The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (01/17/2024):

3:05pm- Kristen Pieffer of the Freedonia Group documents the results of a brand-new study on the impact of New Jersey’s ban on single-use plastic bags. She writes: “following implementation of the New Jersey bag ban, total bag volumes declined by more than 60% to 894 million bags. However, the study also shows, following New Jersey’s ban of single-use bags, the shift from plastic film to alternative bags resulted in a nearly 3x increase in plastic consumption for bags. At the same time, 6x more woven and non-woven polypropylene plastic was consumed to produce the reusable bags sold to consumers as an alternative. Most of these alternative bags are made with non-woven polypropylene, which is not widely recycled in the United States and does not typically contain any post-consumer recycled materials. This shift in material also resulted in a notable environmental impact, with the increased consumption of polypropylene bags contributing to a 500% increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to non-woven polypropylene bag production in 2015. Notably, non-woven polypropylene, NWPP, the dominant alternative bag material, consumes over 15 times more plastic and generates more than five times the amount of GHG emissions during production per bag than polyethylene plastic bags.” You can read the full report here: https://www.freedoniagroup.com/press-releases/freedonia-report-finds-new-jersey-single-use-bag-ban-boosts-alternative-bag-production,-increases-pl

3:20pm- Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, Argentine President Javier Milei told those in attendance “do not surrender” to socialism and to instead embrace capitalism, free markets, and individual liberties.

3:30pm Why does Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise follow Matt on social media? Rich and Henry are baffled.

3:40pm- While speaking with CNBC from Davos, Switzerland, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon implored the Biden campaign team and members of the media to stop “scapegoating” presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his supporters. Dimon said of Trump: "Just take a step back and be honest. He was kind of right about NATO. He was kind of right about immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked. He was right about China."

3:45pm- While appearing on The View, Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “scared as heck” of Donald Trump and his supporters.

4:05pm- Warren P. Strobel of The Wall Street Journal writes: “Chinese researchers isolated and mapped the virus that causes Covid-19 in late December 2019, at least two weeks before Beijing revealed details of the deadly virus to the world, congressional investigators said, raising questions anew about what China knew in the pandemic’s crucial early days. Documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by a House committee and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that a Chinese researcher in Beijing uploaded a nearly complete sequence of the virus’s structure to a U.S. government-run database on Dec. 28, 2019. Chinese officials at that time were still publicly describing the disease outbreak in Wuhan, China, as a viral pneumonia “of unknown cause” and had yet to close the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, site of one of the initial Covid-19 outbreaks. China only shared the virus’s sequence with the World Health Organization on Jan. 11, 2020, according to U.S. government timelines of the pandemic.” You can read the full article here: https://www.wsj.com/world/china/chinese-lab-mapped-deadly-coronavirus-two-weeks-before-beijing-told-the-world-documents-show-9bca8865

4:10pm- Katherine Donlevy of The New York Post writes: “In a Wuhan-esque study, Chinese scientists are experimenting with a mutant COVID-19 strain that is 100% lethal to ‘humanized’ mice. The deadly virus—known as GX_P2V—attacked the brains of mice that were engineered to reflect genetic makeup similar to people, according to a study shared last week out of Beijing.” You can read the full article here: https://nypost.com/2024/01/16/news/covid-19-strain-kills-100-of-infected-mice-in-chinese-lab-study/

4:30pm- Are you a psychopath? A new study indicates that if your index finger is longer than your ring finger you may be biologically more likely to be a psychopath.

4:40pm- Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry compared the fight against climate change to the fight against Nazi Germany in World War II—ultimately requesting trillions of dollars per year over the next 30-years.

5:05pm- Cliff Maloney Jr.—of The Pennsylvania Chase—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his ambition to “deploy a team of young professionals to knock on 500,000 doors to chase ballots legally” in order to generate greater Republican turnout for the 2024 election cycle. You can learn more here and sponsor a ballot chaser: www.PAChase.com

5:20pm- Jeffrey Blehar of National Review called on Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis to suspend his campaign—as there is no pathway towards victory. He writes: “DeSantis had my vote and never seriously threatened to lose it; I didn’t even mind when he said or did cringeworthy things on the campaign trail (his answers on Social Security in particular were gagworthy to any honest man); certainly not when the other primary options on offer are Nikki Haley and (no, thanks, ever) Donald Trump. Having laid my cards out on the table like this, however, it’s time to turn the tarot over and give the DeSantis campaign its reading: the Death card.” You can read the full article here: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/there-is-no-distance-left-to-run-for-ron-desantis/

5:40pm- Paul Dans—who served in the Trump Administration as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his work as Director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project at The Heritage Foundation. You can learn more here: https://www.project2025.org

6:05pm- Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, Argentine President Javier Milei told those in attendance “do not surrender” to socialism and to instead embrace capitalism, free markets, and individual liberties. Meanwhile, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry compared the fight against climate change to the fight against Nazi Germany in World War II—ultimately requesting trillions of dollars per year over the next 30-years.

6:15pm- At the World Economic Forum, Harvard Professor Naomi Orsekes accused the social media platform X of disseminating fake information—and, when pressed, she refused to deny that she would recommend censoring the platform.

6:35pm- Zach Smith—Legal Fellow and Manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program in Heritage’s Meese Center—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to talk about the U.S. Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce on Wednesday. Could Chevron deference be coming to an end?

6:50pm- Brooke Singman od Fox News writes: “Federal investigators asked banks to search and filter customer transactions by using terms like "MAGA" and "Trump" as part of an investigation into Jan. 6, warning that purchases of "religious texts" could indicate "extremism," the House Judiciary Committee revealed in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital Wednesday.” You can read the full report here: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/alarming-surveillance-feds-asked-banks-search-private-transactions-terms-maga-trump