Michael Schellenberger
Appearances
The Dan Bongino Show
Nightly Scroll - Woman Berated Over MAHA Hat in Gym Incident Speaks Out!
That is very true, and now I have to find something new to listen to.
The Dan Bongino Show
Things Have Changed, It's Trump's GOP Now (Ep. 2390)
Both DOD spokesperson John Kirby and Mayorkas, the head of DHS, insist emphatically that there had been no drone flyovers over U.S. military bases. Well, that night, actually, on Friday night and then Saturday morning, there was a flyover of the Wright-Patterson Air Base in Ohio. And, in fact, it's been widely reported. So it's curious why they said that.
The Dan Bongino Show
Things Have Changed, It's Trump's GOP Now (Ep. 2390)
Yesterday, then, Kirby came out and said, well, of course, we all know that there had been these drone flyovers. He also said on Friday to Martha McCallum, he said, Kirby said that they were investigating these cases. And then yesterday he said that they had closely examined 5,000 cases.
The Dan Bongino Show
Things Have Changed, It's Trump's GOP Now (Ep. 2390)
Are we to be led to believe that they examined 5,000 cases, 5,000, it's actually 6,000 according to FBI, but 6,000 people were interviewed, asked where they were, what direction they were pointed in. It just strains credulity for them to say these things. It really undermines the trust. And that's why you see conspiracy theories emerging into the vacuum.
The Dan Bongino Show
This Is What Winning In Politics Looks Like (Ep. 2425)
I want to paint a very brief history for you because I think it's worth remembering this contextually. When Bill Clinton, a Democrat, left the presidency, he left behind a surplus.
The Dan Bongino Show
This Is What Winning In Politics Looks Like (Ep. 2425)
Well, this meeting was really very successful. What you see today, we had General Kellogg, President Trump's special representative at NATO this morning with the ambassadors, and now we had this meeting here in Paris with many European leaders. And really, Europe is now stepping up.
The Dan Bongino Show
This Is What Winning In Politics Looks Like (Ep. 2425)
Last week, I was a bit disappointed that Europeans were saying, hey, we also have to be at the table, and why are we not there? And they're now really starting to dialogue, to strategize how they can support the peace effort. And that is important because we know that post the peace deal, there will be the need to make that peace deal lasting and enduring.
The Dan Bongino Show
This Is What Winning In Politics Looks Like (Ep. 2425)
And that means we need security guarantees.
The Dan Bongino Show
They Fell Right Into Trump's Trap (Ep. 2417)
Yeah, I mean, Jesse, it's a crazy story. I mean, you might forget that the House of Representatives impeached President Trump in December of 2019. Many people may not remember that it was a CIA analyst who was left over from the Obama White House who wrote the memo that led to the impeachment. It was all based on hearsay. The person had not actually been in the room with Trump.
The Dan Bongino Show
They Fell Right Into Trump's Trap (Ep. 2417)
Nonetheless, this memo that he wrote relied heavily on a report done by an organization funded by USAID.
The Dan Bongino Show
They Fell Right Into Trump's Trap (Ep. 2417)
In fact, its initial founding funding, I mean, now it's tens of millions of dollars, had gone into this group called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a name that's not very memorable, OCCRP, but it was basically created as an extension of the State Department and then of USAID
The Dan Bongino Show
They Fell Right Into Trump's Trap (Ep. 2417)
And as you know, Jesse, this is very serious to be involved in an effort to do regime change at home, as we've been discovering as the files have come out with what Elon Musk has been doing. We know that USAID was really about regime change abroad. It was a kind of public facing part, you know, regime change operation like CIA, but not covert, more overt.
The Dan Bongino Show
They Fell Right Into Trump's Trap (Ep. 2417)
Well, now you see a similar blowback, just like they did censorship abroad and brought censorship tools back home. They were doing this sort of thing abroad, creating a predicate essentially for Trump's impeachment.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
Dan, thank you for having me. Always a pleasure to be here.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
It's a great observation, Dan. You know, they're experts on everything. The minute we have a COVID vaccine, they're all mRNA specialists. Anytime there's any gun violence, they all know absolutely everything about firearms. But yes, whenever we question them, we're not permitted to comment. And it's especially a silly point to make during a debate, because the whole premise of a debate is,
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
is that there is such a thing as objective truth, and we can all perceive something about it, and we can all reason about it and have ideas and persuade one another. If you make the claim that you can only then what you're really saying is we can't speak at all. No one can have any debates. No one can have any conversations.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
And then what you're saying is that you can't have self-government because the whole premise of self-government is that we can know something about the world, we can persuade our fellow citizens, and we can figure out how we want to live. So really it's just a way to concede a debate implicitly, which I think is basically what these people did.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
I think you're totally right about that. It is a proxy fight. Sometimes people will say, why are we spending so much time talking about this relatively small percentage of the population? And my answer is always, look, I didn't bring it up. I'm not the one changing the laws and taking away women's bathrooms and alike, you guys brought it up.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
And for a reason, because as you say, Dan, it is a proxy battle about something much deeper. I think there are two things going on with the left's obsession with LGBT. The first one is, I think that they want to get people riled up as pertains to their appetites. You know, sex is a really important part of human nature and always has been.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
And so if you can get people really consumed with all kinds of passions and lusts, they're not going to be in their right minds, and it's going to be much easier to manipulate them. So I think that's the first little political objective that's going on.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
But then the second one, I think, is that because sex is so important to human nature, really what the left is doing is just waging a war, an attempt to redefine human nature. And you've seen this for hundreds of years. I mean, perhaps most notably... the Jacobins and later the communists, said that they could redefine human nature.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
I mean, Marx in the Theses on Feuerbach, I think it was in number six, says that philosophy up until this point has sought to understand human nature, but what he endeavors to do is to change human nature. And so when the left pushes this ideology that says, you know, a man can be a woman or something like that, What he's doing is not just trying to flatter a small percentage of society.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
He's trying to make a claim about human nature. He's saying, look, if we can change a man into a woman, then we can do anything. Then we, through the power of the state and our leftist ideology, are omnipotent. We are going to be gods among men. There is nothing that you can do to stop us. And that's an ideology that's much, much older than the rainbow flag.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
well i think you're you're definitely seeing introspection among the corporate and elite democrats you know i think you you mentioned alex carp or even just mark zuckerberg richard payton certain any of these billionaire masters of the universe who usually side with the dams you know if they were all lining up at the trump inauguration they're cool in it with the d e i policies and that the lgbt policies too however the ideologues are not giving up and i think it's because they can't you know their their political program
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
is one of maximizing individual autonomy, especially their own autonomy, and of really total control over all aspects of human life. So if they come out all of a sudden after November and they say, you know what, actually, we are going to respect national boundaries. You know what, actually, we are going to respect the definition of marriage and family. You know, we are going to respect...
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
parents' rights and the rights of local communities and just objective truth, if they come out and say that, they will be conceding a major limit on their own power. And so I just don't see any way that the AOCs of the world can do that.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
And so you're going to have the Alex Carps and the Mark Zuckerbergs banging their heads against the wall saying, guys, we're not going to win another election for 50 years if you keep this up. But if you're a true believer, if you're a real leftist ideologue, and you've already come this far, I don't really see how you turn around.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
I totally agree, Dan. The propaganda has been so frustrating because, you know, believe it or not, I'm old enough to remember, before the war broke out in Ukraine, I'm old enough to remember when even our liberal establishment media would point out that Ukraine is a very corrupt country, when the establishment media would point out that Ukraine has elements within its militias and military
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
that are neo-Nazi, that were actually booted off of social media platforms such as Facebook. And then the moment that the war breaks out, all of a sudden we're told that Ukraine is the picture of a Madisonian democracy. It's basically the 51st state. Forget about all that Nazi stuff. Actually, if you don't support Ukraine now, you're a Nazi. And I thought, you know, look, please...
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
I understand it's a complex situation, but please respect our intelligence enough to recognize that reasonable minds might disagree. I think going back to the 1990s, you have very intelligent foreign policy thinkers like Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, all saying that Ukraine needs to exist as a buffer nation. Okay, there's a role for buffer states.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
They can mediate between greater powers. And that it would be crazy for NATO, for instance, to expand into Ukraine, that that might lead to more war and more bloodshed. When President Trump comes out and he says, this war never would have started on my watch, I know people think he's exaggerating or boasting. I think he is 100% right.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
There was one administration in the last 20 years on whose watch Vladimir Putin has not further invaded another country. Wasn't Bush, wasn't Obama, wasn't Biden. It was Donald Trump. And so now you've got this war that has broken out because of feckless leadership. Then you've got two possibilities.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
You can either continue the liberal American grand strategy of allowing Ukraine to be a meat grinder and hoping to kill as many Russian soldiers as you possibly can and sacrificing the young men of Ukraine to do it. Or you can say, you know, some years now has been enough and we need to wind this down. Blessed are the peacemakers.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
Because, by the way, if we let this war continue on, it could spiral on beyond the guesses of of our genius elite liberal class. And you could be in a really serious regional or even global war. There's nothing bootlicking to Vladimir Putin about that realistic foreign policy. And I think, happily, the adults are back in charge, and we're going to see a serious resolution.
The Dan Bongino Show
Sunday Special with Mike Benz, Rep. Andy Harris, Rep. Tim Burchett and Michael Knowles
Thank you so much, Dan. Always great to be with you. And I always say your wife has excellent taste in men, both podcasters and husbands.
The Dan Bongino Show
DOGE Uncovers More Corruption Than We Ever Thought Possible (Ep. 2418)
Yeah, I mean, Jesse, it's a crazy story. I mean, you might forget that the House of Representatives impeached President Trump in December of 2019. Many people may not remember that it was a CIA analyst who was left over from the Obama White House who wrote the memo that led to the impeachment. It was all based on hearsay. The person had not actually been in the room with Trump.
The Dan Bongino Show
DOGE Uncovers More Corruption Than We Ever Thought Possible (Ep. 2418)
Nonetheless, this memo that he wrote relied heavily on a report done by an organization funded by USAID.
The Dan Bongino Show
DOGE Uncovers More Corruption Than We Ever Thought Possible (Ep. 2418)
In fact, its initial founding funding, I mean, now it's tens of millions of dollars, had gone into this group called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a name that's not very memorable, OCCRP, but it was basically created as an extension of the State Department and then of USAID
The Dan Bongino Show
DOGE Uncovers More Corruption Than We Ever Thought Possible (Ep. 2418)
And as you know, Jesse, this is very serious to be involved in an effort to do regime change at home, as we've been discovering as the files have come out with what Elon Musk has been doing. We know that USAID was really about regime change abroad. It was a kind of public facing part, you know, regime change operation like CIA, but not covert, more overt.
The Dan Bongino Show
DOGE Uncovers More Corruption Than We Ever Thought Possible (Ep. 2418)
Well, now you see a similar blowback, just like they did censorship abroad and brought censorship tools back home. They were doing this sort of thing abroad, creating a predicate essentially for Trump's impeachment.
The Megyn Kelly Show
LA Mayor Stumbles as She Returns to City, and Personal Stories of the Devastation, with James Woods and Adam Carolla | Ep. 979
Billions of dollars a year they spend on forest fires. And, you know, there's a case with the environment. They're not allowed to rake their forests because you're not allowed to touch it. When a tree falls down after 18 months, it becomes very dry. It's like, you know, like real firewood. It's bad. You know, a tree that's up. These are all things I. learned the hard way, the easy way.
The Megyn Kelly Show
LA Mayor Stumbles as She Returns to City, and Personal Stories of the Devastation, with James Woods and Adam Carolla | Ep. 979
But when a tree is up, it sucks water, it's wet. I went to that, they had a couple of horrible forest fires in California, and I went, I said, you know, you had a lot of trees standing. Yes, they were healthy trees, sir.
The Megyn Kelly Show
LA Mayor Stumbles as She Returns to City, and Personal Stories of the Devastation, with James Woods and Adam Carolla | Ep. 979
I said, with this intense heat, you could see they were charred a little bit on the bottom, but they were going to be all right, because they're soaking wet, because they suck up the water, right? But when they fall, they're like, you know, it's like lighting a match. All they have to do is clean their forest, meaning... Rake it up. Get rid of the leaves.
The Megyn Kelly Show
LA Mayor Stumbles as She Returns to City, and Personal Stories of the Devastation, with James Woods and Adam Carolla | Ep. 979
Get rid of, you know, leaves that are sitting there for five years.
The Megyn Kelly Show
LA Mayor Stumbles as She Returns to City, and Personal Stories of the Devastation, with James Woods and Adam Carolla | Ep. 979
And get rid of the trees that have fallen.
The Megyn Kelly Show
LA Mayor Stumbles as She Returns to City, and Personal Stories of the Devastation, with James Woods and Adam Carolla | Ep. 979
Well, it's very sad because I've been trying to get Gavin Newsom to allow water to come. You'd have tremendous water up there. They sent it out to the Pacific because they're trying to protect a tiny little fish, which is in other areas, by the way. called a smelt. And for the sake of a smelt, they have no water. They had no water in the fire hydrants today in Los Angeles. It was a terrible thing.
The Megyn Kelly Show
LA Mayor Stumbles as She Returns to City, and Personal Stories of the Devastation, with James Woods and Adam Carolla | Ep. 979
And we're going to get that done. It's going to finally be done. I got it done from the federal side. And he didn't want to sign it, but it's not going to happen again like that.