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Americans Will Wig Out If North Korea Unleashes This Disruption

How do you solve a problem like North Korea? The rogue country has amassed nuclear weapons and missile technology, along with guns and robotic launchers along its 150 mile border. They could easily kill tens of thousands of people in Seoul in neighboring South Korea --- not to mention the 30,000 or so U.S. troops stationed there.

"We don't want any American soldiers to die, but at least soldiers know that they're in there and can be called upon at any time to fight," Doc Thompson said Tuesday, filling in for Glenn on radio

And if the situation escalates? What if North Korean has the capability to hit, say, Seattle by the end of President Trump's first term?

"The guy is crazy enough to do it, and then you've got all the malware attacks and whatever. How long before they release something that shuts us down? And think about this, folks, if we have a disruption in our internet capability . . . it doesn't even have to be electronic . . . if we have that for a day, Americans will wig out.

Enjoy this complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

DOC: Hey, there it's Doc Thompson. We'll get some of your calls about what we're supposed to do about North Korea being somebody that is torn between helping people that are truly oppressed and caring about human rights and my fellow man as a Christian but also somebody who says it's not our responsibility to police the world. And North Korea's going to be a quagmire if we get involved. Even if we do good there, there will be as many pain that we're going to have to endure. Likely something is amping up. We are coming to a head one way or another with this. I don't know if it's tomorrow or six months from now. But eventually, we're going to have to deal with North Korea, whatever that is. It could just be some sort of cyber attack that we unleash. It could be something more militarily. Based on what happened over the weekend, I wouldn't be shocked if we see something today or tomorrow. If it doesn't happen today or tomorrow, it will be weeks down the road.

BRANDON: You think from our side?

DOC: From our side. What happened over the weekend is likely to spur Trump and our allies to take some sort of action.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: They launched another missile. This was a -- this was yesterday. It was a asked you-type missile, and they keep increasing the technology and the payload that it can carry. The one over the weekend went into the Sea of Japan where ships come and trade. That's where it landed, clearly trying to intimidate them. And this has gotten more accurate and closer to Japan than some of the other ones in the past. Japan of course is pissed. They freaked out. South Korea is freaked out. They immediately called for an emergency meeting of the security counsel. Trump was speaking with them soon after it happened as well. The president of South Korea called for that emergency meeting. Now, Kim Jong-un has only been in power for six years. Okay? And he's already tested more missiles than his father and grandfather did combined. So his father Kim Il-sung tested 16 over his administration. His father Kim Jong-il tested 15. And Kim Jong-un, 78. 16 and 15 for their entire administration. Their entire rule, and he's done 78 in six years.

BRANDON: Maybe you can help me out on this because I'm very confused. After the sanctions were passed not long ago like in 2016, Kim Jong-un responded by building these high-rises in Pyongyang to make sure that everyone still knew he was the boss man; right? The problem is they didn't have the necessary materials for this high-rise. They actually had to skimp on a lot. In order to compensate, they went to people's residences and said give me your pots and pans, any kind of metal that you have so that we can actually put it into this high-rise.

BRAD: Melt them down.

BRANDON: Melting them down. If they didn't have anything to give, by the way, the fine them. So if they don't have the necessary materials build a high-rise in Pyongyang, how are they getting all of the material they need to throw into all of the missiles for all of these tests?

DOC: They're getting a lot of it from the black market but also over the years from China. China has been their up front trading partners. And I think part of the reason they're amping up now is China is caught. If they want to keep the money coming from the U.S. without us buying their cheap crap, they have to appease us a little bit. And that 38 parallel is not -- what do they care if North Korea became part of South Korea? It became a republic, a democracy. They're still right there. It's not going to be as big of a deal as it used to be. South Korea is already in the region. So they've been putting more economic pressure on North Korea saying we're not going to trade with you as much. They've turned back their coal ships, so North Korea is reluctantly to sell. Many experts say that they think the pace North Korea's on with building their missiles that they can reach -- could reach Seattle and carry one of their own built nuclear warhead before the end of Trump's administration. His first term.

BRAD: Well, that's what Kim Jong-un has said. The bigger gift packages to the United States is what they're working on. A bigger gift package to the United States after successfully launching that.

DOC: Either that's lost in translation.

BRANDON: A little strange.

DOC: Or is it being snarky or maybe turning over a new leaf. Sorry about that missile. I've got a big gift package for you coming. It's a nice fruit basket. It will have some CDs in it. How do you feel --

BRANDON: No, this is North Korea. They're still on tape.

BRAD: Cassettes.

BRANDON: I've got some mix tapes coming your way.

DOC: I've got some cassettes. I've made them myself. Kim Jong-un giving speeches of himself on tape. All of those classes that he took. You know. It's highly likely that North Korea was also responsible for that cyber attack, that malware one that hit 150 countries, a bunch of banks a couple of weeks ago. It looks like Russia may have got the technology from the NSA by hacking part of it. And then tried to sell it on the world stage. That's one of the allegations and were not successful. But that North Korea then put it into use. And North Korea has its own floor of people that do nothing but hacking, and they're really good at it. This is something we've known for a while. So if that's true, something they call malware exportation, it may be responsible for some of the past attacks, the one that was Sony a couple of years ago. This is now a national security threat by itself. And then the continued missile testing and the fact that they have nuclear capabilities. What are we going to do? Should we do anything? Is it actually a threat? Your calls coming up next on the Glenn Beck Radio Program.

[break]

DOC: Doc Thompson for Glenn today. Joining me brag stags and also Brandon Morse as well from The Blaze. We do get to some of your calls, the aggressions, specifically the missiles that North Korea has launched in the few months onshore so. But let's go right to North Carolina and Henry. How are you? Hey, Henry, welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. How are you?

CALLER: Fine how are you?

DOC: Doing well. So what do we do about North Korea?

CALLER: Well, first of all, what we do is test our NATO allies, choke them off and see which allies are really with us. And it's a test for both worlds and the blockades have always worked throughout history. I haven't -- I don't recall one that did not work, so, to me, -- and then if it pushes them into the aggression, then they're the aggressors.

DOC: The sanctions that we put in place over the years have been somewhat effective. We've put them on the hook sometimes. But recently, we haven't. In fact, we have China saying we're not going to take their coal, they've turned back their ships, and then China is not trading to send them goods. So there are effectively blockades in place. Maybe not to the extreme you're talking about. And then secondarily, if it pushes them into being the aggressor, that makes us look better. But it still doesn't make us look better stopping the almost 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, Seoul, Japan, it still doesn't deal with the problem, does it?

CALLER: Well, if China has them cut off by land, they're cutting off the gas supplies and whatnot, then the last thing left is cutting them off by sea. So my thinking would be that if we cut them off in both areas, and we are walking hand and hand with China so to speak and then like I said, NATO is a big issue right now, and we test to see who would like to send a ship or two to also help because the world needs to take on the problem. But we need to take a lead.

DOC: Henry, thank you so much for the call. I appreciate it.

BRANDON: My problem with this is that Kim Jong-un is a vindictive person. When he feels like he's been slighted or if he feels he's been made to look weak, he reacts in very odd ways. Like I said earlier, he built a whole series of high-rises in Pyongyang with money that he doesn't have. If the world gangs up on him, his mentality, the Juche mentality that all North Koreans are hammered with will kick in, and he'll pretty much lash out on everybody.

DOC: Well, he's a crazy man.

BRANDON: He's insane.

DOC: Let's go to Bill in California. Bill, you're on the Glenn Beck Radio Program. How are you?

CALLER: Yeah, this whole thing with the missiles. Number one, I think they're giving us free targets to practice our antimissile capabilities. Only downside is if they fail, then these people are going to go, oh, we can't do that because we'll look bad. I think we should just take advantage of that and use that we do have ships over there, et cetera. The other thing is President Trump needs to -- he's already talking to Japan and South Korea, and they need to tell these people just like they did with NATO. Look, all of this is costing us a fortune. The ships, the men, the missiles, everything. And you guys if you want us to help you, we need some financial help or some kind of help that's real. You know, some real materials or whatever it is because we're broke. We're 20 trillion in debt and growing.

DOC: Well, Bill, I get that. But how do we -- first of all, should we take some sort of action at this point? Based on their --

CALLER: Yeah, this guy just like you just said. You know, he's vindictive. This guy is not going to change.

DOC: So we have to go in and nip it. Just take out the snake.

CALLER: We have to because it's like a -- it's like the PLOs and the Israelis. It's going to go on forever. But this guy isn't going to wait forever.

DOC: Do you say that based on America's national security. Is that your motivating force here?

CALLER: Well, it's not just ours. We have obligations to our allies. Okay. You've got this gun, and you've built all of this stuff up and now you're going to do nothing? Because all we've had so far is just lip flapping, so to speak. We're saying this and that and the other but no action, and we need some action. And it's, like. Okay. Everybody's afraid of World War III. Well, you know, this guy is shooting missiles. And it's, like, he's threatening, and he has to be stopped.

DOC: Well, the reason I ask that -- the reason I ask your motivations, and I agree with you with those points as well. Thanks so much for the call. The reason I ask that, the DMZ is about two and a half miles wide, and it is one of the, if not the most fortified border on the planet. North Korea has amassed, aside from nukes and aside from missile technology, they have amassed guns, robotic launchers, I mean, it is on that border. All 150 miles coast to coast. It is just lined. It is thick. Seoul is 30 miles or so from the DMZ. Pyongyang isn't that much from the other side. They can easily kill tens of thousands of people in Seoul. Soul has about 20 million people. More than New York. New York has about 7.5 million or so in the city in the metropolitan tin area, so 15 total. It's more populated than New York, just to give you some perspective.

If we go in and American soldiers die, and I think there's about 30,000 in South Korea, we don't want any American soldiers to die. But at least soldiers know that they're in there and can be called upon at any time to fight. But the other Americans that are there and the South Korean's who are a partner, they're going to die. There are going to be people die. So I don't know if we can stop them from dying. But then again, if you say this is going to get really bad, and they could hit Seattle, you know, by the end of Trump's first term with a nuke and the guy is crazy enough to do it, and then you've got all the malware attacks and whatever, how long before they release something that shuts us down? And think about this, folks, if we have a disruption in our Internet capability. It doesn't even have to be electronic. If we have that for a day, Americans will wig out.

BRAD: Yeah, 20 minutes without Internet. Those commercials.

BRANDON: The economy will take a hard dive too. I mean, it will. That's a lot of where our business is right now.

DOC: Right. We've learned. And remember, the attack on 9/11 wasn't just about fear and the 3,000 people who died and the planes and the buildings. It was also an economic attack. Do you know how much damage they did with that alone? That's what terrorism does. It hits on all those fronts. There was a time I think three years ago or so where the EBT card system, which is just the electric benefits, electric food stamps --

BRANDON: Oh, I remember this story.

DOC: They're on, like, credit cards. It went down in six states for, like, ten hours or whatever it was for a Friday or Saturday.

BRANDON: I don't even know if it was that long.

DOC: A few hours.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: It was chaos. People were looting. And I don't mean in the ghetto and the poor. It was average places that people said to hell with it if I want to swipe, I'm going. And the stores said we better let them go. That was just a few hours in six states. Imagine that not even the course of a week or two just a couple of days for awe of our Internet, technology, credit cards, or whatever. Think about what it does to all of us. It stops all plans we have. It stops us from booking flights, getting money out of the bank, people wig out, civil disobedience, the economy. If they unleash something like that.

BRAD: Our last caller said that they're giving us a lot of targets for antimissile system. The system has worked in fewer than half of its previous nine tests. So we're not doing real well on that front either.

DOC: We've tested some missiles recently as well, which is back and forth kind of a tit for tat. And we've got one now I think today there's a test that is specifically an intercepter one. If the missiles we will test today if we can hit somebody, it's if we could block a missile from coming in.

BRANDON: Didn't the IDF perfect this technology? I mean, their whole dome idea --

DOC: The iron dome.

BRANDON: Yeah, they can easily catch a missile in midair.

DOC: I don't know how perfected. But they've tested it, and it has worked. Let's get some calls. (888) 727-Beck. Let's go to Chris in Florida now. Chris, how are you?

CALLER: Oh, I'm fantastic. I love your discussion this morning. And, in fact, I've meet you before.

DOC: It was exciting, wasn't it?

BRANDON: He's tall.

DOC: Thank you so much. What do we do about North Korea?

CALLER: Well, I think we need to make it simple for everyone. The lesson of Neville Chamberlain is blatantly obvious. We cannot cower to bullies. Being nice to dictators doesn't ensure safety, in fact, it results in larger consequences later on. So the appeasement medal in Albright accomplished under previous regimes has essentially made them more powerful in their belligerence, and we have to let them know.

DOC: Is North Korea now at some point where we do something? And is North Korea different from other places that are bad that could be a threat? Even Iran I think is a step behind with their nuclear development. Is North Korea at that level now in your mind?

CALLER: Oh, absolutely. And I think we need to be consistent in our behavior and do this wherever we find bullying. We can't cower with bullies. It's as simple as that. You can't trade with people who are taking captives and doing bad things. You don't give them more tools so that they can do worse later, and that's exactly what we've done in North Korea. We have to stand up to them because the side effects are going to be worse. The collateral damage is going to be even worse. The more he learns and the more he finds it useful as a tool.

DOC: Well, listen, Chris, I appreciate your call this morning. And I agree with bullies, which is the reason I gave James on camera a noogie.

BRANDON: I took Jason's lunch money.

DOC: Well, you may be the problem. Let's go quickly to Pennsylvania to George. Good morning, sir. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program.

CALLER: Hey, Doc. The earliest how I see it is what is the longer term gain for North Korea by having a war? It seems to me that there is bigger benefit for them to be having a threat of using a weapon, unless they are in conspiracy with other countries that if you take a look at North Korea, what are they? They're nothing. And besides that, you talked about before about China turning back their coal, there's not. There have been reports that the coal trucks and the coal trains are rolling across the border anyway. The ships may be turning back, but they're going back over land. And so what is the benefit of North Korea having a war? I don't see it unless North Korea is just going to be the sacrificial punching bag where North Korea is the one that launches the EMP or the nuke or something like that.

DOC: So do you think we're okay right now, and we should just kind of ride this out a little bit?

CALLER: I think we should show strength. I think we could throw a few more sanctions on them. This is not a show of weakness. This is not a Neville Chamberlain moment. I think it's more. They've got more to lose by not having action.

DOC: Do we have the responsibility to people of North Korea that are being tortured to the inth degree?

CALLER: To a degree, yes. But we do not need to go charging in there to save them at our boys expense. It is not so much our problem, unfortunately. I don't want to come off as being heartless to those people. But there are some problems we can't solve.

DOC: I agree with that, George. Thank you so much for the call. I appreciate it. That makes a lot of sense. As far as sanctions, I don't know how much more you can do. But North Korea really is a suicide bomber.

BRAD: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. That's assigning logic to North Korea.

DOC: And he's crazy. Kim Jong-un is crazy. You can't be raised in that environment to believe all of this stuff and not, you know, be sizing things up. You've got yes-men around you that tell you that you're great. He's essentially a suicide bomber, and he doesn't know it.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: He could kill tens of thousands of people.

BRANDON: Absolutely.

DOC: But he will be dead within hours. This is not a hold it out, we're going to have to hunt for him. He and his family and his regime, they will be obliterated. But the fear is that he will do a lot of damage beforehand. Back in a moment with more calls on the program. It's Doc Thompson in for Glenn

Beck.

[break]

DOC: Secretary of Defense Mattis was asked about North Korea, and he said a conflict with North Korea would probably be the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetime. The bottom line is it would be a catastrophe, a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat. If we're not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means. A bunch of people are going to die. It's going to be pretty rough. But they also asked on face the nation, they asked Mattis what keeps him up at night. Did you -- listen to this.

VOICE: What keeps you awake at night?

MATTIS: Nothing. I keep other people awake at night.

[Laughter]

BRAD: That's --

DOC: It almost sounds like a stop line. I am the danger.

BRANDON: I am the danger.

DOC: Right.

BRANDON: I am the one that has --

BRAD: How long has he had that line just waiting?

DOC: An entire bucket full of sayings that he --

BRANDON: How many does he have? He's out there saying all sorts of stuff. I'm saying this with tears in my eyes. Don't F with me, or I'll cull kill you. That's awesome.

DOC: Almost like the --

BRANDON: He has a writer. He has a team of writers in the back also working on the "Fast and Furious" movies.

DOC: That should give you a little bit of confidence. But the point is, if this guy, I keep people awake at night is telling you North Korea is going to be bad if we don't do something militarily, that's something -- that's the guy you walk in -- no, we can kick their ass; right? No, this is going to be really bad for some people. It's not going to be good.

RADIO

Zuckerberg Wants to Give You AI “Friends” … To CONTROL You?

Meta and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has a new goal: to give lonely Americans AI “friends.” But Glenn sounds the alarm: this must NEVER happen! Glenn explains the hidden danger in Zuckerberg’s seemingly kindhearted plan: “AI cannot, must not, and will never be your friend.” Opening that door will only give Meta insane levels of potential for manipulation and control over you.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let's start with this: Mark Zuckerberg. Good guy. I mean, he brought us Facebook.

And, you know, that is the thing that brought all of us together.

Brought out families together. All the people that we lost touch with.

Oh, the world is so much better now that we have Facebook.

So now, he's got another idea. Could we play the clip of Mark Zuckerberg?

VOICE: There's a stat that I honestly think is crazy. The average American has I think it's fewer than three friends. Three people they consider friends. And the average person has demand for meaningfully more. I think it's 15 friends or something.

I guess there's probably at some point, I'm too busy. I can't deal with more people. But the average person wants more connectivity, connection than they have. So, you know, there's a lot of questions that people ask.

Of stuff like, okay. Is this going to replace kind of in person connections or real life connections?

And my default is that the answer to that is probably no.

I think it -- it -- I think that there are all these things that are better kind of about physical connections, when you can have them.

But the reality is that people just don't have the connection when they feel more alone, a lot of the time, than they would like.

GLENN: Hmm. True.

Now, let me ask you. Is there a time when you don't remember feeling so isolated? When you didn't really feel like I don't have any real friends?

When you didn't -- you had real connections with people, instead of a million connections with people that are your friends, but not really your friends?

Can you think of a time, way back in history?

I mean, probably have to go back to the cavemen, to find a time.

Oh. Before Facebook, and social media!

When we weren't all killing ourself, because we have no meaning.

Now, from the people who brought you kill yourself, because you've been on Facebook too much.

Brings you new AI friends. Oh, this is going to be good.

By the way, you know, that's a crazy stat, I think the average American has, what? Three friends. And they have a capacity for, I don't know. Fifteen or 20. I don't know.

Really think about it right now.

How many true friends, do you have?

How many true friends?

People that when you are down and out, there is nothing -- the whole world is against you!

That that person will actually stand by your side. And go, yeah.

I'm their friend.

And I don't care what you say.

How many? How many do you have?

I think I would count myself lucky if I have three.

Now, I have a lot of consequences.

I have a lot of people who we all think are friends. But as a recovering alcoholic, I've been there.

I've done that. As a recovering alcoholic,
who then also is a conservative and spoke out about the Obama administration, I know who my friends are.
I know who my friends are not.

And I think there's a lot of people that have counterfeit friends.

If you've got. Oh, I've got ten or 15 friends.

Eh.

No, you don't. No, you don't.

I've always grown up thinking, you're lucky, you're lucky, to have three, five, really good friends.

That will walk through anything with you. Do you agree with that, Stu?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: You've never been there.

STU: For you? Oh, God no. But I'm just saying, generally speaking. No. I think -- I mean, you're describing a great friend. You're describing a really --

GLENN: A real friend.

STU: Yeah. Like someone you know and stick around for multiple decades.

GLENN: Yeah, I have lots of friends. You know what I mean? I have millions of Facebook friends.

STU: Right. Those aren't real.

GLENN: Right. And I have lots of friends. But the ones that are there for you always, no matter what, I have family.

And I have family.

STU: Right.

GLENN: And I have a handful of friends. I would consider you one of those.

STU: Thank you. I would as well.

GLENN: Why?

Remember, I have a drinking problem.

STU: Yeah. A lot of brain cells killed to make that decision.

But I think that you -- yes. I think the only thing that I think I'm drilling down a little bit on to try to understand. When you say, well, I have a lot of friends.

In a way, I think that's what Zuckerberg is talking about.

It's not even necessarily a great friend that you have for multiple decades. And can count on at any time.

Just the mid-level consequences, are drying up for a lot of people.

GLENN: Yeah. And why is that?

Why is that?

Because we don't talk to each other anymore.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Because of social media.

You know, when this generation says, I don't know.

I just think it's weird. I'm just now in a bar someplace.

And some stranger comes up to me and wants to strike up a conversation. I'm like, hello, weirdo. I don't know!

You think it's less weird to go online?
When people can fake everything!

Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg.

But no thanks. Okay.

STU: And they're just -- to build up on this point for one second.

There's a study that came out, the last 20 years, of how much time do you spend socializing with the people.

Again, that's not with your best friends.

This is just socializing with anyone, a human.

Every single group. Every single group has massive drops.

GLENN: Massive.

STU: Massive drops. Just give you some examples.

Ages. Fifteen to 24-year-olds. Thirty-five-point down.

In 20 years. 35 percent. So a typical 15-year-old, as compared to what they are, in 2003 and 2025, where were the two measurement years?

They're spending 35 percent less time, with other human beings.

GLENN: Okay. Hang on just a second. Can you please stop distracting me? Because I'm trying to figure out why our kids are killing themselves.

STU: No, it's really hard.

GLENN: It's very hard to figure out.

STU: To understand.

And this is the coup de grâce of this entire study, which is, the typical female pet owner spends more time actively engaged with her pet, than she spends face-to-face contact with her friends of her own species.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: That is unbelievable -- not like you're in the same house as your cat.

Right? No. More face-to-face time with your cat!

GLENN: And I've got news for you. If you think your cat is your friend, wait until you die, and your cat is trapped in the house with you and you have no friends to check. They will eat your face.

STU: They will still have a use for you.

GLENN: Yeah. They will have a use foy.

STU: Not the other way around.

GLENN: Okay. Here's why I'm bringing this up today.

This is a lie, that is going to be sold to you, like crazy. And it's going to be wrapped in a beautiful, shiny package. And it's going to have from Mark Zuckerberg and others like him, on the tag.

They want you to believe, that AI and bots can be your friends.

RADIO

The Conclave: Will the Next Pope Be Conservative, Progressive, or an 'Anti-Pope'?

The Conclave to elect the Catholic Church’s next Pope has begun. But will the next Pope be “conservative” and orthodox, will he follow in Pope Francis’ footsteps and be more friendly to leftist and globalist ideas, or will he be an “anti-Pope,” as some Catholics are claiming Francis was? Glenn speaks with LifeSiteNews co-founder and CEO, John-Henry Westen, who reviews the most likely candidates for the papacy and why he believes the “anti-Pope” claims against Francis are not ungrounded.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN:

RADIO

THIS is Why We Don’t Trust the Mainstream Media

A recent New York Times hit piece is a perfect example of why many Americans no longer trust the newspaper. Glenn compares the piece, which criticizes “The MartyrMade Podcast” host Darryl Cooper’s revisionist history, with the New York Times’ own “1619 Project,” written by Nikole Hannah Jones. Glenn disagrees with both people about major historical events. But the Times, with its elitist hypocrisy, pushed Jones’ attempt to frame America as a racist nation since its inception as unquestionable truth. “I’m not defending [Cooper or Jones],” Glenn says. “I’m defending the idea that We the People decide what’s true, and that takes work and curiosity…The minute you let somebody else decide what you’re allowed to hear, you have already surrendered your freedom to think.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to take on something else that I don't know. Maybe I should just keep my big, fat mouth shut.

Because I think this one will piss off everybody. But it's the truth. There was a story in the New York Times. The podcaster asking for you to side with history's villains. It was in the New York Times. Let me read something.

Darryl Cooper is no scholar. But legions of fans, many on the right, can't seem to resist what he presents as hidden truths.

All of a sudden, everyone was coming for Darryl Cooper. There were the newspaper columnists. The historians. The Jewish groups. Repugnant says the chairman of Yadveshev (phonetic), Israel's Holocaust museum in a statement.

Even the Biden White House released a statement, calling him a Holocaust denier who spreads Nazi propaganda. So it was for a time for Mr. Cooper. One of the most popular podcaster in the country, to do what he does best. Hit record.

In a special on his history program, Martyr Made. Mr. Cooper addressed the controversy, which had exploded out of September 2nd appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show.

The podcast started by the former Fox News host. At first, Mr. Cooper, a gifted historic storyteller, but not a trained historian, defended the claims he had made on Mr. Carlsen's show. One that Winston Churchill was the chief villain of the war. Ridiculous. Not by implication. Adolf Hitler.

The two -- and two, that millions had died in Nazi-controlled Eastern Europe because Nazis had not adequately planned to feed them. Okay. Not true.

He then said, the story goes on to say, I don't know if we retracted some of that stuff. This emotional ventriloquism is part of Mr. Cooper's approach and appeal. On TikTok, a fan praised him as one of the best historians of our time, because he tries to go out of his way, to understand the perspective of everyone involved in a situation.

These critics have probably helped make Mr. Cooper bigger than ever. He's been the most subscribed to history newsletter on Substak. One spot ahead of the evident economic historian, Adam HEP Toos in the wake of the Rogan interview. Martyrmade. Blah, blah, blah.

Okay. So they go on and on and on. To talk about how this just can't stand. I mean, we've got to -- there's got to be some sort of filter. And, you know, Joe Rogan just can't have on, whoever he wants to have on. That's the problem!

Is it? New York Times. Is that the problem?

Hmm, that's really interesting.

Now, let me just look and -- and let me just look in the past here, and see if we've had this exact same problem, with anybody else. Because the person that came to mind was not Darryl Cooper, but Nicole Hannah Jones. Because I think those two are the same coin, and the coin is counterfeit.

Just opposite sides of the same coin. The martyr made podcast spins a tale of grievance and distrust. And it's wrapped in enough fact to keep it plausible.

But there are some facts in there. Okay.

Jones, she did the 1619 Project.

She did the same thing in reverse. Except, I think she's actually worse.

I mean, because I think she made up almost everything in that. She recasts American history. As racist from the very inception of the country.

Neither one of them is telling the whole truth. Neither one of them. Neither wants to, I think. They're both in the business of narrative, and not history.

So am I. But I tried to be fair.

The real problem is not these two.

Honestly, it's the New York Times.

Because in their Sunday styles, write-up on Cooper.

The Times poses as a concerned observer.

Wary of growing influence among the disaffected right.

Why are we disaffected. Why is the right disaffected?

We're disaffected because you have tried to take our country from us.

Everything that we believe. Our history.

Our values. Our traditions. And you've tried to denigrate them. And destroy them, every step of the way.

And you've done them with one lie, right after another.

Okay?

Why are they framing him. Not with facts. But with suspicion.

Not because he's -- dishonest or not dishonest. But because he's popular. They clutch their pearls, because he has an audience. And only the New York Times can have that you audience.

But where that was concern, when they did -- when they gave an audience to Nicole Hannah Jones.

And gave her a Pulitzer for a project now so discredited by the very historians that are now talking about Cooper!

Where was the caution when they declared that 1619, not 1776, was the true founding of the nation? They didn't question her authority. They didn't say, well, she's not a historian. They printed it. In fact, they taught it, and endorsed it. They platformed it in schools!

That's different than anything that Joe Rogan is doing. They platformed it in schools.

So let's be clear. Okay?

I think both Cooper and Jones are wrong.

They may have points worth considering.

But I think that they get it fundamentally wrong, in a few places.

They are looking at facts to sell the story.

And not necessarily reveal the truth.

Now, maybe I'm being too cynical.

But that's the way I see it. And I'm not condemning either one.

I'm condemning all of those on the left, or the right, that are now doing the same thing that the New York Times did with -- with Cooper, but didn't do with Anna Nicole Jones. Only one of those two was lauded by the New York Times, as legitimate. And a necessary corrective, even though, it was all a lie! Made up!

So that's what -- when I'm -- I'm reading that op-ed in the New York Times.

I can't take the -- oh, my gosh. The hypocritical nature of it. Just, blood shoots out of my eyes.

Because that's what the New York Times is actually saying. Don't you little people understand. We must decide what stories are acceptable. Not you!

Not somebody like Joe Rogan. We will decide. Which distortion are his virtuous and which ones are dangerous. Not you.

We get to choose the false prophets that get a column, which -- and which ones are called conspiracy theorists. We, at the New York Times, we in the media!

And athat is the problem! This isn't about the authors. Okay. First Amendment gives him a right to say whatever they want.

You may not like. You don't like it, stop listening.

Well, but other people might listen. Yeah. Well, other people might listen.

Maybe we should pay more attention to our education in our schools. Maybe we should pay more attention, so we don't become somebody that is a dummy, themselves. And are -- because this is the problem!

We don't have a press that exposes lies anymore. We have a press that curates the lies.

I really think this is why I started collecting -- you know, we have now, the third largest collection of founding indictments, in the American journey experience.

Along with David Barton's wall builders.

It is -- it's only behind the national archives. And the library of Congress.

Most people don't know it. Because, you know, we don't talk about it yet.

Beginning in '26. We will be making a big deal out of it.

We also have the largest collection of pilgrim era artifacts and documents in the world.

The largest. So I can tell you what happened in Jamestown in 1619.

I can tell you this, the ship that Hannah HEP Nicole Jones talks about. There were no slaves on that ship.

How do I know?

We have the manifest!

No slaves. Hmm. That seems problematic, doesn't it?

And the Mayflower did not launch a system of slavery.

In fact, they fought against it.

We -- this is so crazy.

What the Pilgrims did against slavery was remarkable.

Remarkable. When a slave shipbuildingsly gave into their port, it was -- slavery was against the law. They called it man stealing.

It was against the law. As soon as the slave came into port. You could smell the slave ship. They knew exactly what it was. They marched and up arrested the captain of the ship.

They put anymore irons. And put him in jail.

And these people, who were already paying 15 percent of everything they make. These poor people.

15 percent of everything they make, to a king they can't be they despise. But they paid it, because they wanted to just stay alive.

They took up a collection from each other. Not outside. From each other.

Got a new captain. Refueled. Restocked the ship. And sent those people. Those slaves back to Africa, so they could be free!

That's who our pilgrims were. Don't believe me? You don't have to take my word for it.
We have the evidence. Please, you know, the longest running treaty with Native Americans happened with our Pilgrims. And you know who broke it? Not the white man. It was the Native Americans! And you know why?

Because after years and years of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans getting along, Christianity was starting to seep into their culture. And they needed to go to war with the tribe. And the war that the way they used to fight it, the Native Americans, it was okay to enslave your enemy.

In fact, you needed to.

You could torture them, after you won!

Just to make a point. And then you would enslave anybody you wanted.

And Christianity said, no. You can't do either one of those things.

And so the native Americans, that were part of this tribe, that were and friends under this treaty, with the Pilgrims. They started telling their chief. You know, we can't do these things.

And the chief got so pissed. Because he was like, we're fighting a war.

We fought it like they always fought it.

That they broke the treaty. Did you know that?

No. They were just horrible. We stole the land.

Ay-yi-yi. Did America live up to its ideals?

No! Has anybody, ever?

Have you? Has the pope? Has anybody really lived up to their ideals all the time?

No! But you have ideals, and that's what matters.

By the way, on the other side, I also happen to own a few original Nazi documents, from the actual perpetrators. I've got documents from the engineer that actually calculated how much Zyklon B it would take to murder a room full of Jews, okay?

It wasn't because they didn't want to -- they didn't have enough food.

This was calculated. I have the final prescription signed by Dr. Mengele, for a thousand liters of lumen that will for the so-called children's hospital. That's how the right was killing the undesirables in the children's hospital.

They didn't do it in a frenzy. It wasn't a riot. It wasn't out of desperation. It was silence out of lab coats, and beauracrats and experts signing off, and the press like the New York Times refusing to say a word about it. The scariest people are not the ones in the streets. They weren't. They were the ones with titles. With offices, with press credentials.

They were the ones with the doctorates.
They were the people who decided what could be published.

Who could be punished. What could be known? What could be said?

And that's the danger that we're staring down, right now. Not from cringe theorists on a podcast. Not even from overzealous academics with a Pulitzer.

But from the institutions that bless one distortion, and condemn the other.

Not based on truth. But based on usefulness.

Is it useful to our side?

I just want you to know. This is my stance on this. and make this very, very clear.

The First Amendment does not exist to protect comfortable speech. It doesn't exist to protect Cooper, as opposed to Jones. It exists to protect both of them!

It protects uncomfortable points of view.

Things you do not like to hear. And disagreement. It protects people who are absolutely wrong, and even those who are lying!

It protects the process, so you can figure it out. There is no licensed priesthood in our country.

You know, that are -- the priesthood of truth-tellers. No official ministry of facts.

That's where countries go wrong. The Times should be exposing both sides of these stories.

Just like I'm doing.

The distortions of the right, and the left.

But instead, they become exactly what they've warned us about.

A newspaper that prints dogma, and not dialogue.

And the real problem here: No.

The real solution here is you. Jefferson warned that a man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Sorry. A man who reads nothing is better informed than a man who only reads the newspaper. Okay? I would say, the newspaper is today's social media.

Man who reads nothing is more well-educated than a man who just only reads social media.

But today we might say, better to be ignorant than confidently misled by trusted media.

They see themselves not as a watch to go. But as a shepherd. And we are the sheep.

So I am not defending either one.

I am defending the idea that we, the people. Not the institutions. Not the elites. Not the New York Times.

Not Joe Rogan.

You decide what's true. And that takes work and that takes curiosity. Maybe the other guy is wrong.

I don't know. Maybe I don't have the whole story either. I don't know.

Look it up. Because the minute you let somebody else decide, what you're allowed to hear, you have already surrendered your freedom to think!
RADIO

What Christian Movies Can Learn from Serial Killer Films

Christian movies can learn a whole lot from serial killer murder mysteries, The Daily Wire’s Andrew Klavan tells Glenn. While Christian films tend to have good messages, they don’t often touch on the dark realities of this fallen world we live in – realities that even the Bible addresses through the stories of Cain and Abel and many others. Instead, Klavan argues, he gets more biblical truths out of movies like “Halloween” and “The Silence of the Lambs” and books like “Crime and Punishment” than he does films like “God’s Not Dead.” Klavan tells Glenn how he finds God in the literature of darkness, a topic he further delves into in his new book, “The Kingdom of Cain.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Andrew Klavan. Host of the Andrew Klavan program. The Andrew Klavan Show.

How are you, sir?

ANDREW: I'm good. Good to see you.

GLENN: Good to see you. I don't think I've seen you out of your element ever.

ANDREW: Yes, I've been many times to the studio.

GLENN: Have you? Well, they were memorable.

ANDREW: I get this reaction a lot.

GLENN: No. I just love you. I love you. And I got to tell you, the best compliment I could give you, your son is remarkable.

ANDREW: He is remarkable. He is.

GLENN: I hope some day, somebody will say that by my children. Really remarkable.

You and your wife are amazing parents.

ANDREW: Oh, well, thank you.

GLENN: So tell me about the Kingdom of Cain, and talk down to me.

ANDREW: It's a really simple book, and very entertaining, because it's about the movies that we all love.

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. He says this. Let me read this to you, Stu, and see if you understand what this is.

STU: The Kingdom of Cain looks at three murders in history, including the first murder. Cain's killing of his brother Abel. And at the art created from imaginative engagement, from those horrific events by artists ranging from Dostoyevsky to Hitchcock. To make beauty out of the world, as it is shot through with evil and injustice and suffering. It is the task, not just of the artist, but Klavan argues of every life rightly lived.

Examining how the transformation occurs in art. Grants us a vision of how it could happen in our life. What is this about?

STU: I don't know what you're missing.

ANDREW: I will tell you, I'm a crime writer. Right? I get this letter all the time. Constantly. It says, you call yourself a Christian.

That part is true, and yet you write about horrific things. You right about murder.

Prostitutes and gangsters, and all this stuff.

Why do you do that?

And the reason is very simple. I believe that God is a central fact of reality. And I believe that any artist who speaks truthfully about reality, will speak about God.

And so what I did. I took three murders. Three very famous murders.

I showed how they inspired works of art. Over and over and over again.

They're -- not just one work of art. But they kept coming back, inspiring other works of art. And how those works of art actually speak about something, that happens to a society, when it begins to lose its faith. As our society has certainly done.

You know, and they chart those works of art, and some of them are like the stupidest little horror movie.

And yet, the guy who is making that horror movie understood what he was talking about.

And can show you. If you go back, for instance, and watch a slasher movie. Like Halloween, which is a very scary movie.

It's actually about the fall of the end of faith. And how it destroys sexual responsibilities.

So it takes place in the suburb. Have you seen it?

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Yeah. I have seen it.

ANDREW: Where there are no moms. And the dads are very weak.

And this knife-wielding crazy man comes back. And basically preys on kids having sex while nobody is watching.

And it's a very, very stark picture. I bet if you asked the director what he was doing, he would tell you that. It's right in the movie, when he see that. But you have to be watching this.

The thing is, these movies are -- not just movies. But novels.

The arts are -- really reveal the conscience of a culture.

GLENN: Yes.

ANDREW: And so taking the way they look at murder, tells us things that are bad about our culture.

But it also tells us about ways we want to go in the future.

The role, for instance, of psychiatrists in -- in these films.

Films. Most of these films are based on murder, committed by Ed Dean in the 1950s, a guy who was constant. Who used to kill women.

Right?

And then dress up in their bodies. Just like in Silence of the Lambs. That inspired Psycho.

It inspired a really good horror movie called the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Even though it's a crazy title. It's actually a good movie. The Silence of the Lambs. All of these movies grow out of that one murder.

And what it's about? It's about confusion. It's about sexual. About gender. You know, we don't see that going around nowadays. In fact, it's everywhere. In fact, these movies were made in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s and on. And so they were predicting, as art often does, what was going to happen, and explaining why.

GLENN: So do you think Alford Hitchcock knew that this was coming? Or he was just a good storyteller?

ANDREW: You are a good story teller. Who was it? T. S. Eliot said a great poet writes himself, and in writing himself, he writes his time.

And I think that that's what happens. These artists basically bring something out of themselves. But it reveals where we are all are. And it reveals where we are going. If you see where we are, you can tell where we're going.

That's why the book does not just concentrate on the darkness. It actually says. What do you do?

How do you react? Now that you know what's happening. How do you react to those things in a creative, joyful way?

Because this is -- the Bible doesn't say things will be great. The Bible says. Yeah.

GLENN: That's not the main point.

ANDREW: Being crucified. And at the same time, it says, rejoice ever more.

GLENN: Right.

ANDREW: So one of the things that really bothers me about Christian movies.

Is they don't really represent life.

If you do a Christian movie, that has real things in it, you get slammed.

Why would you put it in?

Why was there sex? Why was there murder?

One of the major influences that turned me to Christ, when I was 19 years old. That took three decades to kick in.

But it was reading Crime and Punishment. About an axe murderer. And about a prostitute who basically turns this axe murderer's life around.

If you walked into a Christian bookstore today.

And say, can I have that book about the axe murderer and the hooker? Yeah, they would look at you like you were nuts. Because Dostoyevsky was a great artist and a great Christian.

One of the truly deep and interesting Christians in history.

He revealed something about the philosophies that were rising up at that time.

And that are still with us today. And the philosophies that later became spoken out by Nietzsche. And Nietzsche affected all of the leftist philosophers that you and I have loved so much. And have done so many good things for our survival.

GLENN: So let's pretend somebody didn't read that by Dostoyevsky or whatever his name is.

And tell us the story -- and tell us the story. And exactly what -- what he was teaching.

ANDREW: Well, the idea is God is dead.

And therefore, instead of having this horrible Christian philosophy. That is nice to the poor. And the weak, and has charity. And compassion.

We need strong special men. Like Napoleon, for instance. Who will make their own law.

And this man, in this story. Crime and Punishment says, well, if I can make my own law, I can murder somebody.

And it will be a sin. It won't be wrong.

And then he actually accomplishes this murder.

And finds a way. Oh, wait. I've actually shattered the moral order. And now my life is spiraling out of control.

Now, Nietzsche wrote his philosophy, which is the exact philosophy in his book.

After Dostoyevsky wrote the novel, and then his philosophy inspired two murderers in America, named Leopold and Lowe. This was called the crime of the century. The crime of the 20th century.

GLENN: I don't remember it.

ANDREW: I know, nobody remembers it now, but it was one of the biggest crimes of the century. It inspired countless movies and television shows.

It was two kids, they were -- they were rich, gay Jewish kids in the suburbs.

GLENN: What year?

ANDREW: This is 19 -- I want to say 30 -- 30 or 40.

GLENN: Okay.

ANDREW: Yeah. It was the '30s. I'm sorry.

And they decided, well, we're Superman. Like Nietzsche. They read Nietzsche. And they thought, yes. This is what we want to be.

One of them. We will commit the perfect murder, to show we could do it.

They took a kid at random, who they know, and killed them.

GLENN: This is Rope.

ANDREW: Exactly. Exactly. And Rope became the Hitchcock film. And also inspired Compulsion, which is another movie.

Almost a true movie about it. Pops up again and again.

Two people who said, we will commit the perfect murder. Because we're superior.

If you look for it, you will find it in one story after another.

And it's based on the idea, that there's no God. And therefore, anything is permissible, and strong men have to make the rules.

GLENN: That's one of the best movies out of Hitchcock.

Nobody even knows it. Great movie from Hitchcock. And great movie with Jimmy Stewart and just really -- and disturbing.

ANDREW: Yeah, and written -- the original play was written by the guy who also wrote a play called Gaslight, which is where we get the word gaslighting.

So I talk all about these works of art. These works and movies. And listen, I think it's an entertaining book, Glenn.

GLENN: I love your work. I love your work. Most people, if you don't know who Andrew Klavan is.

You've written movies. I mean, you've written just some thrilling novels.

And novels that have been made into movies. And I'm a huge, huge fan.

But, I mean, you know, you are talking to mice here.

ANDREW: I try to just make it about things that people like and enjoy.

GLENN: Yeah. So what is -- what is the lesson that we learn from -- from all of this?

ANDREW: Well, I think the most important lesson, if I can call it that, in the book. Is that the beauty has something to do with the answer to evil.

You know, one of the things that keeps people from believing in God. They say, there's so much evil in the world.

How can a good God, allow this evil to exist?

And at the end of the book, the last third of the book. Which is a very personal statement about what I do, to basically live joyfully in the world, that I can see is evil.

It ends with looking at the statue of Michelangelo. Which is one of the most beautiful works --

GLENN: Beautiful.

ANDREW: But it think about what it's about, Glenn. It's about a mother with her dead son. It is a world with a dead God. It's the worst movement in human history. And yet Michelangelo, a man, made it beautiful.

And my question at the end of the book, is if a man can take that misery, that suffering, that evil, and turn it into beauty, what can God do with the world that we're living in now?

When he works with the marvel of eternity. And so I work my way to that point, by going to the movies that we watch, the stories that we read.

And why we're so fascinated with murder.

You know, think about try crime. This is what this is about.

STU: Why are we?

ANDREW: Because it is the borderline, where you cannot say, there's something right about this.

It's the place where I suddenly realize that the moral order has its great points, but it also has a very stark --

GLENN: So explain to me. Explain to me why shows like, let's say.

Yellowstone.

Are so satisfying, because you're kind of like -- kind of like seeing that guy taking to the train station.

You know what I mean?

You know that it's wrong. But you're kind of in there. You're kind of like -- you know.

And you feel. At least I do. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people watch. Yeah. That's fine.

I watch it. I don't like the fact that I kind of -- I'm rooting for them.

ANDREW: I think the best art does that to you. I really enjoy this. That actually tells me something about myself, that I don't want to think about.

GLENN: Yeah.

ANDREW: See, a lot of people think art is like a sugar pill, that they used to give you a little lesson in life. A little parable of sorts. I don't think that's what it is at all.

I think it's an experience that you really can't have in your life, that broadens the way you look at life. Broadens your view of humanity. So when you get Christian stories like God Is Not Dead. I don't want to pick on anybody.

GLENN: But you'll pick on them.

ANDREW: I will pick on them. The guy is hit by a car. He says, well, at least he was saved.

I think, really? We can't just say -- you can't call his wife say, and say, this is a sad moment. Let me grieve when people die? We can't say we're horrified by death and afraid?

So I want Christian art that deals with life in a real way.

And shows that people who are afraid. And people who have evil thoughts, and people who want to justify murder. And they -- there are moments when we all sort of think -- but if you go off into a room by yourself and ask, how can I make the perfect world?

Within two minutes, so help me.

You will be committing mass murder in your mind.

Let me see. Well, first, I have to go to rid of these people because these people can't be reformed. You'll wipe them out, right?

So that's who we all are.

When he start to see that. I believe that's actually a layer on top of who we really.

I believe who we really are is who Christ wants us to be. That's the question.

How do you get through that layer?

That's what artists do for us. They show us our true selves.

And lead our conscience to the place we're supposed to go.

GLENN: All right. Our natural soul is who Christ wants us to be.

ANDREW: Right.

GLENN: And we're encapsulated in this flesh. And the natural man is an enemy to that. And it's the battle back and forth.

ANDREW: And that's what art is. That battle. That's where drama comes from. That's where tragedy comes from.

You know, one of the stories I mentioned in the Kingdom of Cain is Macbeth, because it's such a great story about murder.

And it ends with the most beautiful speech about nihilism, about things, nothing makes sense. Nothing is worth anything. Right? Life is a tale told by an idiot. But because you're watching a play, you understand, Shakespeare is not saying that. A guy has detached himself from the moral order is saying that. He's lost the meaning of life, because he's detached himself from the meaning of life.

And so studying murder and writing art about murder. Takes you to the most serious questions about who we are. And who we really are. And what we really want. And how we -- you know, that inner battle that goes on. Which is to me, the source of drama.