Ben Shapiro (22:12)
Anyone to take the job. You know, post Floyd, post Covid, law enforcement is no longer seen as an honorable way to a profession. And we're suffering and the public is suffering. So something has to get fixed. So again, the left has come up with two narratives here to respond to the fact that DC is a crime ridden problem. Number one, this is all racist. So the Congressional Black Caucus put out a statement. President Trump does not care about keeping Washington D.C. or any of our communities safe. While we don't know yet the full impact this decision will have on DC and the black and minority communities Trump has suggested he may target next, we do know this militarized over policing will inevitably lead to increased fear and mistrust among communities that have too often been treated as occupied populations rather than as citizens who deserve to be served and protected. Wait, is the implication here that National Guard and cops, that these are occupying forces? You mean actual mechanisms of law enforcement? Are the occupying forces? Is there some sort of counterinsurgency that I'm unaware? Is there an insurgency in Washington D.C. that we are unaware of? If so, then probably we should send in the military and not the cops. So angle number one is that Trump must be a racist. Angle number two is January 6th, because again, when you got nothing else, you go into the Cabinet, you grab the January 6th bottle and you just smack somebody over the head with it. So here, for example, is Dana Bash suggesting that President Trump doesn't care about violence in Washington D.C. after all, January 6th, the most violent moment in recent history in D.C. was January 6th, and it was an attack on the United States Capitol by a lot of people who were doing it in the name of Donald Trump. And it included the people who were hurt, included members of law enforcement. So, first of all, that is not even remotely true if you're talking about the most violent days in recent history in, in the nation's capital. You could go back to September 4th of 2021, when three people were killed in a Labor Day triple homicide. Or you could go back to Memorial day weekend in 2025, when four people were killed and multiple people were wounded. Or you could go back just a couple of months ago to May, when two members of the Israeli embassy staff were murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C. or it could go back just about two months ago also, when a couple of people were killed and one wounded in another violent incident in Washington, D.C. it turns out there's lots of violence in Washington, D.C. but again, January 6th, they, they like to scream it so that they can make excuses for what defending crime at this point. Rob Henderson, who he had on last week, right. The philosopher who works for Manhattan Institute. So he talked about the concept of luxury beliefs, the idea that people on the ground in real areas, all they want is better quality of life. And then there are a bunch of people who are not subject to the same problems, who say that the real problems of life, the real problems are, you know, things like greenhouse gas emissions, things like air conditioning, things like overpopulation. Those are all problems for not them. And also not poor people, but poor people get to bear the brunt of actual problems being ignored. Well, I think I found the platonic example. The platonic example is MSNBC's Anon Jura Hardis. Okay, so he was trying to explain why he is opposed to President Trump fighting crime in Washington, D.C. and this right here is legitimately the platonic example of a luxury belief system. When I go to dc, I'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much as I'm afraid of losing my vote. I'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much as I'm afraid that my children's freedom to breathe will be stolen in a world where climate change policy is nonexistent. What in the world? So he's worried when he goes to Washington, D.C. he's mostly worried that there will be not enough regulation of carbon emissions. Luxury beliefs up to wazoo for this guy. First of all, I don't know what's going on with his hair, but really, he needs to tame that. That's a main right there. It looks like he got his, his hairstyling tips from, from syndrome, from the Incredibles. That, that, that is a solid, solid, that's a solid narrative, my man. But that is a luxury belief system. When I go to Washington D.C. i'm not worried about my wallet being stolen. People are literally taping signs to the inside of their car windows saying, my window's been smashed four times. I can't afford a fifth. There's nothing in the car. Please leave it alone. And this is where they choose to go. Truly amazing stuff. But don't worry, there's more of that came from. Here's former Chuck Schumer policy leader Jim Kessler explaining that actually only the brave live in Washington D.C. you know, that's the important thing. If you're complaining about crime, that's because you're a giant pansy. Obviously, we are down 400 police officers from last, from last year, last year and 900 from our peak because stealing our money away. So let's get our loan. Nothing to do with defunding the police? No, no. It had nothing to do with defunding the police. It had to taking our money away, our taxpayer dollars here. If people are afraid to come to D.C. go to Disney World, get fat, eat french fries, I don't care. I've lived here 37 years. I am not afraid. I live in the city. I'm not afraid of this. If you're afraid, go ahead, leave your fear someplace else. You know, I, I am enjoying Democrats doing this routine like we wreck a city and if you don't like it, you can just leave. Well, you know what? People are leaving. People are leaving. It just goes to show you why the left is so unpopular. Because if your response to major crime problems, to serious lifestyle problems in your major cities is, well, you can just leave and go to Disney World and get fed and your French fries. If that is your response, you are going to keep losing. Already coming up, new Gallup poll shows that Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America, which is frightening as hell. Plus, we'll get into this very controversial deal that was just made between Nvidia, the Chinese government and the American government first. Feeling overwhelmed by those back taxes? You're not alone. Maybe you missed that April deadline or your financial records are all over the place. Whatever the situation, don't put it off any longer. The IRS is not getting any friendlier. Those penalties, they pile up fast. We're talking 5% every month. You don't file maxing out at 25%. The all of which adds up quickly. 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And so what they are doing is they are running themselves into every political box canyon they can find. It's kind of fascinating and that seems to hold across the board. So you'll recall that there was a two week long controversy in our very mature country over Sydney Sweeney's chesty ad for American Eagle, where everyone in the world had a take on Sydney Sweeney's ad. So how many Americans actually thought that it was really, really offensive? It turns out pretty much no one. So we had a controversy over nothing. Great job, everybody. According to an Economist YouGov poll conducted August 9th to 11th, people asked whether they found the advertisement more offensive or more clever. And what the survey found is 39% found the ad clever, 12% found it offensive, 40% said neither, and 8% were unsure. So 12% about the percentage of Americans who believe Elvis is still alive, thought that this ad was deeply offensive. Again, this notion that the left has to latch on to every 20% issue, as in 20 versus 80, it is amazing. It also happens to be the case that President Trump has a better feel for this than the vast majority of politicians. So we have now spent a couple of months on this Epstein story, or Epstein non story as the case may be, because again, there have not been any new revelations and nothing new appears to be forthcoming. A Manhattan judge over the last couple of days denied the Trump administration's bid to unseal the Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts. That, of course, is not a shock. He apparently said that a public official, lawmaker, pundit, ordinary citizen, deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter, reviewed these materials expecting to learn new information about Epstein and Maxwell's crimes and the investigation into them would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no there there. That is what the judge wrote. Okay, so how many Americans care about this? If you listen to the media, the answer is 197% of Americans are deeply, deeply ensconced in the details of the Epstein case. They just wake up every morning wondering about Epstein. If you listen to the media, there are people not yet born with are deeply fascinated by the Epstein case. So what are the actual stats? The answer is, remember that day when President Trump, like the day after the DOJ and FBI put out that statement saying that there was no evidence that Epstein was running a child sex trafficking ring on behalf of intelligence agencies and that the Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself stuff wasn't true, that he killed himself. You remember the day after that, President Trump said, you know what? This is not a major issue for most Americans. And I said, he's right. Meaning that many Americans care. But it isn't a major. This isn't the list of top, like hundred issues for most Americans. And the President has a better feel for that than many others. Here is Harry Enten explaining. I would say that this is from at least a political point of view, quickly turning into a dud of a story. What am I talking about? Which is wild, which is wild. Which is. This has been for three, three weeks. Exactly. Take a look here. Google searches for Epstein down 89% versus just three weeks ago, falling through the floor. It is no longer the top term searched alongside Donald Trump's Nate that's been trading off between tariffs and Vladimir Putin with obviously the meeting coming up later this week. But at this particular point, the American people's interest in this story, it's quickly becoming something of a nothing burger. Okay, so again, what the media tell you people are interested in and what people are actually interested in are two different things. What the chattering heads will tell you are the things that matter to people, like, you know, greenhouse gas emissions versus what people are actually interested in, like not being killed on the streets. Two very, very different things. Now, that doesn't mean that when it comes to politics, there aren't luxury beliefs. There are the biggest luxury belief in politics that actually is held by an enormous number of people. There are a few that actually cross the street from touch the grass to the Internet. And because people have not felt the ramifications of those beliefs in a long time in the United States, they continue to adhere to those beliefs. The biggest sort of luxury belief held by a huge number of Americans remains socialism. There are a bunch of Americans who are still in love with the idea of socialism because it seems to solve all of their problems, both emotional and financial. The idea is that if you're not doing well in American society, it must be somebody else's fault. There's a giant conspiracy that can only be cured by, by handing over to a cadre of an unbelievably powerful people in government control over everybody's life. This is always a temptation. I point this out because the right is looking at the left. And they're riding high because they're looking at the Democrats and they're saying, you guys are really, really unpopular. There are some problems. There are some problems here. This is why I've been saying, I'm going to keep saying it. If the economy goes south, this country is in serious, serious trouble. Not because we can't survive a recession we have before and we will again, but because if the country, if our economy goes south, there will be a vast turn toward the socialistic left. And here I point to a Gallup poll that came out August 5th. Among 14 prominent US and global figures, the most positive image held by anybody is Pope Leo, which of course, not a giant shock. He's a religious figure. And then number two is Vladimir Zelensky, who continues to hold a 52% favorable rating and a 34 unfavorable rating. But third on that list is Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders has a 49% favorable rating, a 38% unfavorable rating, with 14% of Americans saying they have no opinion of Bernie Sanders. And, you know, comes in number five on the list, Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, 34% favorable, 38% unfavorable, 28% no opinion. That puts her at minus four. That means that her approval ratings are better by the spread than J.D. vance, who comes in at 38% positive, 49% negative, comes in hotter than Donald Trump, 41% positive, 57% negative. Marco Rubio, 31% positive, 47% negative. And Elon, who has the worst of any of the public figures, 33% positive, 61% negative. And this is a problem because Bernie Sanders has stood outside the two party system shouting socialist nostrums his entire career. He is a career useless person, a leech on the ass of American society, and yet he is somehow seen as a widely admired figure in America. And this bodes ill. It bodes very, very ill. Coming up, Bernie Sanders is a wildly popular politician, according to Gallup, which is insane, totally insane, because he doesn't know anything about anything. He's just awful. But, you know, when it comes to money, you need good advice. Not from people like Bernie Sanders, like actual good advice. And then you actually need to put it into practice. Good advice is one thing, but putting into practice, that's another thing. With acorns, you it's easy to make healthy money habits automatic. If you've ever wanted to start investing but you felt overwhelmed, ACORNS makes it surprisingly simple. This financial wellness app automatically invests your spare change from everyday purchases so you can begin building wealth without even thinking about it. 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Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor view important disclosures@acorns.com Shapiro so one of the reasons that Bernie Sanders remains popular is because he stands outside the two party system getting nothing done but shouting extremely simple bumper slogans. And, and and I think that that is the thing that that people are attracted to in Bernie is that Bernie is a purist. He never actually has to come down to earth to make policy. Instead he just stands there saying that rich people are rich not because they provide a good service or product to anybody who wants it, but because they are greedy. That the reason that some are succeeding and others are failing is because the system is rigged against you and the parties themselves are rigged against you. And this is a very convenient stance for somebody in electoral office to take because it means nothing is ever his fault. He's not had to change a single thing in American public life. He just gets to stand there shouting at the system. Well, the problem right now for the country is that if the system then fails in some way, people tend to turn to the guy who is shouting at the system from the outside. When I've talked about the Zorn mom donification of the Democratic Party, understand that is not Zorn Momdani's shtick. OK? Zorn Momdani is second gen. He is just Bernie 2.0 but more ethnically diverse. The same thing is true of aoc. Bernie is the kingmaker in this space and he continues to ride very high, which is why the economy best not fall down. So over the course of the past couple of days he's doing a lot of tv. And he suggests, for example, that the real problem, the reason that Kamala Harris lost is because she was influenced by wealthy people. It said something pretty tough when you were speaking to this crowd about Kamala Harris.