Battlefield America and the growing police state

April 23, 2015

The Glenn Beck Program

There has been a dramatic shift in how police operate in America during the past 15 years. There has been a disturbing trend of increased militarization - just this month a student in Florida was pulled over by an armored vehicle for a traffic violation. More and more the government is training citizens to not only expect, but accept the fact that they will be policed by a battalion of soldiers rather than officers.

John Whitefield, author of Battlefield America, joined Glenn on radio this morning to discuss governement overreach. During his discussion with Glenn, Whitefield mentioned the case of Brandon Raub, a marine veteran who was taken into custody and then committed into a mental health institution from social media posts. Listen to this harrowing tale and hear Glenn's reaction below:

Rough Transcript Below:

JOHN: The government does not view us like they did 30 years ago. Which was, people with some amount of respect. I see most government officials dealing with today slamming veteran's face down, taking them out of their homes because of Facebook posts. We've had cases like that.

GLENN: Explain that one.

JOHN: Well, the case was a fellow named Brandon Raub. 26-year-old marine that served in Iraq, Afghanistan. What he did was, he saved people's lives. Troops lives. He took mines out of the ground. He was a mine diffuser. So he came back. And he was upset with President Obama. He's a 9/11 truther, as well, which will get you in a lot of trouble today. Because Janet Napolitano in a memo said that's an extremist that has to be watched. And so Brandon opposed Obama's executive orders. Bush's executive orders on a Saturday morning. He had just gotten through jogging. He heard a noise outside. Being astute, he walks to the front door without his shirt on. He just got through jogging. There were all these guys rushing towards his house in black outfits and plainclothes. Come to find out, it was the local police, working with the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and the Secret Service.

And he opens the door and says, what's up, guys? They say, we're concerned about some of the things you're saying on Facebook. They asked him to step out. When he did, they handcuffed him behind his back. Brandon is saying, what did I do? What did I do? They take him and slam him against the fence and rip his back open. When he gets to the police station, he asked for a bandage. They put a prison shirt on him, which he said stuck in the cuts and hurt very, very badly. They put a prison cell. A psychiatrist gave him a five-minute interview and said because of his 9/11 views and because he paused -- this is a five-minute view -- he had a mental problem. They put him in a mental hospital for a week. We had to file a lawsuit to get him out. That's a veteran.

JEFFY: Oh, my gosh.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: There's more to this story, John. At least that you told me if I have the story straight. Unless it's another one. They were about to inject him with drugs.

JOHN: Yeah, he called me on the Thursday. We got him out that Saturday. He said, John, I'm really frightened. And this is a marine. This is a 6-4 marine. He's built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I said, what's got you scared? He said, there's a psychiatrist here who says he'll brainwash me and force medications on me. And the psychiatrist is listening on the phone as he called. And I said, well, you tell that guy that, A, number one, you're violating the law. You can't force medications in most states without a court order. And number two, we're going to sue that guy when this case -- and we have. We filed a lawsuit. We're in in federal court with the case now.

PAT: Wow.

JOHN: By the way, Glenn, there's 1.5 million of these so-called civil commitments that happen each year in America.

GLENN: What does that mean?

JOHN: That means a board of social workers and psychologists, if someone is complaining about Facebook pages or neighbor is complaining about them, they meet and decide whether or not this individual may be a danger. And the police go get him and take him into a hearing.

GLENN: 1.5 million Americans every year?

JOHN: In Virginia alone is where this fellow resided, where I reside, there's over 20,000 a year, civil commitments. What was key here was his mother called us. And I talked to her. She was crying. I actually called the police station and asked what he had done. The police chief said to me, oh, he had done nothing wrong or illegal. But I said, you handcuffed the man behind his back. He goes, we're just concerned about his Facebook post. These are civil commitments decided by social workers and psychologists in Virginia. In other states, it's very similar.

GLENN: So, John, I feel the same way the same way I felt when I talked to you last.

JOHN: An NSA agent of 27 years met with me last year. He likes what we do. My work. And he said, I just want to tell you, we're following the Soviet model. I said, what do you mean by that? He says, well, you'll see more people detained in mental hospitals. That's what the Soviet did. Then he said, the word Homeland Security, by the way, is a Soviet term. I didn't know that until he told me that. And I researched it, and it's true.

GLENN: Okay. John, what does the average person do? How can we help? What do we do?

JOHN: Well, education precedes action. I mean, most Americans will have to study the issues. They'll have to read books by me and others who are talking about these issues. Get educated.

The federal government does not listen to us. There was a recent study by Princeton and Northwestern University that concluded unanimously basically that we live in an oligarchy now. There's a money class that runs the country. And the average voter has little impact on the federal level.

What I urge citizens to do is to get active locally. Get down to that city council that's sitting there. When somebody -- like what happened to this woman in Kansas. The city council should bring those policemen in and instruct them to never do that again unless they do it legally. Form civil liberties oversight committees. I'm telling people, get your neighbors together.

In fact, Brandon Raub's mother, I've talked to her, she has a phone thing she does every Saturday with about 20 people. And they're watching the community now. That's a good thing to do because then you don't have to travel. You can email back and forth. But if you email, I'm just warning people, the government reads all your emails now. They'll know what you're doing. So get active locally. Get your picket signs. You can make a -- a local government can say no to a federal government and say no to a state government. It's called nullification. In fact, Thomas Jefferson said, nullification is basically the basis of freedom. A local government governs.

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.

EXPOSED: Why the left’s trans agenda just CRASHED at SCOTUS

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

You never know what you’re going to get with the U.S. Supreme Court these days.

For all of the Left’s insane panic over having six supposedly conservative justices on the court, the decisions have been much more of a mixed bag. But thank God – sincerely – there was a seismic win for common sense at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. It’s a win for American children, parents, and for truth itself.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s state ban on irreversible transgender procedures for minors.

The mostly conservative justices stood tall in this case, while Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson predictably dissented. This isn’t just Tennessee’s victory – 20 other red states that have similar bans can now breathe easier, knowing they can protect vulnerable children from these sick, experimental, life-altering procedures.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause. It’s rooted in a very simple truth that common sense Americans get: kids cannot consent to permanent damage. The science backs this up – Norway, Finland, and the UK have all sounded alarms about the lack of evidence for so-called “gender-affirming care.” The Trump administration’s recent HHS report shredded the activist claims that these treatments help kids’ mental health. Nothing about this is “healthcare.” It is absolute harm.

The Left, the ACLU, and the Biden DOJ screamed “discrimination” and tried to twist the Constitution to force this radical ideology on our kids.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court saw through it this time. In her concurring opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett nailed it: gender identity is not some fixed, immutable trait like race or sex. Detransitioners are speaking out, regretting the surgeries and hormones they were rushed into as teens. WPATH – the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, the supposed experts on this, knew that kids cannot fully grasp this decision, and their own leaked documents prove that they knew it. But they pushed operations and treatments on kids anyway.

This decision is about protecting the innocent from a dangerous ideology that denies biology and reality. Tennessee’s Attorney General calls this a “landmark victory in defense of America’s children.” He’s right. This time at least, the Supreme Court refused to let judicial activism steal our kids’ futures. Now every state needs to follow Tennessee’s lead on this, and maybe the tide will continue to turn.

Insider alert: Glenn’s audience EXPOSES the riots’ dark truth

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

Glenn asked for YOUR take on the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, and YOU responded with a thunderous verdict. Your answers to our recent Glennbeck.com poll cut through the establishment’s haze, revealing a profound skepticism of their narrative.

The results are undeniable: 98% of you believe taxpayer-funded NGOs are bankrolling these riots, a bold rejection of the claim that these are grassroots protests. Meanwhile, 99% dismiss the mainstream media’s coverage as woefully inadequate—can the official story survive such resounding doubt? And 99% of you view the involvement of socialist and Islamist groups as a growing threat to national security, signaling alarm at what Glenn calls a coordinated “Color Revolution” lurking beneath the surface.

You also stand firmly with decisive action: 99% support President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell the chaos. These numbers defy the elite’s tired excuses and reflect a demand for truth and accountability. Are your tax dollars being weaponized to destabilize America? You’ve answered with conviction.

Your voice sends a powerful message to those who dismiss the unrest as mere “protests.” You spoke, and Glenn listened. Keep shaping the conversation at Glennbeck.com.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

EXPOSED: Your tax dollars FUND Marxist riots in LA

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

Protesters wore Che shirts, waved foreign flags, and chanted Marxist slogans — but corporate media still peddles the ‘spontaneous outrage’ narrative.

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.

According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.

If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.

The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.”

Let’s call this what it is: delusion.

Another ‘peaceful’ riot

If the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.

The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.

And guess who funded it? You did.

According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops.

The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”

This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.

It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.

And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg | Getty Images

This is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.

The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.

Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

The left has lost it

This is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”

But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.

This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame.