Glenn: "This should scare the living bat snot out of every American"

Tonight, I want to talk to you about science. I want to talk to you about the pinheads that think that they are better than you. President Obama has recruited a bunch of behavioral scientists, yes, a behavioral insights team. This should scare the living bat snot out of every American. We’re not for propaganda, right?

Are we for the kind of stuff that Goebbels was using? Because that’s what he did. He figured out if I put enough images of rats in front of people, and I say “Jew” every time you see a rat, will they start thinking that those rats are vermin? Yes, as it turns out, yes. And so we’ve always had this understanding in America, we don’t do propaganda. We’ve always been against it.

And to have some creepy behavioral scientists standing around in lab coats looking at the American public as rats, that’s a problem – at least it used to be. What they try to do is to suddenly influence your behavior, to make the government more efficient – that’s what the president says – no, to get you to do what the government wants you to do.

Behavioral science, it’s a key weapon. The president used it. In fact, he used a “consortium of behavioral scientists.” Oh, he did that during the 2008 election, and then he used it again in 2012, and nobody said anything about it, scientists looking at you like a lab rat. Cass Sunstein, this is one of the big problems I have with him. He is the behavioral science mastermind. He wrote about it and how it can be tested on the public in his book Nudge.

This is critical for people to understand. Progressives are not progressed. They’re not enlightened. They are early 20th century thinkers. They view themselves as superior to the rest of society. They think they know what’s best for you, what’s best for society, eat more carrots, drive hybrids, support the overthrow of regimes they don’t like, Libya, Syria. Oh, wait a minute. Libya and Syria, that’s the Progressives in the Democratic Party –

oh no, and also the Republican Party.

The secret is they always try to win people over with public debate. Wilson did it. FDR did it. This president has done it. And when they can’t win you over with debate, not because, you know, their solution is stupid, but because they honestly believe the American people are too stupid, they have to find another way to get people to behave the way they feel you should be behaving. That’s where behavioral science comes into play.

Now, I guess the ultimate behavioral scientists some people would say would be God and our churches, because that’s what used to control our behavior. But now you can’t leave your church because your church is the federal government. God is in Washington. And instead of preaching to you and telling you you should choose or you’re going to go to hell, what they have is choice architecture, where they remove all of the bad choices and leave people with only the good choices.

They argue that people are still free to make choices – you know, you can eat the flag, you can eat grass, or you could have a banana. You still have a choice. Which one do you want? They’ve trapped you in a box. Nobody’s going to eat this. Nobody I know…well, actually I do know some hippies out in California that blend this up and drink it. Anybody sane is eating this out of this choice architecture.

That’s how behavioral science works. It’s based in manipulation, coercion, and control. All of these attributes are distinctly un-American, but they are the cornerstone of the progressive ideology. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up.

This manipulation goes all the way back to the progressive pioneer Edward Bernays. This is the guy who really started selling soap. He was dubbed “the father of spin.” He was the master of swaying public opinion. We’ve talked about him several times. He changed how Americans ate breakfast. We used to have, I believe, coffee and a piece of toast. After Bernays, it was ham and eggs. That’s what it was for breakfast.

He made the cigarette sexy. He’s the one that got everybody smoking cigarettes in movies. One of Bernays’ greatest manipulations was his work, believe it or not, with bananas, the United Fruit Company. Based in Guatemala, the United Fruit Company gained incredible power because we started eating bananas.

The United States started importing bananas in the late 1800s, and the United Fruit Company dominated much of the country and portions of almost a dozen countries in the Western Hemisphere due to the power and control of corrupt dictators. And what would happen is these bad dictators would just give the United Fruit Company massive swaths of land as gifts, and then the United Fruit Company kind of like GE, what GE does today, just does whatever the dictator wants.

Unfortunately, the power for the United Fruit Company was challenged in the 1950s, and Guatemala elected a president who promised to take on the fruit producer and reduce their power through land reforms. Now this threatened these guys, and they turned to an army, an army of one, Edward Bernays.

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United Fruit brings in Bernays, and he basically understood that what United Fruit Company had to do was change this from being a popularly elected government that was doing some things that were good for the people there into to this being very close to the American shore, a threat to American democracy, that it being at a time in the Cold War when Americans responded to issues of the Red Scare and what Communism might do.

He was trying to transform this and brilliantly did transform it into an issue of a communist threat very close to our shores, taking United Fruit again as a commercial client out of the picture and making it look like a question of American democracy, American values being threatened. “The Century of the Self,” British Broadcasting Corporation.

Okay, was that right or wrong? Almost every American would say that’s wrong, tell the truth. Bernays unleashed a propaganda war of epic proportions. He sent reporters to Guatemala on fact-finding missions. He set out to paint the new president as a Communist, even though he wasn’t a Communist. Bernays played on the fears of the American public because he had bananas to sell. He even created a fake news agency.

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He also created a fake independent news agency in America called the Middle American Information Bureau. It bombarded the American media with press releases saying that Moscow was planning to use Guatemala as a beachhead to attack America. “The Century of the Self,” British Broadcasting Corporation

Okay, not true. Suddenly the news reports started hitting major American media. “Articles began appearing in the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, the New Leader and other publications, all discussing the growing influence of Guatemala’s Communists.” Really?

He also tried to soften the company’s image. This is what he did, Senorita Chiquita banana – I’m a Chiquita banana, and I’m here to say. Bernays wasn’t interested in conducting merely a PR war. He was also conducting an actual war, a revolution. Bernays was working to forge a new network of intelligence agents in Central America expressly to discredit the regime. It led to a successful coup d’état which was engineered by the U.S. government and the CIA.

You want to know why there are so many Communists down in Central America that hate our guts? Because of Edward Bernays. Here’s an example of the media barrage and the U.S. engaging. Look at this 1950s newsreel.

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On the Guatemala-Honduras border, the town of Nueva Ocotepeque, headquarters of the Guatemala insurgents, is invaded by a planeload of American newsmen, including Al Waldren, Movietone veteran war photographer. Here to bring the world reliable newsreel reports from this latest global hotspot, his camera catches a press interview with secondary anti-Communist liberation leaders, Captain Menbieto and Colonel Lopez, who with maps explain how they hope to capture the capital city. Massing for an advance against the Communist dominated forces of Pres. Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, the liberation patriots are well equipped with small arms.

Believe it or not, this is why people hate, they hate Capitalism too, because all for the sale of the banana. Many believe the anti-American protests were staged and orchestrated by Bernays himself. Bernays had masterfully created an entirely different and alternate universe.

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He totally understood that the coup would happen when the public and the press when conditions in the public and the press allowed for a coup to happen, and he created those conditions. He was totally savvy in terms of just what he was helping create there in terms of this overthrow. But ultimately he was reshaping reality, reshaping public opinion in a way that’s undemocratic and manipulative. “The Century of the Self,” British Broadcasting Corporation

I will tell you that that’s exactly what happened again in Egypt and Libya. Now, after this coup, Guatemala went back to an oppressive dictatorship controlled by the banana people. In fact, it is this story where the term “banana republic” was born. Over the next 40 years, four decades, 200,000 in Guatemala alone were killed in guerrilla attacks, government crackdowns, civil wars all across Latin America, just so he could protect the banana people, perpetual revolution.

Oh, and one other thing about this revolution, as always, there are unintended consequences. At the time, there was this young Argentine leftist. He was an activist. He happened to be in Guatemala during this particular coup staged by Edward Bernays. He was a supporter of the president. And after the coup, he became so angry that he actually said it’s time for a revolution, and he became a revolutionary himself. His name, Che.

Che concluded that the Guatemalan coup was successful because the president just didn’t kill enough people. And during his violent time in Cuba, he made sure that same mistake wasn’t made again, personally ordering the execution of hundreds of political opponents and executing many of them himself. Enjoy your Chiquita banana

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

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The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

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The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.