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Glenn: Individuals can change the world

May 23, 2014
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The Glenn Beck Program

On radio this morning, Glenn reflected on some of the news stories of the day that are shaming private businesses into making certain decisions. As Glenn explained, private businesses have the right to make decisions and operate as they see fit, and he proceeded to dive into a monologue that considered the ever-changing role of gatekeepers and the power of the individual to overcome those barriers to entry.

Below is an edited transcript of the monologue:

There’s a story about Amazon. Amazon is getting pushback because they're in dispute with some publisher – and I don't know what even the dispute is about – but they don't want to sell these books made by this publisher. So people are standing up and saying, ‘Amazon can't silence my book.’ Yes, they can. They're a private company. Yes, they can.

This is where freedom of speech and freedom gets ugly. Yes, they can. I don't have a problem with it unless it's a regulated industry. In other words, if the government said, ‘No one else can sell books online except… Amazon.com and iBooks… And if you want to, you got to come through us.’ Well, then you have a problem because then a publisher cannot get his book out. But if all the private companies, in an unregulated situation, decide, ‘I don't want to do it,’ then nobody is there to force them to do it. You can't force people to do it, if it's all purely private.

[…]

They're making the case that Amazon is crushing voices. No, Amazon has the right to do that as long as it's not a government regulated industry. And government regulation is the problem. If I can start selling books myself online, I may not be able to compete and make it as good as Amazon right at the very beginning. It's like WalMart. WalMart started out with a guy's truck, man.

For some reason, this Disney prospectus is going around. There's like the second story I've read and the Huffington Post has a story about the prospectus of Disneyland that I have, and they're showing pictures of it on the Huffington Post today. I don't know why. But the most amazing thing about that is in 1953, he was told no by the banks. But there was no government regulation. Think of the restrictions of this. October of 1953, he's turned down. He needs $17 million. He's turned down by all of the banks. By the end of 1953, beginning of 1954, he has financing. So he gives it the green light in the beginning of 1954. Summer of 1955, he has purchased the orange field in California, cleared all of the land, built all of the infrastructure, designed and built all of the rides, all of the merchants, done all of the publicity for it, and opens the gates in 18 months. There's no way you get even the ground study in 18 months [today]. That's when a man was free.

Now, let me ask you this. I'm using Walt Disney because I relate to him. I thought about this the other day. Imagine America, what would we be like if Walt Disney never lived? What would America be like if Walt Disney never lived? How much history would have been lost? How much joy would have been lost? How much would we not believe in the entrepreneur in a one man can make a difference? Think of that. Walt Disney, he was not the smartest guy in the room. He had sheer willpower. The same thing with Steve Jobs. It was sheer willpower. Pixar did not want Steve Jobs… In the end, they had to take the offer from Steve Jobs. But everything he did was sheer willpower. ‘No, guys, we're doing it. Let's go. We're doing it.’

Can a man still do that? We're building this network. Yes, you can build a television network. You can build a successful television network, successful book publishing company. You can build a successful new charity. You can even make your own jeans and sell them and make that a success. Yes, you can do all of those things. Now, can you get the mass distribution? I can't build a mass distribution platform anymore. You cannot build Comcast. You have to go through the government. So I can only build so much. And then the gatekeepers start. That's what we came away from. That's what we wanted to escape – the gatekeepers. And that's what they're putting everywhere. Sure, you can educate yourself. Go ahead. Do your home-schooling thing. Of course, if you do that, you have to take the SAT, and you won't make it to college. But go ahead. You can do that. They will only allow you to get so much. And the rest of it, if you want the real prize, you play ball.

Look at this with political parties. You really think you can get elected? I did. I used to believe that a man could just go be who he is and then become the president of the United States. I don't believe that anymore. You can only go so far, and then the uber powerful along with their parties and their machinery step in.

Now, I hope we find that to be incorrect. I didn't believe in gatekeepers three years ago. I believe they believed they existed. I just believed you could get around them. I'm still looking for the way around them. I do believe there's a back door somewhere. We're going to short-circuit this system somehow or another. It's going to work. But because of the sheer willpower that it takes, how many Disneys are we missing? How many people have given up in our society because they believe the lie: You can't make it? How many Steve Jobs? How many teachers? How many great conservative thinkers? How many great actors that are conservative that just didn't make it? Couldn't make it. Stacked against them. How many great writers?

When we first started writing books, Rush Limbaugh was an anomaly. That's what they told us. What Rush Limbaugh did is an anomaly? Excuse me? He sold like 650 million books. What are you talking about? ‘Well, that's Rush Limbaugh.’ Yeah, he's not the only one who makes us good points, you know. ‘Yeah, well, Conservatives don't read.’ How many great conservative minds, how many great conservative professors have been lost because they've been ground up into little bits. Some have been humiliated. Quite honestly, how many of them became just raging alcoholics because their spirits were crushed?

We have the opportunity to be so much better than we are. There is a new day coming, a new dawn coming. There really is. I was listening to Pandora yesterday, and I'm hearing this group. And I'm like, ‘Wow, I like that song.’ I hear another group I had never heard. ‘Man, I like that, too.’ I'm a radio guy. I'm a broadcaster. I remember when the record companies used to come into the hallway and wait to meet with people like me. I remember being 18 and seeing the record producers come and wait in the hallway and beg the program director of WPGC in Washington, D.C., ‘Just give this song a chance.’ The graft that used to happen, the games that used to happen… that's the way the system worked. It was corrupt. Now, you can record something on your phone that is good enough and could be heard anywhere. Millennials don't. Baby boomers do. Really? Where is the individual in that?

I believe in the power of the individual. I believe there is a millennial living in America now who will change our world for the better. There is a millennial that is living in America right now that will change the landscape of technology. There is a millennial in America right now that will change the landscape of politics in America for the better. There is a millennial living in another country who will move to the United States and change the way we communicate with each other through a form of communication that we don't even understand yet. We don't even know of. There's a millennial living somewhere who will see America as a faded shining city on a hill and find the way to make it shine again because I believe one person changes the world.

Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and, yes, Stalin and Hitler and Bin Laden – the struggle of good versus evil. It's the struggle of one individual, and their one struggle between good and evil that changes things. I choose to focus on the good, to believe in the good, to pray for the good, to expect the good, to demand the good because… I'm still lucky enough to believe that the vast majority of people are good. They're courageous. They're tireless. They're decent. They're loving. They fear God.

It's not the collective. Enough with the collective stereotypes. Believe in the individual. Which means if you do believe, like I do, it's up to you to be good. It's up to you to be decent. It is up to you to be loving. And then look for the ripples. It is the ripples that will save the world. Today, make some. Make just one ripple.”

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.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

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.