Blog
LatestArticlesVideos
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcasts
The Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck PodcastThe Beck Story
Fine Art
Real Estate
More
AboutCharityBooksSponsorsShopContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

Carnival Cruise Ship degenerates rapidly

February 14, 2013
Wilson

Writer

A Carnival Cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico lost power, causing passengers to go into somewhat of a ‘roughing it’ mode. Power went out Sunday night - how long did it take for people to start fighting over food? Glenn explains and shows how dangerous things can get when access to our normal lives are cut off.

TheBlaze reported:

The stranded Carnival cruise ship and its more than 4,000 passengers enter day five without power after a fire in the engine room disabled the ship Sunday. Although the ship is currently being towed into an Alabama port and could arrive late Thursday or early Friday, conditions are still worsening.

Since the initial incident, many passengers have been living on deck in conditions that include feces and urine on the floor with some cases of food poisoning occurring. Recent footage of the ship shows passengers holding signs made with bedsheets and a deck that looked like “a shanty town, with sheets, almost like tents,” one father of a stranded passenger recounted.

Glenn said, "There's a story on the 3,000 passengers on the cruise ship off the coast of Mexico. They have no power, they have been forced to sleep on deck in tents, that you had the toilets are not working, meaning the passengers have to make do with bags and buckets. Now help is on the way. I don't know why it takes this long, but help is on the way. It's not like it's in the ‑‑ it's not like it's at the North Pole. It's in the Gulf of ‑‑ it's off the coast of Mexico, for the love of Pete."

"So here's this giant Carnival cruise ship and on Sunday the power went out. They can't cook any food, and it's all because they have engine problems. Okay. Now, I've been telling you for a while, what happens to us if our lifestyle dramatically changes? I want you to ‑‑ I want you to think about, Sunday, where were you on Sunday? How long would it take for you to go into complete and total chaos and become somebody described as a savage? Where you are fighting people for food? How long would it take?"

"Sunday, I was in my kitchen on Sunday. It was my birthday. And we were having birthday pie because my sister came down and she ‑‑ even though she is on a piatus, she is ‑‑ she's an unbelievable chef and she's a pie chef. And she has this ‑‑ her own business where she makes pies, and she ‑‑ I mean, I don't know how many hundreds of people, actually every month they get a pie from her and they're delicious. And so she came down and she just made an apple pie for me and a lemon meringue pie. My doctor came over and he made a strawberry rhubarb pie. And she made a banana cream pie and a coconut pie. But anyway, so she made some pies."

"So anyway, I was standing in my kitchen with my family on Sunday eating pie. Now, what would it take ‑‑ where were you on Sunday? What were you doing? What would it take for you to be described by somebody who met you yesterday to describe you as a savage? For these 3,000 people, it took living in a tent on a cruise ship with very little food, but food, and no toilets. But you can take it in a bucket and they can clean the bucket out. I mean, I know this is not ideal, but they, you know, you can throw it overboard. I mean, you can still ‑‑ you know, you don't have to keep the filth there in the ship. But they did. The carpets are soaked with urine, and people are fighting each other for food."

"It took them Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before they were savages. Now here's the amazing thing, to me at least. It's not like they're in the middle of Africa. They're in the Gulf of Mexico. They know help is coming. They know the Coast Guard cutters are coming. They can still ‑‑ they can still have outside communication. They knew that everybody was aware, there's got to be some backup generator, something that's at least enough for communication on that ship. So at least the captain and the crew can say, "We've alerted the authorities, they're on their way, it's going to be a few days." So they know they're getting off. They have to get off, and they will, you know, what do you call it, deboard the ship, what, tomorrow, the next day? And they have to ‑‑ they know they are going to have to live with themselves for the rest of their life and how they behaved. Because they were on a vacation cruise that went bad. And all of a sudden it's become, what is that, Lord of the Flies. All of a sudden it's Lord of the Flies. But in Lord of the Flies, I never read it, but those were kids that were ‑‑ and it ‑‑ and there was no hope of rescue. If I understand Lord of the Flies enough from memory, there was no hope of rescue. And there were kids that were raised as savages fending for themselves. That's not what this is. It's three days on a Carnival cruise ship, with the Coast Guard cutters coming."

"How long will it take for our society to break down? You're all having fun, but then the TVs stop working and the toilets won't flush. All of a sudden I have to eat cold food. All of a sudden I have food that was brought onto the ship in freezers and it's shrimp and so they can't get it to the right temperature. I'm going to have to eat ‑‑ I'm going to have to eat some cold veg ‑‑ you know they have enough food that they don't have to cook. There's enough food on that. It's not like anybody's going to starve to death. And it's not like, 'That's the last coconut! I'm going to kill you for it!' Quite honestly have you seen the American people? We could all stand to lose a few lbs. I'm just sayin'. Go to Disneyland. Look at us walking around. Look at us waddle around. You can the people who are from America because we're all like, 'Yeah, I've got to get an ice cream cone but first I've got to stop and get a corn dog.' We're not exactly the most in‑shape people."

"I wonder, I wonder ‑‑ we'll hear the stories of the savages but I wonder if anybody is looking for the stories of the pockets. Because out of 3,000 people, you know there have to be pockets of people. Because they will attract. Light attract light; dark attracts darkness. There has to be somewhere on that ship a pocket of light to where the people on board will become forever friends. They will probably vacation together, not on a cruise ship, but they will probably vacation together many times in their life even though they didn't know each other. But they will become lifelong friends. There will be a group of people that get off that ship that the captain or the crew members sincerely with tears in their eyes say, 'It was a pleasure to have you on board. Thank you.'"

"Are we going to hear the stories of those guys? I challenge the writers at TheBlaze to find those stories because somewhere on that ship out of 3,000 people, there was somebody, and most likely not a preacher like it was in the Poseidon Adventure where the preacher was leading the way out to the light. Most likely it was somebody that is pretty much a nobody that had perspective on the Carnival cruise line from hell. Just yet one of the other 150,000 reasons I ain't getting onto a cruise line ship. 'Here's a bucket for you to pee in." Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. It's been a great holiday.' How many of these people are going to get off the ship and sue?"

"Carnival cruise lines is in trouble because the lawsuits ‑‑ that's what everybody ‑‑ instead of making the best out of it, and I mean, I know this is horrible. I don't want to live like that, I don't want to be on that vacation, and believe me, I'd be pissed. Because I've worked hard for my vacation and I'm going to take this and then I'm going to go right back to work. It will be crazy. I'd be pissed. But somebody in my family, if it wasn't me and if it wasn't my family, if I was alone on the Carnival cruise lines, I'd be trying, 'Where's your 3‑D printer because I'm going to print a gun.' I would probably go crazy but if my family was there, I would be leading, for my wife and my children, I would be leading and saying ‑‑ because you know you're like this, at least I am. When everything else is burning down and the kids are crying and everything, there is a time that I just go, all of you, shut up. Shut it. And there is a time that you then after that say, 'Let's make the best of this. It doesn't have to be this way. Let's make the best of it.'"

"I told you last hour about a pocketknife that my daughter gave me. And if I were on that ship, I would hope that I would have this in there because at some point I would reach into my pocket and I would be saying to my family, 'Hard times make us.' How many people up in Connecticut with 40 inches of snow and they can't get out, that are complaining right now, 'It's been four days and the city hasn't cleared any of the streets.' Yep. Yep, sure is. How many are complaining? How many have their families, you know, falling into fights and everything else? And then how many families in that same situation are experiencing it? I think this is why the Lord said 'Come to me as a child,' are experiencing it like children experience. That they have done enough preparation so they have the food or they have whatever they need. They know they're not going to starve to death. And, yeah, we're going to ‑‑ you know, if you're at Pat's ‑‑ or Stu's house, you're going to ‑‑ you know, you're going to have sweet‑and‑sour sauce and pickles. But how many families have weathered that storm up in New England and now will come out the other end and they will talk about it for a few years and say, 'You know what? That was hard, but that was one of the best times of our life. Brought the family together. We sat and we played games, we read books, we told stories, we were cold, we were ‑‑ remember we were all bundled up, we all had to sleep in one bed and we had get extra blankets, we were all sleeping on the floor by the fireplace?'"

"This pocketknife that my daughter gave me just says four words: Hard times made us. The people on the cruise ship will say the same thing. But instead, instead of looking at that and really realizing that those hard times did make them in their case a savage, instead of doing self‑reflection on that and saying, gee, the hard times I could have gone a different way, instead they will call an attorney because it stops them from looking at the choices that they failed to make, and they'll sue because they'll say the Carnival cruise line made me into that."

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

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.