Glenn: Let’s get real

Last night on TV Glenn talked about the need to put down social media, ignore the noise, and just get real. There are so many things clouding our vision, causing us to lose touch with our common human bond. When college kids believe it’s ok to ‘post-abort’ a baby up to five years old, something has gone tragically wrong.

Below is a transcript of this segment

I want to give you some really good news, really good news. Do you remember Brittany Maynard? She’s the 29-year-old woman who has terminal cancer, and she was the woman who publicly said she wanted to die with dignity, and so she would take a suicide pill on November 1. Well, that’s Saturday. Update: She’s now released a new video where she says she’s feeling enough joy to continue to live for now. Watch.

VIDEO

Brittany Maynard: So if November 2 comes along, and I’ve passed, I hope my family is still proud of me and the choices I’ve made. And if November 2 comes along and I’m still alive, I know that we’ll just still be moving forward as a family like out of love for each other and that the decision will come later. And I do it because I still feel good enough, and I still have enough joy, and I still laugh and smile with my family and friends enough that it doesn’t seem like the right time right now. But it will come because I feel myself getting sicker. It’s happening each week.

I think this is a miracle myself, and I’m still praying for a bigger miracle that she’ll continue not to lose hope, and she’ll find more and more joy, and she will see that life even…and maybe especially in the darkest of hours is precious. We are living in an amazing world, and we’re losing touch with our human connection.

You see the woman who says I don’t care, it’s me, me, I went over to serve, I’m the one, I went over there, and I know what’s right about Ebola, and you don’t have any rights. Wait a minute, you’re putting us all at risk…possibly. We don’t know. Then this woman, how can you condemn her? You can say it’s not right. I hope and I pray that she doesn’t do it, and that’s not the way I would choose to do it, but I don’t condemn her for it, because life is precious.

Now there’s a new poll out that says college students are beginning to think about postabortion. What does postabortion mean? It means you can kill a baby up to five years old. Man alive, we’d better start grabbing onto things that are true.

I was disturbed by Carol Costello earlier this week. That’s the CNN host who actually got some sort of weird, sick pleasure out of listening to Bristol Palin describe being physically assaulted. She hasn’t apologized for this on the air, and I don’t expect her to. In fact…well, I did hope that maybe, maybe somebody would see the pleas that we made in a reasonable sort of way and say hey, this isn’t right, and maybe somebody would join.

But you know what, in the end, it might just be us, but that’s okay. The only reason to mock a Palin or to mock the Obama children…if they were being assaulted, can you imagine what people would say, and we said hey, that gives me some sort of sick pleasure? My gosh…the only reason why you would do that is because you wouldn’t see them as human because they’re just a political prop. That’s got to stop.

This week, we tried to bring the human connection back into focus. We have a lot of things clouding our vision. Social media is such a misnomer. It is making us more antisocial, and here’s why, we’re not seen truth. We’re seeing an edited feed. It’s just like reality television, except we’re doing it ourself. We’re seeing the person that that person wants us to see.

I told my wife the other day, I said honey, I’m going to start just taking pictures of you and me at our absolute worst, my son with his finger up his nose and everything else, because I just think people need to start seeing real stuff. Because what we’re seeing is only partially real. We’re programming our brains with a completely false perception of reality.

None of us will be able to hit that standard ever, and social media is clouding us, but it goes a step further. We talked on the radio today. Social media, Facebook is really dangerous. We’re playing with fire if we’re not careful, because we just get on, and we just vent. We say whatever it is we want, and we don’t think about it. We have to stop that too, and then we have to be big enough—and this is me—I have to be big enough to forgive people and look past their faults, because I’ve already made all those mistakes. I’ll probably make more tomorrow.

So we’re clouded, and regular media is clouding us too. They edit our vision of reality as well. We see so much negative, we don’t see any of the positive. Are the problems really getting worse? We talked about this with Halloween candy. Remember when we couldn’t get out, you know, we were afraid that somebody’s going to put razor blades or poison? That never happened. In our childhood, that never happened. Do you think that crime on Halloween is worse or better than it was when we were growing up? I’ll bet you you think it’s worse. It’s actually better, but we don’t think that because media.

So we’ve tried to spend the week this week to try to reconnect to human, try to reconnect to hope, reconnect to those things that will bring us to a better place. The media is going to show you the horrors of human trafficking. This week, we wanted to show you Operation Underground Railroad. We brought some guys in that are doing absolutely amazing work. They brought the video in, not seen anywhere. Why is this not everywhere, people rescuing young boys and girls from a horrible existence of the sex slave industry?

Over 100 children were rescued in this mission alone. We told you about it. Where was the rest of the media? And more importantly, this happened because one man had a vision, proving one man makes a difference. You will, if you don’t listen to the media, if you don’t listen to the social media, and you don’t listen to the crazy things that are going on in your own head saying you’ll never make it.

We see in the media the highly sexualized clothing that society continues to push on our children on all fronts. This week, we featured a panel of feminists. We don’t agree on anything, except on this one issue. What does that say? There’s a few things, and it’s our children, we can come together, and we can come together and effect positive change. And if we can do it, anybody can.

Our vision has been clouded, and we spend our whole day doing this [looking down typing]. I used to get yelled at by my wife because I would walk around the house like this—[looking down at book] uh huh, uh huh…drove her crazy, crazy. Now she’s doing this [looking down typing]. Honey, put it down. I can’t. I’ve got to get this done. How do you expect me to…I don’t know, but I’m now doing the same thing, and we didn’t do it before, and we somehow or another made it.

We don’t look up from our screens anymore. We don’t survey reality for ourselves. People who are using Facebook…and look, I’m a big user of Facebook. I like Facebook. It helps me stay in touch with you. But people who use that, they see this image, and they start to go down. Their attitude goes down. They start to think I’m not good enough. I’ll never make it. Studies show that.

We’re listening and we’re seeing everything through a filter, and it’s a filter of what someone else is telling us is the truth. Technology is not bad. In fact, I had a guy sitting in my office today who’s from Argentina. The guy is just amazing. He grew up on a goat farm in Argentina. His family was wiped out three times by hyperinflation. He works in Silicon Valley now. He is one of the giants in Silicon Valley—amazing guy.

He didn’t have any of that technology until he moved here to the United States. I mean, you want to talk about a culture shock, he lived literally five people in the mountains 100 miles away from anybody else his whole life. He remembers when his dad built a ham radio and he could hear the outside world. The guy’s like 30. It’s incredible.

Technology is not bad. Technology just may save us if we get there with our soul. Technology is good. I started a media company based on technology. We just have to self-evaluate. Run from anyone telling you that they have all of the answers. Run from anyone who is saying those people, it’s those people, get ‘em. Run from yourself or that part of you that is angry.

There’s nothing wrong with righteous indignation, but we’ve got to be in control of it. We have to be better than we ever thought possible. And we can do it. We can do it. We just need to help each other with our kids and our family.

I want to provide you with stories of love and courage. I want to provide stories where the good guys win. I’m working on some things where I think our families will start to meet together again, and we’ll start to believe that people are good and that we’re going to make it, because we won’t make it if we don’t believe it. A lot of people just want to keep you latched to the TV set. I don’t.

At the end of the day, we have to see each other as people first. We have to do our own homework. We have to question absolutely everything. We have to find our own, our humanity, and then the humanity of others. Instead of saying yeah, see, that lady is chickening out, which I know somebody has probably said that, saying oh, what a miracle, what a miracle that is. Hopefully every step of the way, think of the change that could be wrought by her if she holds on until the end, somebody who believed in taking her own life, but in the end she held on the whole way.

And don’t think darkness isn’t going to be trying to get her to make another choice. Pray for her. This is really good. We just have to not be prepackaged. We have to not be reality television or reality Facebook or anything else. We have to be real, not the perfect mold of a person who knows everything. We need to see the real person. The thing about people, we’re all really alike, and you can put a happy face on whatever it is you’re struggling with, but I know you’re struggling, and I know you’re struggling because I’m struggling. So why put on a charade? Why not just be real with each?

That, I think, has been the lesson this week. It’s the lesson we’ve tried to do this week on this program, for me, trying to find it myself, just be real. Let’s be human. Let’s go find people that we don’t agree with, and let’s see if we can connect, even though that got a little dicey. Let’s see the human in the other fellow that we happen to be seeing on screen.

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.