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Glenn's Show Prep

As the Election Turns: Our Real Life Soap Opera

September 29, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

A presidential election, murder, an international beauty contest --- it's the stuff of daytime TV. Yet, it's all happening right before our eyes. Are we living in a real life soap opera?

Who better to weigh in than a real soap opera writer?

"In fact, we have a soap opera writer --- Ellen," Glenn said Thursday on his radio program.

Ellen Wheeler, Head of Content at Mercury Radio Arts, also happens to be an Emmy-award-winning actress and former writer for Guiding Light.

"Imagine if I come to you and I say, Okay, all right, so far we've done all the things that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have done. These are the characters. Now, we're going to have her bring up a Miss Universe that he called Miss Piggy, and we're going to smear her. But what they don't know is that in Venezuela she drove the getaway car in a murder," Glenn said.

With experience on two major daytime TV shows that included playing evil twins, Ellen shared her unique perspective.

"It's always been one of my favorite things when real life trumps -- ha ha -- trumps what you could write in a soap opera, and people would say, You can't write that story line. That is too outrageous," she said.

Could Ellen have gotten away with writing the storyline in As the Election Turns?

"People would have beat me up for writing a story like that," she admitted.

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these overly dramatic questions:

• Did Anderson Cooper get Alicia Machado to admit to being accessory to murder?

• How proficient is Alicia Machado's English?

• How famous is Alicia Machado in Venezuela and Mexico?

• Does Alicia Machado have a past?

• Does anyone really care about this?

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Here's the problem: Is there anyone in this story -- when I heard the Anderson Cooper interview with Miss Universe, honestly, you could -- soap opera writers would look at what's happening, and they would mock this. They would say, "Okay. Come on."

In fact, we have a soap opera writer, Ellen, is this -- is this soap opera of the last year and all of the things that are going on -- imagine if I come to you and I say, "Okay. All right. So far we've done all the things that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have done. Okay. These are the characters. Now, we're going to have her bring up a Miss Universe that he called Miss Piggy, and we're going to smear her. But what they don't know is that in Venezuela she drove the getaway car in a murder."

ELLEN: It's always been one of my favorite things when real life trumps -- ha ha -- trumps what you could write in a soap opera, and people would say, "You can't write that story line. That is too outrageous."

GLENN: So you know, Ellen is an Emmy-award-winning actress. And wrote -- did you just write Guiding Light?

ELLEN: Guiding Light.

GLENN: Okay. And she was on -- I know just.

She wrote every episode of like -- for three years. And she was on Bold & Beautiful and everything else.

ELLEN: So there's no story I can't make up.

GLENN: And you played an evil twin.

ELLEN: I've played an evil twin twice. Three times, if you count real life, right? Three times if you count my own marriage.

But --

GLENN: Wait. There might be something to delve into on some point on that.

ELLEN: But I do think it's fun when life is bigger than the weird art that you could create. And people would have beat me up for writing a story like that.

GLENN: Right. They would say no way anybody would believe this.

ELLEN: Yeah.

GLENN: No way. The only thing that we haven't seen so far is an evil twin. That's the only thing. Or -- oh, my gosh. Oh, maybe, wait, wait, wait. Maybe Zuckerberg is right. We're in the Matrix. Oh, please let this be a dream. Please let me wake up in the shower. Please let this be a dream, like it was in Dallas.

JEFFY: But we have kind of seen the twin, right? With the Hillary double.

PAT: Yes. We kind of have.

GLENN: Yes, we have. So we only have the dream sequence left. And that ends happy.

PAT: So this was Miss Universe. Which that is a little bit presumptuous of us, right?

GLENN: Can we downgrade her to at least Miss Galaxy?

PAT: At least Solar System. We know she's maybe the most beautiful in the solar system. We have no idea about galaxy or solar system.

GLENN: Right. Right. And who are we to judge?

PAT: But here's the Anderson Cooper clip.

ANDERSON: You said that, you know, the Trump campaign will try to discredit you. There are reports that Trump surrogates tonight have been referencing and pointing to on CNN and elsewhere about an incident in 1998 in Venezuela where you were accused of driving a getaway car from a murder scene. You were never charged with this. The judge in this case also said you had threatened to kill him after he indicted your boyfriend for the attempted murder. I just want to give you a chance to address these reporters that the Trump surrogates are talked about.

GLENN: Okay. Stop. Now, you're watching this, and you're thinking to yourself, there's no way this can be true.

PAT: Right. You're thinking, she's going to say, "Absolutely not."

GLENN: Right. There's no way this can be true.

PAT: The Trump people are making that up.

GLENN: Because Hillary would never pin her hopes on a Miss Universe thing who, oh, by the way, also assisted in a murder. Right?

PAT: Right.

GLENN: Here's her answer.

ALICIA: He can say whatever he wants to say. I don't care. You know, I have my past. Of course, everybody has --

PAT: You have a past.

ALICIA: Everybody have a past.

PAT: Oh. Yeah, but not everybody has participated in a murder for a past.

GLENN: No, wait. Wait. Wait. And so far, I'm still believing her. When I'm watching this, I'm still going, okay. Maybe she's just saying -- he's just --

PAT: I'm not. At that point?

GLENN: I'm thinking, he can say whatever he wants. He's just making this up. She's going to come back and say, "That's ridiculous." But you know Donald, he says whatever he wants to. He believed the National Enquirer. I thought that's where she was going at this point.

ALICIA: I'm no saint girl.

PAT: She's not a saint girl.

GLENN: Saint girl.

PAT: I'm not a saint girl.

GLENN: So when I heard that I thought, "Well, let's see, Mother Teresa is technically a saint, and she didn't murder anyone, that we know of."

PAT: She set the bar way too high.

GLENN: Right.

PAT: By not murdering somebody. Come on, we can't all do that. We can't all do that.

(laughter)

GLENN: I'm not a saint. No, I think you understand the definition of the word "saint."

STU: I mean, I think obviously this plays to whether this is going to be an effective campaign for Hillary Clinton.

PAT: It's not.

STU: Does anyone think -- does it make it okay to call a Venezuelan woman Miss Housekeeping because, in the future, she might commit a crime, or she might do porn in the future, after the incident where you call her Miss Housekeeping?

GLENN: Yeah, no. So here's the thing: The trouble with this is there's no good guys in this soap opera. There's nobody. I mean, no soap opera lasts when you don't have somebody that you're rooting for, somebody that you like. Where the best character in this is a Tony Soprano.

JEFFY: Yeah, maybe.

GLENN: So you kind of -- after you kind of feel dirty. When you're like, I'm not entirely comfortable with rooting for Tony Soprano. Oh, yeah, but it's fun.

This eventually isn't fun. And you're just left with that dirty feeling of rooting for Tony Soprano. At some point -- I mean, honestly, think of all the people surrounding both Trump and Clinton.

Do you have friends like those guys do?

You know, yeah, I want you to meet Sandy. He went into the national archives and was smuggling things out of his underpants, but he's cool. Oh, this is Miss Universe. And Donald Trump was calling her Miss Piggy, and she assisted in a murder. But she's great. You don't have these kinds of friends on either side.

Oh, this is -- I want you to meet my -- my new CEO. He -- he's a big fan of, you know, the neo-Nazi movement. He's helping rebrand that whole thing right now.

(laughter)

PAT: Well, if there's anybody who needs re-branding, it's the neo-Nazis.

GLENN: The Neo-Nazis. Skinheads.

PAT: They don't have a good PR firm.

GLENN: Yes, they do. It's called Breitbart.

(laughter)

JEFFY: Chelsea opened the door for Trump to be able to respond next time though, right? I mean, because she responded saying that, "Oh, it's just a distraction from his inability to talk about what's actually at stake in this election."

PAT: Oh, that's --

JEFFY: So now Donald can say, "I'm fighting back. I'm punching back."

ANDERSON: You said that, you know, the Trump campaign will try to discredit you. There are reports that Trump surrogates tonight have been referencing and pointing to on CNN and elsewhere about an incident in 1998 in Venezuela where you were accused of driving a getaway car from a murder scene. You were never charged with this. The judge in the case also said you had threatened to kill him after he indicted your boyfriend for the attempted murder. I just want to give you a chance to address these reports that the Trump surrogates are talking about.

ALICIA: He can say whatever he wants to say. I don't care. You know, I have my past. Of course, everybody has. Everybody have a past.

GLENN: Murder and threatening judges.

ALICIA: And I'm -- a saint girl.

GLENN: You're no saint girl?

ALICIA: But that is not the point now.

PAT: Hmm. Uh-huh.

ALICIA: That moment in Venezuela --

GLENN: Uh-huh.

ALICIA: -- was wrong.

GLENN: Wrong.

ALICIA: Was another speculation about my life.

GLENN: Hold it.

ALICIA: Because I'm a really famous person in my country.

GLENN: Wait. Stop. Stop. She is denying it

PAT: She's essentially admitting it.

JEFFY: No, I think it's the other way.

STU: She's saying that moment was wrong. There was a lot of speculation.

PAT: It sounds like she's saying it was wrong of her to do that.

STU: I think she has a tenuous grasp on the English language.

JEFFY: Yes.

PAT: Well, that's clear.

STU: She says that moment -- that was wrong, and there was a lot of speculation.

GLENN: Okay. I thought she was saying that moment, like me driving the getaway car.

PAT: That's what I thought she was saying.

GLENN: Oh, okay.

STU: Right. Right.

ALICIA: Because I'm an actress there and in Mexico too.

JEFFY: Wait. What?

GLENN: I'm an actress.

JEFFY: Yeah, I haven't seen those videos.

ALICIA: He can use whatever he wants to use.

The point is, that happened 20 years ago.

GLENN: Stop.

STU: They're not real though.

PAT: She's admitting it. That happened 20 years ago.

GLENN: That happened 20 years ago.

PAT: Something happened, and she was a part of it.

STU: By the way, so is the reason you're on Anderson Cooper. That also happened 20 years ago.

GLENN: Yeah, I know.

STU: Is a little less important than a murder investigation.

GLENN: Murder. Yeah.

Wait. Wait. Wait. So she's accused of driving the getaway car for her boyfriend who murdered somebody, and then threatening the judge that I'm going to kill you. I think that's kind of an important thing to decide whether -- I mean, it has nothing to do with Donald Trump calling her Miss Piggy. And Miss Housekeeper, Housekeeping is worse.

STU: But isn't this --

GLENN: Maybe, maybe, I don't know.

STU: Isn't this Hillary Clinton just using a play from Donald Trump's playbook?

You can call Ted Cruz's dad the murderer of JFK. Everyone starts talking about it. You direct the conversation to that for a few days. And the fact that in the end, that you're completely wrong, what does that even matter? The point is, she got 84 million people to hear him calling a woman -- a Venezuelan, Miss Housekeeping. The fact that she has issues later on -- two and three days later -- when they fact-check it on Anderson Cooper is meaningless. I mean, this is the same tactic he's been using the entire campaign. And she's using it too. That's where we are in 2016.

GLENN: We are as what's his name, Yiannopoulos, or whatever his name is -- we are in a post-fact period.

Featured Image: Actress Alicia Machado speaks onstage during the NALIP 2016 Latino Media Awards at Dolby Theatre on June 25, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for NALIP)

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

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

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.

How private stewardship could REVIVE America’s wild

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

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.