low infant mortality rates and being able to keep your elderly alive for longer.

00:46:30.000 But all of this doesn't matter because obviously work is the bad.

00:46:34.000 At the end of this article, in The Nation, the author comes to the conclusion.

00:46:38.000 He says, we should set the course not to Mars for vacationing with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, but rather to a post-scarcity planet Earth on which their wealth has been confiscated and put to better ends.

00:46:48.000 The ends of the left, of course.

00:46:50.000 Getting there will require that we overcome the endemic insecurity that continues to plague nine-tenths of humanity, while also reducing and transforming the work we do.

00:46:57.000 Achieving those ends will in turn require that we transform the investment function, as Keynes suggested, but in ways that make investment not only public, but democratically controlled.

00:47:05.000 Freed from the constraints of scarcity economics, we will then serve the trickster god entropy.

00:47:10.000 What he's talking about there is the idea that human beings like to work, and you're gonna have extra energy, so you just go make stuff.

00:47:14.000 So instead of you going and working and innovating and making life better for other people, instead, I don't think this article in The Nation is far off the thinking of many people in the Democratic Party.

00:47:23.000 Work is inherently bad.

00:47:24.000 Not only in the hunt for efficiency gains or in making whatever hand acts as our engineers dream up next, but also in the service of a variety of other ends, such as justice and sustainability, science and culture, and throwing parties to a new, better humanity will be ushered in through the collective is the idea here.

00:47:39.000 I don't think this article in the nation is far off the thinking of many people in the Democratic Party.

00:47:43.000 Work is inherently bad.

00:47:45.000 Leisure is inherently good.

00:47:47.000 Anything that causes you to work, whether it is your, like this is the direct opposite of sort of the Randian approach to work.

00:47:54.000 The Ayn Randian approach to work is that work is an outgrowth of your creative function.

00:47:58.000 And when you do creative things, what you're actually doing is fulfilling yourself, which is true for a huge number of people who work.

00:48:07.000 Work gives people purpose.

00:48:09.000 Work is not a bad thing.

00:48:10.000 But the left sees work as a bad thing.

00:48:11.000 They believe that if you had more leisure time, what you would really be spending that doing is stuff that doesn't... You wouldn't take drugs.

00:48:16.000 You wouldn't get addicted to alcohol.

00:48:19.000 Unemployment would come with just vast benefits.

00:48:21.000 We would sit around campfires.

00:48:22.000 We'd tell each other stories.

00:48:23.000 We would think about justice and sustainability.

00:48:26.000 We'd hug the trees and all the rest.

00:48:28.000 So, that is why so many people seem pretty sanguine about the high rates of people dropping out of the economy.

00:48:33.000 It's actually creating the utopia they seek, which is some people work a lot of hours and really hard to produce for everybody else, and then we redistribute all the gains.

00:48:44.000 Now, some people see that as a violation of liberty principles.

00:48:46.000 Some people see that, as I do, as a violation of basic human nature, which is that people need to work.

00:48:51.000 It is good for people to work.

00:48:52.000 Work is not a bad thing.

00:48:55.000 And the notion that people expend extra leisure time in the most glorious of pursuits is generally untrue.

00:49:02.000 There is truth to the old saying that idle hands are the devil's workshop.

00:49:07.000 But according to the left, that's not right.

00:49:09.000 Capitalism is bad because work is bad.

00:49:12.000 And therefore, what we really need to do is grab the gains of capitalism and redistribute them across society so we should be cheering when people drop out of the workforce.

00:49:20.000 We should be happy.

00:49:21.000 And if you're feeling a little bit bad because inflation is up and because you have to pay a little bit more, understand that this is all in pursuit of a higher goal.

00:49:27.000 This is all in pursuit of a higher end.

00:49:30.000 And that higher end is a utopian system in which all of our basic needs are provided for and we can sit around the campfire and hang out with one another.

00:49:39.000 It is heaven on earth.

00:49:41.000 All it will require is for you to give up your liberty to actually choose the things you want, right?

00:49:45.000 There's that unspoken downside, which is you no longer get to prioritize your own needs.

00:49:49.000 Because after all, those needs were a false consciousness.

00:49:51.000 This does go back to Marx.

00:49:52.000 The idea that your prioritization of needs is actually just a false consciousness that has been put upon you by the economic system.

00:49:58.000 Change the economic system, change the nature of man, create a happier man through redistributive democratic control of excess production.

00:50:06.000 That's the basic idea here.

00:50:08.000 Paul Krugman is speaking that language.

00:50:10.000 The left is speaking that language.

00:50:12.000 All it's gonna cost you is a worse lifestyle in the here and now, fewer choices for your family, and a complete monopoly on how you live your life by the people who know best.

00:50:20.000 Who, by the way, are so useless that they can go on vacation for two months and nobody even notices.

00:50:24.000 Alrighty, before we wrap up the week, you know our friends over at Birchgold.

00:50:27.000 They're some of our best sponsors and we really appreciate their advertising.

00:50:31.000 They also have some interesting perspectives on the nature of the economic situation right now.

00:50:34.000 Philip Patrick, a precious metal specialist over there, stopped by a little bit earlier this week.

00:50:38.000 Here's what that sounded like.

00:50:40.000 Well, as you all know, our show is sponsored by Birchgold.

00:50:43.000 We are very proud of that.

00:50:44.000 Joining us on the line to discuss the current financial situation is Philip Patrick.

00:50:48.000 He's a precious metals specialist.

00:50:49.000 You'll remember him from prior shows, and a lot has happened since then.

00:50:52.000 Philip, thanks so much for joining the show.

00:50:53.000 Really appreciate it.

00:50:54.000 Thanks for having me. So let's talk about the situation with the economy right now. The Democrats are looking to blow an enormous amount of money into the economy. They're debating over whether they want to spend, you know, five trillion or four trillion or three trillion dollars.

00:51:05.000 They've not addressed the debt ceiling. It's a precarious economic time for sure. And inflation is obviously headed the wrong way. What's going on? Yeah, lots going on in that respect.

00:51:16.000 I mean, right now, with regards to the debt ceiling, it's pretty much deadlock.

00:51:20.000 McConnell insists the Democrats right now take the hardest possible path to raising the debt ceiling, or the debt limit rather, and to do it by themselves.

00:51:30.000 Senator Schumer says no.

00:51:32.000 Last week they settled essentially on a short-term hike to keep the government limping along until December 3rd.

00:51:38.000 And then we're going to go through the whole thing again, it appears.

00:51:42.000 There's a simple explanation for the gridlock, I think.

00:51:44.000 Republicans are refusing to sign a blank check for ongoing government and essentially Democratic spending.

00:51:52.000 They're demanding some form of responsibility, and the Democrats aren't interested in collaborating on a responsible budget.

00:51:59.000 Instead, they're demanding total control, and it's the essence of a standoff.

00:52:03.000 To be clear, I don't expect the US to actually default.

00:52:08.000 That would be the financial equivalent of Chernobyl.

00:52:11.000 And I think eventually the Democrats will break down and raise the debt ceiling via budget reconciliation, essentially without a single Republican vote, which is what McConnell has been telling them to do since July.

00:52:24.000 The big issue, I think, is one that you touched upon, right?

00:52:29.000 Normally when the debt ceiling comes up, there's a negotiation, there's a balancing of fiscal responsibility and agreed upon necessary spending.

00:52:38.000 But not this time, right?

00:52:39.000 This time we're talking about raising the debt ceiling and at the same time, massive amounts of spending, which is unsustainable and ultimately fuels inflation.

00:52:49.000 The inflation that we are seeing right now is extraordinary.

00:52:51.000 The August CPI report came in at 5.3%.

00:52:54.000 Is it likely to get better or likely to get worse?

00:52:56.000 Because we keep hearing from the Fed that it's temporary and then the temporary turns into not-so-temporary.

00:53:00.000 And so they're in sort of not-so-temporary territory.

00:53:02.000 But how bad is this going to get?

00:53:05.000 Look, it's already worse than the 5.3 that they're suggesting.

00:53:09.000 We're seeing consumer price inflation today.

00:53:13.000 Milton Friedman famously said, inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

00:53:19.000 At any time that there's more money without an equivalent rise in goods and services, prices go up.

00:53:25.000 It's basic economics.

00:53:29.000 The 5.3% number that the Fed throw at us, Wolf Richter calls it the lowest of global inflation measures.

00:53:37.000 And even at this 5.3 that they're suggesting, that's a 30-year high.

00:53:43.000 Most of us weren't making our own financial decisions 30 years ago.

00:53:47.000 We have no comprehension of how this affects our finances.

00:53:51.000 Remember this preferred measuring stick that the Fed use, it's the lowest of global because it gives essentially the least frightening results.

00:54:00.000 If you measure inflation in the same way that the Federal Reserve did back in the 90s, the way that John Williams at Shadow Stats does, we look at 9% inflation today.

00:54:12.000 And that's just factoring in things like food, energy, healthcare costs, things that used to be factored in.

00:54:18.000 Because the Fed are keeping rates artificially low while continuing to pump money into the system, almost nothing today is offering a positive after-inflation yield, not even junk bonds.

00:54:31.000 Investors are so desperate for some kind of safe haven for their money, so they're piling into riskier and riskier investments.

00:54:40.000 Subsequently, we're seeing colossal asset bubbles, and some of them in strange places.

00:54:45.000 Obviously, we're seeing in the stock market Uh, which is, uh, double the historic average.

00:54:51.000 We have proud house prices up 20% in the last year.

00:54:54.000 Um, even treasury bonds are trading, uh, three times their historic average.

00:55:00.000 So people are going crazy spending millions of dollars on non fungible tokens on, on, on the blockchain pictures of rocks and images of, uh, of gorillas essentially is any escape valve from, from, from the dollar and currency.

00:55:14.000 So, Philip, it doesn't look like it's going to get better anytime soon.

00:55:16.000 Obviously, you've got the Biden administration that is essentially paying people to stay home while telling the vaxxed that they shouldn't go to work because they should be living in fear.

00:55:23.000 And the unvaxxed, they can't go to work because if they go to work, then they'll be violating vaccine mandates.

00:55:27.000 And so you have massive supply chain bottlenecks as well that makes it really difficult to see the prices decreasing on any of this stuff just naturally anytime over the course of the next few months.

00:55:37.000 Yeah, I mean, absolutely.

00:55:39.000 And quite frankly, inflation, usually when it comes through a market, it's there to stay, right?

00:55:45.000 The only thing to undo inflation are deflationary periods, and they tend to be quite rare.

00:55:51.000 I think the last deflationary period was second quarter of 2008, and it lasted for months.

00:55:56.000 So usually when inflation is in the picture, it's here to stay.

00:56:01.000 And it certainly feels that way today.

00:56:03.000 So we're speaking with Philip Patrick of Birchgold.

00:56:05.000 So obviously, Philip, you've talked about some of the assets that people are putting money into, because it really is true.

00:56:10.000 I mean, you're looking at your money being worth nothing if you leave it in the bank.

00:56:13.000 And so you've got to spend it on something.

00:56:15.000 And then you've got the government on the other end promising that they are going to tax the living hell out of you.

00:56:20.000 So where should people be looking to put their cash at this point?

00:56:24.000 Look, I think it's just about, I mean, options are limited, right?

00:56:27.000 And we joke about it, but we are seeing bubbles in the strangest of places, right?

00:56:32.000 Rare whiskey indexes are all-time highs.

00:56:35.000 Luxury rocks are all-time highs.

00:56:37.000 People are looking for an escape out.

00:56:39.000 I think the key is to understand the issues in the climate and try and find an asset that's conducive for that climate and something with the ability to weather the storm.

00:56:49.000 And that's where I think precious metals really come into play, right?

00:56:52.000 They're very conducive for the problems that we have, right?

00:56:56.000 Corrections in the markets, inflation, issues with currency.

00:57:00.000 These problems, a big issue for anyone holding stocks and bonds in this climate, actually very conducive for safe haven assets like gold and silver.

00:57:10.000 Market crashes drive them up.

00:57:12.000 Inflation tends to drive them up.

00:57:14.000 So very conducive, like I said, for the issues and function as a very effective hedge in this climate.

00:57:21.000 Philip Patrick, he's a precious metal specialist over at Birchgold.

00:57:24.000 If you want to get involved with Birchgold, ask them all your questions, get your answers.

00:57:28.000 Text my name, Ben, to 474747 today and get involved with Birchgold.

00:57:32.000 Philip, thanks so much for the time.

00:57:33.000 Appreciate it.

00:57:34.000 Thank you for having me.

00:57:36.000 All righty.

00:57:36.000 We'll be back here later today with an additional hour of content.

00:57:39.000 First, you cannot forget to end your week by checking out The Andrew Klavan Show.

00:57:42.000 Drew's show is every Friday.

00:57:43.000 He's got an exciting evening planned for you.

00:57:44.000 Head on over to dailywire.com at 7 p.m.

00:57:46.000 Eastern, 6 p.m.

00:57:47.000 Central.

00:57:47.000 Tune in.

00:57:48.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:57:48.000 Shapiro, this is the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:57:50.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Elliott Feld.

00:57:57.000 Executive Producer Jeremy Boring.

00:57:59.000 Our Supervising Producer is Mathis Glover.

00:58:01.000 Production Manager Pavel Lydowsky.

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00:58:15.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:58:17.000 Copyright Daily Wire 2021.

00:58:20.000 Hey everybody, this is Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show.

00:58:23.000 You know, some people are depressed because the republic is collapsing, the end of days is approaching, and the moon's turned to blood.

00:58:30.000 But on The Andrew Klavan Show, that's where the fun just gets started.

The Ben Shapiro Show - October 15, 2021

The Loudoun County Sex Assault Cover-Up | Ep. 1355

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