BLOGAugust 09, 2017

‘Everyone Is Watching Each Other’: Author Explains North Korea’s Isolation From the World

North Korea is famously isolated from the rest of the world, with the government blocking internet access and controlling everything from food to hairstyles to social groups. It’s almost impossible for two North Koreans to conspire together because people are watching and listening all the time for anything that goes against the government.

“This did not happen overnight,” author Michael Malice said of North Korea’s isolation. “This was a 70-year methodical process.”

Malice, author of “Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il,” explained that the Kim family has been working to build up barriers between North Korea and the rest of the world for decades.

North Korean society is divided into government-designated groups, and once a week, North Koreans talk about what they did “wrong” that week in front of their peers. This level of scrutiny makes it nearly impossible for North Koreans to speak against Kim Jong Un and his regime even in casual conversation.

“Everyone is watching each other all the time and reporting on each other all the time,” Malice said.

GLENN: Michael Malice is a guy who went behind the Iron Curtain. It's a very closed country. And he left there and he wrote a book called, Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Biography of Kim Jong-il.

Michael, welcome to the program. How are you, sir?

MICHAEL: Oh, it's a great honor, Glenn.

GLENN: Thank you.

First of all, tell me, what got you to go to North Korea? I mean, you stalking Dennis Rodman, or?

MICHAEL: Well, here's the thing and something you kind of touched upon: It was bothering me a lot how so much of the press about North Korea is complete misinformation. And I said, "I'm going to do something about this once and for all." Now, I was born in the Soviet Union. I'm Jewish. These were two chances for my family to have been sent to a concentration camp. And there's concentration camps in North Korea right now. You know, people ask, how did we let the Holocaust happen? They have the camps right now. You can see the camps on Google Earth. And yet so many of these news reports want to look at North Korea and be like, "Aren't these people all silly?" It's like, yeah, these are 25 million hostages. If the government had a gun to your head and the heads of your children, you would be doing pretty silly things too.

So that's why I wrote my book Dear Readers, so that people could understand exactly what's going on there. Because it's not at all how it's portrayed in the press.

GLENN: So I would like to get into the concentration camps with you. Because people don't understand that it's not your sentence. It's they sentence you and your family for three generations. I mean, it's -- it is -- it's evil and crazy what is happening there. Most people in the west can't even begin to understand it.

But can we go back and try to explain and tell us some stories that you saw firsthand on how the North Koreans are so isolated that they have really no concept of what's really going on in the world. And they think that they can beat the United States.

MICHAEL: Well, they're not completely, completely isolated because the barriers, thankfully, have been breaking down a little. However, to your question, this did not happen overnight.

GLENN: Yeah.

MICHAEL: This was a 70-year methodical process by this gangster family. And step by step, they built up barriers to separate North Korea from the rest of the world, things like anyone who spoke other languages or who studied abroad were sent to the concentration camps. Things like books in other languages being destroyed and no longer being allowed to be taught.

Let me give you an example of the mechanisms that they use to control their population. And, again, it's things we can't even wrap our heads around here.

Everyone in North Korea is slotted into some group. Your school. Your office. Your neighborhood. And once a week, that group gets together, and you have to stand up in front of your peers and say, "This is what I did wrong this week." And then your peers have to stand up and say what they noticed you doing wrong.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

MICHAEL: So everyone is watching each other all the time and reporting on each other all the time. So a lot of times, the people are like, well, why don't they just get together and overthrow the government. If you have two people conspiring, they're done.

And as you said, the founder of North Korea, the great leader Kim Il-sung said, "Class enemies must be exterminated to three generations." So they take three generations of a family -- and even Stalin at least had trials. There's no trials. You get a knock at the door in the middle of the night. The family gets taken. And you don't even know which one of you got you sent to the camps or to the countryside. They don't tell you. It's just, "Come with me."

GLENN: Let's -- let's -- can we go back to the Korean War and how they're viewing America. They've been -- you know, we had the Korean War. And it became a TV show called M*A*S*H. And that's it. For them, they have been preparing for this time since the 1950s.

MICHAEL: Right. So according to one of their books and according to their worldview -- by the way, you can't refer to us as Americans. We are always referred to by a slur like the US Imperialists. And it's just how the language is taught there. So automatically, when they're talking about us, they're using offensive terminology. There's a book in North Korea called The US Imperialists Started the Korean War. They are taught that we started the Korean War, that we've been waiting to conquer Korea since the 1860s when General Sherman went to Pyongyang. That part is true. We did visit them back in the 1860s.

And now we've been biding our time to come back and to finish the job that we started. Now, many of your listeners are veterans. The Korean War was completely devastating to the Korean Peninsula. You had China, Russia, and North Korea at the north. South Korea, US, and the UN at the south. And between the two, the devastation was complete.

So their whole point is, you remember how bad it was in the '50s. Well, any day now, the Americans are going to come back and finish that job. And, but for the leader, you would all be dead.

GLENN: And you say "but for the leader," what's remarkable is the calendar has been reset. It's the year, what?

MICHAEL: So the calendar starts -- again, they're not going to have a Christian calendar. Because having a Bible is the death penalty, right? So you're not going to have BC and AD. So their calendar starts with the birth of the great leader Kim Il-sung in 1912. So that's year one.

GLENN: Okay. So -- and he was -- I remember one of the Kim family was brought down, you know, by angels or birds. And -- I mean, crazy kind of stuff that he remembers the day of his birth. Do they -- do they believe this?

MICHAEL: There is a lot -- it's very funny because they claim to be an atheist country. But there's all sorts of supernaturalism that revolves around the Kim family. So Kim Il-sung, the great leader, the founder of North Korea, he had missionaries in his family. And he adopted a lot of Christian mythology and applied it to his life and the life of his son and his wife. So they have a holy trinity, which is the great leader Kim Il-sung, who is the founder of North Korea, and Kim Jong-un's uncle. We have Kim Jong-il, who was the dear leader. He's their Jesus figure. And Kim Jong-il's mother, who is always referred to as anti-Japanese heroine, Kim Jong-suk. They always picture here with a gun in her hand. So this is the holy trinity that keeps Korea safe. And they have Mount Paektu at the north, which is basically like their Mount Zion, which is the spirit of Korea and basically the embodiment of the Korean energy. So they have a lot of mystical stories about this family and basically -- but for Kim Il-sung, you know, who is almost a messiah figure, Korea would still be under the boot of Japan.

GLENN: So when the UN passed these really tough sanctions -- I'm for the sanctions. I don't know what else to do. Going in with military is just -- is almost and may be an act of insanity.

MICHAEL: Right.

GLENN: But, you know, when you see the sanctions, the people have no idea that their leaders are the ones that are starving them and choking them to death. And this will only be blamed on us. And it will only make their lives worse.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

GLENN: How do you break that, in that culture? Is it even possible to get people to understand, "No, no, it's -- your leader is evil?"

MICHAEL: Well, it started happening on a micro level. You remember towards the end of the Cold War, despite decades of communist propaganda, what happened is Russia people were watching American soap operas on television. And they were thinking to themselves, it's all well and good what I'm taught in school, but why does the maid on this television show have a fur coat and I'm literally wiping my butt with newspaper? You know, I don't care about Marx, whatever. I just want food for my kids.

GLENN: Right.

MICHAEL: And North Korea, the same thing is happening. They are seeing that all these other countries are wealthier than them. It doesn't matter what you teach me in school. I want my kids to have food. It's as simple as that.

So one of the things that has happened is they have changed their propaganda from, we are wealthy, and the world envies us. And now the propaganda says, we are keeping Korea pure. So it is also the most homogeneous and most racist country on earth. This is something that's not talked about in the press, that they believe Korea is the only country that has been racially pure since Neolithic times. And they regard the South as a region under US occupation, where we basically assault southern Korean women -- Americans do -- and do with them as we please. Us -- we being barbarians. So that's another aspect of their propaganda.

GLENN: So looking at what you know about North Korea and hearing the president yesterday --

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: -- how is that interpreted by Kim Jong-un and -- and the people around him?

MICHAEL: I would honestly say it's going to be interpreted with a bit of respect.

GLENN: Oh, good.

MICHAEL: And here's why: They are bullies. Right? So let me -- when they talk about we know how to treat America -- in their words, they say, when necessary, we'll slap her across the face.

And, you know, I remember last year, year and a half ago, there was this photo released of Kim Jong-un in front of his Apple Computer. And there were nukes striking Austin. And the things that they get away with saying are just completely outrageous. So Trump was basically using their language against them. So on some level, they're going to have a bit of respect for it, just like anyone who runs his mouth. At a certain point, you have to get in his face. Now, I'm not saying you have to get in his face and shove him, but on some level, they're going to say, okay. This is going to be a difference in tone at least, from previous administrations.

GLENN: So where does he go from here? You know, he has killed everybody in his family who could have challenged him. He's done it openly. He's killed everybody around him that could challenge him.

MICHAEL: He's only killed one person. And actually, let's talk about how evil this family is: Kim Jong-un's aunt. Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's sister, that was her husband who was killed. And she's such an evil woman, that when her daughter married someone who was below their social station, she drove her daughter to suicide.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Wow.

PAT: Didn't he have both his uncle and his brother killed -- the guy in the airport, right? Which one was that?

GLENN: The brother.

PAT: Wasn't that his brother? And then supposedly he had his uncle torn apart by dogs.

GLENN: Yeah. I thought -- he had somebody else killed by standing them in front of a cannon and blowing a hole through.

PAT: Are these urban legends, or did that actually happen?

GLENN: Is that the way he is, Michael?

PAT: Did we lose him?

GLENN: We've lost Michael.

Okay. So get him back on the phone. Let me take a quick break. Fascinating --

PAT: I guess we'll never know.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Having somebody -- I can't wait to also talk to him about his experience in the former Soviet Union.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Anyway, he'll be back in just a second.

First, our sponsor this half-hour is Goldline. What would the opening salvos of war with North Korea bring?

Thousands dead. Some say that a million plus could be dead within the first 24 hours. The region surrendering North Korea has become the world's industrial powerhouse. It is, you know, some of the biggest economies in the world are there. And would be affected immediately. Which would wreak havoc on not only a human scale and human life there, but also I believe the rest of the western world --

PAT: Yeah, you have South Korea who is the eleventh largest, and you have China the second largest.

GLENN: And you have Japan, which is, what? The fifth largest? The fourth largest?

PAT: Yeah. In there somewhere.

GLENN: I mean, it's all affected. And I would just suggest that you do your homework now. I -- I hope this is not going to be what the experts are starting to say it's going to be this fall. But a lot of people now -- and it actually gives me some comfort. Because these clowns are usually wrong. But a lot of people are saying real trouble with the economy is on the horizon. Please find out if gold or silver is right for you. You have your money in a 401(k) or an IRA, consider moving some of that money -- some of it -- 10 percent into gold, physical gold that you can hold.

Call now for as little as $2,500. You will get three months of price protection. All the way up to a year for a 25,000-dollar investment. But make sure you read all their information. They're waiting for your call now at 866GOLDLINE. 1866GOLDLINE or goldline.com.

(OUT AT 10:23AM)

GLENN: We're talking to Michael Malice. He is the guy who went over to North Korea, wrote a book called Dear Reader, and saw behind the curtain, if you will. He's also a former citizen of the Soviet Union. So he has -- he has seen it from both sides. We were just talking to you, Michael, and we lost our connection, about, you know, we have heard that he killed his brother and his uncle.

MICHAEL: Right.

GLENN: And then a lot of the people around him who could have challenged him, he has taken out and done horrible things to. True or false?

MICHAEL: Okay. So the last part is false because theres no -- there's no one around him who could have challenged him because the point is, it's only a descendent of the great leader Kim Il-sung, who could be in the leadership position. So the people at the very top there, it's not like they were voted in. They're only at the very top specifically because of their loyalty to the regime. In fact, unless you're loyal to the regime, you're not allowed to even step foot in Pyongyang. You're geographically assigned where to live in North Korea, based on how loyal you and your family has been to the regime. That's number one.

GLENN: Wow.

MICHAEL: So he killed his elder half brother, who he only met once, I believe, because, again, only a descendent of Kim Il-sung can be the leader. So if your brother is killed, there's no plan B for you, if Kim Jong-un is taken out. There's not a Mike Pence sitting in the wings.

GLENN: Hmm.

MICHAEL: And lastly, one of the things that I was fighting about -- fighting, you know, when writing Dear Reader is the sensationalism. We tend to believe the craziest possible stories about North Korea. And South Korea reported that his uncle -- technically, his aunt's husband was eaten by dogs. That's not true. He was shot. But he was killed, and with her agreement.

GLENN: So then, you know, we keep hearing that he feels backed in a corner.

MICHAEL: That's right.

GLENN: Who is he backed in a corner by if there's no -- if there's nobody to take his place?

MICHAEL: Well, he's -- there's increasing pressure from America. There's increasing pressure from China. And what would happen is when -- you remember possibly Romania, when Ceausescu, the evil dictator of Romania for decades, when he was take -- there was a moment, and it's a very beautiful moment for everyone who loves freedom, when this horrible dictator was on TV, and for the first time the crowd starts booing. And you see the look on his face. And two or three days later, him and his wife were shot.

Kim Jong-il took that video and showed it to all the leading party cadres and said -- said, "If the masses rise up, this is what is going to happen to us." So when these regimes go down, the people at the very top like Gadhafi, like Hussein are personally killed, and with good reason.

So that's another very important incentive for Kim Jong-un to do anything he can to stay in power. It's not like if he's removed from power, he's going to, you know, retire to Saint-Tropez. This man is a monster.

GLENN: So I've only got about 30 seconds here, so perhaps I ask it and then we come back on the other side. Because I really want to know also about, you know, the former Soviet Union and your life there.

MICHAEL: Sure. Yeah.

GLENN: But I guess what I would like to know -- and I don't know if you could answer this: So is he likely to just kind of be quiet and allow himself to be put into a box, or is he the type that will fire off a missile because he's a god?

MICHAEL: He's the type who was taught and believes, you fight fire with twice as much fire and escalate whenever possible, especially when you're the small dog.

GLENN: Okay. So what that means exactly, we come back. You can find Michael at MichaelMalice.com.

(OUT AT 10:30AM)

GLENN: Michael Malice, he is an author and commentator. He's an expert to North Korea. Traveled to the very closed country. Wrote a book called Dear Reader. The unauthorized autobiography of Kim Jong-il.

You just said to me, Michael, that Kim Jong-un is a guy who believes if you're hit, you hit back twice as hard. You don't back down. And as you're describing the traits of Kim Jong-un, you're also describing our president.

MICHAEL: Well, I mean, to some extent. You remember during the campaign, Trump did apologize for the audio that got out. And I don't think President Trump would be comfortable starving 10 percent of the population.

GLENN: Oh, no, no, no. I don't mean it that way. No, no, no, I don't mean it -- I do not mean to equate the two of them. I mean, just as far as tactics.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: You know, last night, I thought the press -- the press was crazy last night.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

GLENN: They were almost saying, you know, we got to have war because, Mr. President, now you're not going to have any credibility. You can't back down. It was crazy.

MICHAEL: Glenn, it was terrifying that they're basically saying, "Oh -- first of all, the idea if North Korea is going to attack us, that they're going to go after Guam is insane on its face. They're going to have one shot, they're going to make it count, to be totally Machiavellian about it.

But let's have some perspective: For decades, we had hundreds, if not thousands of nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union pointed at us and our allies. And that was something that we managed to deal with. So this situation is not entirely without precedent.

GLENN: Okay. So that is --

MICHAEL: So everyone should take a deep breath, you know.

GLENN: So my position today has been pretty much that: Take a deep breath.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

GLENN: There is no good answer to this. The thing to do is walk away, keep your eye and ear to the ground.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: But just walk -- there's no good answer to this.

MICHAEL: And --

GLENN: Is that enough for Kim Jong-un?

MICHAEL: Well, it's scary to me how so many people are saying that because Kim Jong-un is treating our country and our president with disrespect, that we -- I saw one commentator say, "We should rain hellfire on North Korea."

GLENN: That's craziness.

MICHAEL: I mean, these are 25 million -- you want to talk about having the moral high ground, being the moral leader of the free world, and you're going to be killing 25 million slaves and hostages. What kind of person are you that -- not only that, what kind of person are you that that's your first reaction, as opposed to a last resort? It's terrifying.

GLENN: No. I was watching last night -- I'm so glad to hear you saying this, Michael. I was watching CNN. And they kept going on and on and on about, you know, how the president said all these things. And now there's a red line. And -- and -- and -- and commentator after commentator yesterday was saying, "You know, we don't have a choice. We can't be embarrassed. We can't, you know, be the laughing stock."

And I'm thinking, "We're talking about the possibility of millions dead. Who cares about your stupid honor if all it means is, you know what, I said something I shouldn't have said? I'm going to shut my mouth now, and what do you say we leave those millions alive?"

MICHAEL: Glenn, I'm going to make it even worse. The people in these concentration camps are told constantly and explicitly -- there's like 100, 200,000 people. Should the US imperialists invade, we will kill you all and burn these camps to the ground. So like you're saying, if someone has a gun to my kid's head, if someone -- if at some school, someone has a bomb that they're going to blow up a school, they can call me every name in the book. Please, call me all the names you want. Just don't kill the children. And the idea that, well, we better go in and kill the children first, as the response, is even more demented.

GLENN: How is North Korea -- if the United States would respond, I can't imagine that South Korea -- because it would be almost like our American civil war --

MICHAEL: Right.

GLENN: -- is going to sit happily by as, A, Seoul is most likely destroyed.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: And, secondly, they have family members up there. It would be viewed as the United States killing their family members, would it not?

MICHAEL: To some extent, those families have been separated now for 70 years with no communication with each other.

But let's talk something else: You know, people saying they have nukes now. This is unprecedented. They've had missiles pointed at Seoul for decades.

GLENN: Yeah.

MICHAEL: Seoul is a city with, you know, tens of millions of people, with skyscrapers. Can you imagine the imagery of missiles hitting a city full of skyscrapers? Even if they didn't have nukes, is that something people are comfortable with? Or it's just, well, at least it wasn't nukes that are hitting these skyscrapers. I mean, is that what we're talking about? And that is what we're talking about.

So it's a very dangerous situation. And, Glenn, I know you remember very well the -- the war mania that led up to the Iraq War, and how everyone was like, "We got to do something. We got to do something now. Emergency. Emergency. Emergency." Let's freak out. Let's do things as quickly as possible.

And it's like, what I was taught growing up in school is that war is a last resort. It's not the first thing you do, and it's not your best option, especially when you're dealing with a regime that is comfortable with killing its own citizens to maintain its hold on power.

STU: Talking to Michael Malice.

KimJongilbook.com is the site.

Michael, is there an increase in their resources lately? I mean, they've been able to outpace all of our intelligence estimates as to what they've been able to develop.

GLENN: Like crazy.

STU: They're dumping money into things like renovating the Hotel of Doom, which, you know, is only the Hotel of Doom because they didn't have money at one point. Are they --

MICHAEL: Well, no, the Hotel of Doom -- so let's talk about how North Korea uses their army. North Korea, everyone in the army does construction. So they're not just sitting around or whatever. They actually build things.

So that hotel, which is I think at one point, the largest building in the eastern hemisphere or something crazy, the Ryugyong Hotel was structurally unsound. So it was never completed because it can't be completed. It's a complete mess.

And it just looms like this giant hulk over Pyongyang. But let me also talk -- you talk about having empathy for the North Korean people. When I went there and we were taking the bus from the airport to the capital city, my guide pointed at that hotel, and she goes, "Look, there's our latest rocket launch."

And, you know, we don't think of them as human beings. They have a sense of humor. They have families. You know, when you're on the street, you see the grandmothers doting with their grandkids. You see teenage girls giggling when you wave at them. The fact that these people are capable of having some semblance of humanity in the most inhumane country on earth behooves us when you read news reports and trying to make them out to be clowns. Keep in mind, again, like I said earlier --

GLENN: They're not clowns.

MICHAEL: -- if someone has your family as a hostage, you're going to put on clown makeup too.

GLENN: Yeah. And it's not -- the people are -- you know, when -- I think when somebody says, you know, these people are clowns, they're meaning, you know, I think people like Kim Jong-un, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. He's not a clown.

MICHAEL: No.

GLENN: He knows what he's doing. He just operates with a completely operating system than we do.

MICHAEL: Right. And the whole point of my book is spelling out how they operate and what they're doing. Because it's very logical. It's very methodical. But let me speak a bit about the clown issue: Like, I remember there was an article in a British paper that showed the marching. And it referred to Kim Jong-un's miniskirted robot army, that these young women, you know, in the army are all marching in lockstep and ha-ha-ha. It's like, you know, they're hostages. Of course, they're going to march like they're told. They're not robots. To call someone a robot is to act like they don't have a soul or a mind of their own, and they very much do.

GLENN: Okay. Well, let me ask you -- first of all, can we have you back? We're running out of time. Can we have you back tomorrow?

MICHAEL: Of course. It's an honor. We'll figure it out. We can figure it out, yes.

GLENN: Let me ask you two other questions: First of all, Otto Warmbier, the kid that went over.

MICHAEL: Right.

GLENN: Was caught stealing a propaganda poster.

MICHAEL: Right.

GLENN: Fifteen years.

MICHAEL: Trespassing.

GLENN: What did you say?

MICHAEL: Trespassing.

GLENN: Yes. Fifteen years to hard labor. Looks like they pretty much tortured him to death and dumped on our body, I thought, in a way that was very reminiscent of the Godfather.

MICHAEL: Yes.

GLENN: Sending us a message: Here's -- here's your citizen back.

MICHAEL: No, no, no, no. That's not it at all. They had him as a hostage. If you have a hostage, you want to return the hostage in one piece so you get your ransom. So when things turned south, they knew they couldn't take care of him, and that's why they dropped him off here. Think about it.

He didn't serve a day of hard labor. They treat their hostages very, very well because they're a valuable resource. Remember when they kidnapped that Ling reporter, they got President Clinton to fly to Pyongyang and kiss Kim Jong-il's ring? That's a great coup.

GLENN: Right. But this guy it looks like he was drugged and tortured. That's --

MICHAEL: My understanding is that the autopsies showed no signs of trauma, and this could have been self-harm.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Okay. Had not heard that one.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: One last question.

MICHAEL: Sure.

GLENN: Is there a -- is there something that we could be doing right now, other than sitting on our hands and just hoping for the best now? Is there something that we should be doing or we should be encouraging some other country to be doing?

MICHAEL: Yeah. We should be sitting down with China and saying, what is it going to take for you to turn on these people once and for all? And, frankly, Glenn, if they have --

GLENN: Oh. Did we lose him again?

MICHAEL: -- of food and they don't have concentration camps, I'm fine with it.

GLENN: You're saying: If -- if China would just roll in and they were still communists, but they were fed and no concentration camps...

MICHAEL: Right. Communism in the Chinese model, do you know what I mean? I could live with that. They don't have to have some Western liberal democracy. As long as they don't have to live in constant fear that their children are going to be murdered, that's all I need.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: How old were you when you left the former Soviet Union?

MICHAEL: Two years old.

GLENN: And your parents came over here with you, when?

MICHAEL: '78.

GLENN: So they escaped and knew what they were escaping?

MICHAEL: Oh, yes. Oh, of course. And it wasn't anywhere near as bad towards the end as it had been, you know, when they were growing up. And it certainly wasn't anywhere near as bad as North Korea.

GLENN: Do you watch the TV show The Americans?

MICHAEL: I couldn't because they have being patriotic Russians, and that wasn't a thing. By the '80s, everyone was cynical and knew that the system was nonsense.

PAT: Huh. Wow.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Okay. So I'd love to have you on, maybe again tomorrow. Because I'd like to talk to you about what it's like to live in a communist country.

MICHAEL: Oh, absolutely.

GLENN: What you know. And how we've kind of blown it here on our side. And maybe perhaps you have some insight on Putin as well, on --

MICHAEL: Well, I'll just tell you one sentence: We fought the KGB, and now we have the NSA. No, I'm not joking. I'm not joking. What's the difference?

PAT: Oh, man.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Mike, good to have you on. Michael Malice. MichaelMalice.com. MichaelMalice.com. You can buy the book, Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Biography of Kim Jong-il, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow a little bit about, you know, what it's like to live in a communist country and what your family saw and how that relates to today. Thank you so much, Michael. We'll talk to you again.

MICHAEL: Thank you so much, Glenn.

GLENN: You bet.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Whitney Webb EXPOSES the Shocking Rise of the Surveillance State

Big Tech and the government are using AI not just to watch us... but to predict us. Glenn Beck and Whitney Webb expose how predictive analytics and Digital ID systems are turning surveillance into pre‑crime, threatening the very notion of freedom. Are we about to live in a world where an algorithm decides your guilt before you act?

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Whitney Webb HERE

RADIO

Glenn Beck predicts THIS is why Democrats won’t end the government shutdown

Glenn and Stu discuss the ongoing government shutdown, noting the unusual lack of media coverage about people affected by it, which they attribute to Democrats being responsible this time rather than Republicans. They argue that mainstream media bias protects Democrats from political pressure, making the shutdown likely to last longer. The conversation shifts to broader economic concerns, including rising gold prices as a sign of global instability and speculation that major financial changes may be coming.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: And, of course, the government shutdown, still continues to throw people out on the streets.

STU: It does.

GLENN: Well, I haven't seen any coverage on that.

STU: You know, I haven't seen any either. It's weird. How many of these have we been through, Glenn, over the years? An uncountable amount.

GLENN: And before they even start, they're at the food banks going, there's not enough food in the food bank. These people will be starving within, you know, two days.

STU: Yeah, if you happen to have a fetish for single moms, great way to find them: Watch the shutdown coverage. They'll always find new single moms in your area.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: That are about to have their economies crushed because of his oncoming government shutdown, every single time, except this one. This one, I haven't met anyone yet.

GLENN: So true. So true.

I have. I listened to the New York Times last week.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: And they were talking about how much they love the military.

STU: Oh.

GLENN: And how --

STU: That's believable.

GLENN: And how they're concerned they are for all these military moms who are now struggling to make ends meet, even though the president paid the military and the -- the Republicans continue to keep presenting a bill that says, pay the military.

STU: Right.

GLENN: We can argue about everything else. You've got to keep national defense going, pay the military. And they won't do it.

STU: Democrats keep rejecting that one.
GLENN: Yes, over and over again.

STU: And that kind of leads me to my thesis here, Glenn, tell me if you think there's anything to it, which is the reason we haven't met any of the sob stories that we always meet during government shutdowns, is because this one, the, quote, unquote, Democrats are responsible for it. Normally, they blame the Republicans for it. This time, it's almost impossible to come up with a coherent argument to make that happen.

GLENN: Correct. So may I express this a different way?

STU: Sure.

GLENN: The mainstream media is just a propaganda organ for the Democratic Party.

STU: Oh, yes. Maybe that's it. Maybe that is it. Because I'm fascinated by that. I've always found that to be kind of silly. Right?

You can always find individual people who are going through a tough time, based on any policy, right know

GLENN: You close it for three days. It's not been -- isn't this the longest shutdown in history, I think?

STU: Not yet. No. But it is -- let's see if I --

GLENN: Since when. Since when. I've not seen one go this long.

STU: There's one in Trump's administration, that's gone 35 days I think. Which was the record. The longest record was 35 days. Kalshi has a market on this, to see. Which is interesting. Fifty-five percent chance it goes over 35 days.

GLENN: Oh, I think he could go through Christmas.

STU: Well, it's hard to -- you think Christmas?

GLENN: I mean, the Democrats are -- as long as the Democrats will not negotiate, I mean, the Republicans keep saying, okay. Look, we'll fund it. And let's just go, but we're not adding new stuff. And we're not cutting laws that were just passed. You know what I mean?

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: So we'll just fund this, and let's just continue to work it out. They won't even do that. It's like -- Friday, I think was the 12th vote they had held. And Democrats were just like, nope!

STU: And they were promising votes on their stupid health care requests.

Like they're trying to give things.

GLENN: Yeah. We'll give you the vote on health care.

STU: What will stop this, right?

The only thing that stops these things are perceived political consequences.

And so right now, what you have is a situation where in theory -- like, in theory, they can -- maybe the American people decide, it's the Republican's fault, it's Trump's fault. But Trump is not typically, like, a guy who folds to that type of pressure.

At times, he will give to his own side.
Like, you know, he said stuff like, well, take the guns first.

Then we will have the trials.

And then the Second Amendment people were like, no. It's not the right order there.

And to his credit, he listened to his constituents.

Sort of changed on that.

We've seen situations like that. Very rarely though, do you see, hey, the media is complaining a lot about Donald Trump. He will change what he is saying.

If anything, it makes him double or triple down.

GLENN: I think they wanted to have the No Kings.

Remember, they kept saying, "We will get to the No Kings. We will get to the No Kings," talking about the government shutdown on the No Kings thing.

That wasn't the point of the No Kings thing.

STU: Right. It wasn't being covered at all.

GLENN: The Democrats got no gain out of that.

STU: No. And that's the other side of this.

Which is, typically the way this might work, is Democrats start this over a policy concern. Like Republicans have done this.

They started a shutdown over a policy concern.

And at some point, when it doesn't seem like the policy concern will be resolved.

They start feeling pressure, that they are the ones holding the government closed. They start feeling the government pressure.

And they fold. That's usually what Republicans wind up doing in these situations.

The issue here is, number one. They're not getting any pressure from the media.

That's not being built at all.

There's no pressure from the Democrats to fold on this issue.

The only pressure that exists from the Democrats is to hold the line.

Because what they're getting is pressure from their left flank, saying, hey. You guys better not give in to Donald Trump.

So the length of this shutdown, seeming could be a very long, long period.

Because really, the only crack you're seeing right now are -- I will say, some on the right. Who are saying, actually, we should give a bunch of subsidies for Obamacare.

There are some on the right doing that. That is, I think, the only crack we've seen on either side so far.

GLENN: I would really like to see in this time, somebody in the Republican side, making the case about Obamacare and freeing up the medical system.

STU: Yeah. Right.

GLENN: Why -- why do they not have another plan?

This is the time. This is the time.

No, I shouldn't say that. Every day, since 2009, has been the time to have this plan.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: And they -- they just -- they never do it. They never do it.

STU: Bits and pieces of stuff. That's not what their desire is.

GLENN: I talked to Dr. Oz. I know --

STU: This is a very strange sentence. But go ahead.

GLENN: I know. I talked to Dr. Oz. And I know at HHS, they are working on plans to dismantle a lot of this stuff and put the free market back in charge. But they're doing it at the state level. I've got to have him back on. Because, I mean, nobody paid attention to this. I had an interview with him. Just, everybody paid attention to the other thing he was talking about -- oh, the -- the -- the jab. Why would we would -- you know, why we would partner with, what was it? Moderna, or who it was recently, for the drugs -- or, Pfizer for the, you know, drug discount. Everybody paid attention to that. In that same interview, he was talking about going to the states and tying their money, their government funding for Medicaid, and Medicare, tying that directly to ending this hostage situation, with, you know, no insurance over state lines. Once they allow the whole -- the whole country and insurance companies to offer plans over the whole country, the dynamics change entirely. The -- financial incentives. The payouts. Everything changes. And that's supposed to be happening in the next 30, 40 days. And we would see it in the next year. I would love to see them start to come up with new plans. Why do you have this face? Looking at me.

STU: No, I'm -- I'm listening to you.

But also, looking at just something I'm noticing, on -- on these markets for how long the shutdown will last.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: So it has been -- like I'm looking at over 40 days, for example.

It has been a slow and steady rise. Like, at the beginning, it was a 10 percent chance it would go over 40 days. Slow and steady rise, all the way up to a 55 percent, 57 percent chance as of five hours ago. The last five hours, it's dropped from 57 to 38. Now, famously people -- there's a lot of people on these markets. A lot of people who know a lot about these things in these markets. We saw a -- a -- we have seen many things happen.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Like, who is going to play -- who is going to play -- who will win the Nobel Prize was one of them.

Person who was not barely listed at 1 percent suddenly in the last few hours, kind of shot up.

Somebody who knows something. Was in there, buying, buying, buying.

All of a sudden, multiple of these markets, more than 35 days has also dropped from 70 percent, as of five hours ago.

GLENN: I've not seen anything in the news, at all, so that's inside information.

STU: It could be. It could be. It could just be somebody guessing. That's a big bet to guess.

These markets have decent liquidity.

Kind of -- kind of interesting, Glenn. I don't know.

It could be absolutely nothing. This market has had over $13 million bet on it.

You know, how long these things go. To move them, sometimes could be a lot of money. Yes.

GLENN: That's a lot of money.

The other thing. What is gold? Is it still at 4325 today? It was this morning. I mean, that is --

STU: 4363.

GLENN: 4363.

STU: I mean, you want to talk about a chart that is consistent. I mean, it's consistent up movement from the beginning of 2024, till today, but really rocketship up in the last three months.

GLENN: This is the world saying, things are changing.

That's the -- that's the -- the thing you have to take from that, is the world is saying, the financial center will not hold, as far as the -- the way we have set up the entire world with America being the -- you know, the big mover and shaker.

You know, when -- when Biden went in and said, we will take all these assets from Russia. He violated that system.

We're no longer going to let them use the SWIFT movement. All of that began this unraveling. Something is happening. This is big money saying, something big is coming. And I want to be prepared for it.

And it's disturbing. You should keep your eye on gold. That is a disturbing sign of instability. I can't at this point go any further than that. And I hope that it slows down or stops or reverses itself.

We do not want 5,000 that are gold. You know, and there -- I mean, Goldman Sachs came out I think last week, 6,000. Was it six or 7,000-dollar gold? In the next year!

RADIO

The real agenda of the 'No Kings' movement revealed

The “No Kings” movement has a major issue that can lead to America’s destruction: The protesters on the ground don’t realize what the movement actually wants. Glenn reviews the big questions that every American must ask before protesting and the secret to finding the truth…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. Let me just -- I wish I would have thought on this on Friday, before the No Kings. Because but we're not done with these stupid things. Before anybody raises a sign. Before you chant a stupid slogan. Before you pledge allegiance toward a movement, or a political party.

I want you to stop. And I want you to ask yourself, one simple question. Why am I here?

We live in a time where outrage is easy, and thinking is really hard. We live in a time when it feels good to belong, and very dangerous to question. We live in a time where emotion is mistaken for morality. And that is exactly how free people become unfree, okay?

Not because tyranny kicks down the door one night, but because we handed the keys in the name of change. When we're not thinking!

So before you do anything, before you march, before you protest, before you make a sign, before you argue with somebody, pause. And think to yourself, "Why am I drawn to this?"

When you're watching things on X, "Why am I drawn to this? Is it anger? Is it fear? Is it guilt, or is it principle?"

When I want to stand up for something, I don't want to do it in anger, I don't want to do it in fear, I don't want to do it in guilt. I want to do it in principle. And having a principle means you have a deeply held belief, that this cause reflects truth and justice.

Now, be careful. Be really careful. Because you may have been convinced that you're right, because of what you're against. But what is right and what you're against are not the same thing. For instance, right now, with conservatives, I guess it's becoming more and more popular to be against Israel. Okay. That's fine. You don't have to agree with Israel. I don't ask you to agree with Israel. I don't want to fight their fights. I don't agree with their policies on everything. They're not the United States of America. They're their own country. So I disagree with them, just like I disagree with Britain, sometimes.

Okay? I don't really care. But being against Israel does not mean the same as being for Hamas. You've joined something the different. That means, you have allowed your passions and your feelings to rule over you. That's why it -- that's why everybody wants to make something -- you know, a,that's why our Declaration of Independence and does our country has lasted 250 years. It's the only revolutionary document that's ever lasted. And only one. Only one in world history, that ended with the same people that started the revolution.

The only one!

Why?

Because it didn't start with anger. It started with principles. We hold these things to be self-evident. We don't want to be against something.

Being against Trump, you can be against Trump!

But that doesn't mean you're for Antifa. Being for justice doesn't mean you're anti-ICE. Unless your passions have overcome your logic.

So the first thing you have to do. Why am I here?

And if I strip away the crowd. The pressure. The popularity. Would I be standing here? If no one ever knew that I joined. If there were no such things as likes. No cameras. No praise. In fact, if everyone I knew and admired were against this, would I still believe it, and do it?

If the answer is no to that, then you're not following conviction. You're following a crowd.

You have to be convicted, that even if I stand alone, I'm willing to do it.

So what does this movement stand for?

Am I willing to stand all by myself? Do you know? How many interviews this weekend did you hear, "I don't know?"

And they always say the same thing, "I don't want to talk to you." Why?

Because they can't answer the question. They don't have any idea what this is about! Other than the bumper sticker or the press release, do you know what the real agenda is? What is the goal?

Who is behind it?

What methods are they willing to use to get there? Do the ends justify the means?

Now, this is really important. Because people are starting to believe, yeah. I can kill people.

That's what -- honestly, Virginia, you may not look at it this way. But this is the way I look at it at the Virginian elections. Virginia, have you decided that the ends justify the means. Then it doesn't matter if people say, I can kill their children to change their political point of view. The ends justify the means.

Okay? If the ends justify the means, you have to ask yourself this question: What principles or freedoms have to be or are okay to sacrifice for that end?

Because once you start sacrificing those things like saying it's okay to kill children for political purposes, you become Hamas in the end.

History has a real warning for us. Every single authoritarian movement. Left or right, it doesn't matter. All of them promised liberation. Every single one.

They promised equity, justice, safety.

And they delivered control, science, and fear. If the message of a movement -- if the -- if the methods of the movement betray its message, if it has to sensor or coerce, if liberties have to be violated, then it's not liberation. It's manipulation.

If they have to manipulate people and cut corners, coerce, sensor, or betray liberties to get there, they will not stop doing it.

Next question you have to ask: Does this movement make people more free or more dependent?

Freedom is not just the absence of chains.

Okay?

This was the big thing -- this was the big went -- that Booker T. Washington was all about.

You can be free, but not know how to be free unless you're educated. Unless you're willing to stand on your own. Here's a slave that pulled himself out.

Divide all of the odds. Became one of the greatest black Americans in American history.

And he was talking about being more independent. Not dependent. That's what freedom is.

It's not the absence of chains. It is the presence of responsibility.

So if you think that freedom means, I don't have responsibility, I don't have to do anything, you will be under the chains of somebody else.

Because that means somebody else has to do those things. Has to feed you. And so they will require you to do things, because they're feeding you.

Ask, does this movement actually promote policies that trust have I seen to make decisions for themselves? Or do the people leading this, believe they know better than everyone else?

Will it hand more people power, to bureaucrats, and experts, and elites.

Does it always defend free speech? Especially for those who disagree. Or does it silence them in the name of progress?

Does it expand choice, or does it force compliance?

The only choice -- only choice you could say is the one that the right says, and I believe is not a choice. To kill another human being.

I don't believe that's a choice, if you're a doctor. And you want to give somebody medication, to end their life. I don't believe it's a choice for you, you can kill yourself if you want.

But I'm not going to help you do it.

And I don't think it's a choice to kill a baby.

It's not! It's not a choice. That's the only choice, that -- that they always point to. My body, my choice.

Well, but if it's your body, how come you're forcing everyone to take a vaccine, that not everybody wants?

That has to be consistent. If it's not consistent, then you are living a lie. You are picking and choosing the choices you want.

You don't actually believe in choice.

If it makes people less capable, of living without the state.

It's not freedom.

It's dependency dressed up as compassion.

If I want others to be free, what does that require of me?

We love talking about freedom in this country. We love it. As if it's something that politicians can hand out.

You know, vote for me. More freedom. What?

It's not!

Freedom is not sustained by our laws. Freedom is sustained by our character. This is what this means. It means, you have to defend the right of people that you despise. Not just those who you like and agree with. You must stand for the rights of people you despise!

You must stand for the rights of people to say horrible things, that you despise! Otherwise, you don't actually believe in freedom and freedom of speech!

See, freedom requires you to do the hard work. And the hard work that nobody is doing.

Understanding issues deeply. Reading the original sources. Not the headlines. Not the clippings.

Not the tweets!

Anybody who gets their news off of Twitter and Facebook, you are less educated and less informed than the people who read nothing at all!

You have to do the hard work. And you have to do the hard work of mastering yourself. Your impulse. Your ignorance. Your anger. So you don't become the thing you're fighting against.

Has anybody noticed, that when you're watching these carouse. The biggest thing is hypocrisy.

You're like, are you kidding me?

You're saying these things. Do you not know that you are the thing that you're fighting against?

And freedom requires courage. To stand alone. It requires virtue. It requires humility. And it requires the truth. But how do I know what's true?

GLENN: So this is the hardest part of all, I think. And that is, how do I find what is true? How do I know what is true?

Truth doesn't come prepackaged as a slogan.
Truth is not usually found in a trending hashtag. Truth requires years and years and years of work. Most importantly, it requires humility.

If you're searching for truth, you must be willing to change your belief or your behavior when you find it. If not, you're not actually searching for truth.

Okay? Ask yourself. Am I willing to challenge my own belief?

Am I willing to end up at a place where I don't believe any of that stuff. I thought I believed it.

But I don't. It's shocking to me.

But I don't. If you're not willing to go there. Then you're not seeking truth.

You know, are you seeking voices you disagree with.

Or just people that are echoing what you believe.

Who benefits if I believe this?

Who benefits?

Who profits? Who gains power?

Truth has nothing to fear from questions. All kinds of -- you don't ever have to fear. Truth doesn't care.

Okay? Lies have a lot to fear.

So here's a test you should run, before you commit to picking up or making any sign.

This is something you should commit to, before you go to Thanksgiving.

If your side achieved everything they wanted, every law, every reform, every revolution. Would ordinary people become more self-governing and more responsible and more free, or more managed, more dependent, and more controlled?

If the answer is the latter, do not join them, no matter how righteous they may sound. Do not join them. No matter how noble their intentions, do not join them.

Because tyranny wrapped in good intentions still is tyranny. We're standing on a knife's edge as a nation. I mean, have you seen the price of gold today? What is it? Forty-three --

STU: Over 4300, yeah.

GLENN: $4,300. Does that mean anything to you?

If it doesn't, you should check it out. It does. It does.

It's going to mean something to you, in the end. It means the rest of the world is saying, "I'm not sure about this whole system, that it's going to last." That should change everything that you think.

It should change the way you say, "Well, okay. I used to like this program. But I'm not sure we could afford this program anymore."

You know, I used to vote for this person, but that person will not stop the spending. I want my kids to be able to have freedom. I -- I may not like everything about America. But I think America is the best system out there. I don't want it -- you know, I -- what is it?

Singapore, or something. One of the really -- I think it was Afghanistan. Saw some numbers this weekend. Afghanistan has arrested lining 2000 people for, you know, speech problems.

In the last year. 2000 people have gone to jail. For something they posted or something they said.

Twelve thousand people have gone to jail in Great Britain this year for the same thing. Twelve thousand people have gone to jail for free speech.
One of them is a kid who said, "I love bacon!"

We're on this knife's edge. And the difference between liberty and bondage is going to come down to whether ordinary people start asking better questions. Before you march, before you say anything, are you thinking? Before you join, have you learned? Have you spent the time to ask any questions? Before you speak, do you understand what you're actually saying?

Before you follow, make sure you're walking towards freedom, not away with it. And check the people you're following.

Is this a group of people, that 25 years ago, you would have been comfortable with?

And I mean that saying, you know, I don't think any of us were fine with walking with communists.

I don't think we were fine walking with anarchists.

None of us were.

So they're not walking towards freedom. They're walking away from freedom.

Why are you walking with them?

History is really clear. Nations don't lose their liberty all at once. They lose it one unasked question at a time.

RADIO

Is THIS why Trump sent CIA and B-52 bombers to Venezuela?!

President Trump is cracking down even harder on Venezuelan cartels. He has bombed boats carrying drugs, flown B-52 bombers off Venezuela's coast, and just recently authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela. So, why so much focus on Venezuela? Glenn and Stu discuss their theories, including Maduro's mysterious island with connections to Iran and Hezbollah...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: How do you feel about this kind of flying under the radar. We have B2 bombers flying over Venezuela. We're blowing boats out of the water.

STU: You know, how under the radar is it when we're blowing up boats in the international waters?

GLENN: Well, it's not under the radar. It's like, nobody is really talking about it.

STU: It doesn't seem like the highest priority, I will say.

And usually, when we're in the middle of what seems to be a conflict. By the way, the only way we would be able to do this, legally. Is by basically saying, we are in some sort of conflict with them. Right?

Like, we have to -- Andy McCarthy had a long write up about this, a read about a couple weeks ago. When it comes down to justifying a strike like this. We have to be able to sort of say, we're in some sort of conflict. You don't just do that typically. Now, the question, of course, the --

GLENN: The War on Drugs.

STU: Right. He broke it down. It might be worth explaining this at some point.

GLENN: War on terror. Yeah, yeah.

STU: But he's concerned about what's the process to get to the decision. Not, of course, whether we want drug dealers here. Nobody wants that. But there is a legal process that has to happen. And at his seem like it also has to escalate beyond just the cartel situation. Remember too, Trump's first term.

GLENN: Tried to get Maduro out.

STU: Very clearly. The Peace Prize winner, right? Someone from Venezuela, who dedicated to Donald Trump, knowing that Trump has fought really hard for the people of Venezuela, whether you agree with what he's doing or not. He does really care about the situation.

GLENN: He also knows something.

And, you know, I'm -- I'm -- I'm not surprised, the press isn't talking about Margarita Island, but I think that's one of the main reasons why he's --

STU: You're talking about Margaritaville?

GLENN: No Margarita Island. It's just off the coast of Venezuela. It's run by Maduro.

STU: Jimmy Buffett.

GLENN: No. Jimmy Buffett has nothing to do with it. Not involved at all. The Iranians have a lot to do with it. It's a Hezbollah-Hamas training island. And Maduro has been sending Venezuelans and gangs to that island, just off that coast, to train for terrorist activities.

They train there, and then they fly over to Iran, to finish their training. They come back to Venezuela, and then they're unleashed, wherever Maduro wants them unleashed.

So there is actually a terrorist camp that is part of this. And we have been talking about it, you know, on my show. Television. I don't even know.

Five years. Six years. We found this out. And kind of been wondering, why are we not going after this?

Why -- why are we not at least talking about this terror island?

You're looking it up right now, aren't you?

STU: Yeah. Looking at it, just how, first of all, very close to the coast. But you look at the islands that are around it are massive vacation destinations, like Aruba.

GLENN: That's not.

STU: What is that?

GLENN: Margaret Island is not a vacation destination.

STU: No, that's what I'm saying. It's fascinating. Like, you book a trip to Barbados, and you're, what? A couple hundred miles away from a terrorist island.

GLENN: A terrorist island. Yeah. Did you even know that?

STU: I didn't.

GLENN: That's Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran --

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: -- in bed with Maduro.

And I'm convinced that this is one of the main things that he's going for. I mean, yes. He is -- I mean, this is Tren de Aragua. Or whatever the hell that thing is. That -- that's part of this.

The unleashing of the prisons. That's also part of this. I mean, this is Maduro trying to unleash along with the Iranians, unleash chaos on our streets.

And I don't know why we don't talk about it. Because I think that's a better case, that's a cigar boat that has drugs in it.

You know.

STU: Yeah. I mean, that seems like it. How -- what's your feeling on the drug boat thing?

Have you spent a lot of time thinking this one out?

And isn't it interesting --

GLENN: I know as an American, I should. I haven't.

STU: It's kind of -- well, it's sort of --

GLENN: That's what I mean flying under the radar.

STU: It's sort of commentary of what you're just saying. It has flown under the radar for a lot of people. Mainly because I think we all recognize there's a real problem with obviously, not just illegal immigration. We always summarize it as illegal immigration. These are people oftentimes that are criminals, drug dealers. Gang members that are coming across the border and committing --

GLENN: Terrorists. Terrorists.

STU: Yeah. It's not just the mom who is trying to get a job here, that's better for her children. That's a separate economic issue associated with that.

But when you talk about drugs coming in. First of all, this is something Trump has been very clear about. Does not want this going on.

And I think we all -- the ends are there. For sure.

The means, I guess are the question. And, you know, what's interesting about this is, you feel like, it's all about a message being sent.

Right?

There's no reason why in theory, we could be the not just stopped these vessels. You know what I mean?

We could pull. We could get the Coast Guard over there. We could get the Navy.

There's all sorts of different things we could do to stop these boats. We're blowing it up, and telling everybody about it, for a reason. And I think quite clearly, this has caused a maritime decrease in traffic, if you will.

From Venezuela. To here.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

STU: This is seemingly working quite well.

The question is, process-wise, is it aligning with what we should be doing?

GLENN: Here's my guess.

Because you know how much Trump hates war. He hates war.

He'll use military force.

But he likes to use quick force. And getting things done.

And he likes overwhelming torso.

STU: And public.

GLENN: Yeah. He likes -- he's sending a message. Not just to Venezuela. He's sending it to the whole world.

And after this last week, where he has walked around like the victor of the world. And all of the other nations coming to him. And bowing knee. And going, okay.

Yeah. Thank you. We're good. We're good.

He is sending a message to three countries, I think.

He's sending a message to Iran. Which is tied right directly to Russia.

And also Venezuela. Which is also tied to China! And Iran.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: And I think -- I think he's -- I think he wants this week, especially to be a week that Maduro goes, "You know, things might be changing. I don't know if this is the right" -- and I think he's just using very strong images and power.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: He's using it the right way, to say, back off, buddy. Don't do it right now.

And also, I don't like this. Sending the CIA in.

I just don't trust the CIA in anything anymore.

STU: That's a new development, as of the last 24 hours, that we found out about it. Can you explain that? What are we doing there?

GLENN: Don't really know. Don't really know. Trying to go after the drug lords is what we're saying, but this is also what we kind of do with regime change, you know.

STU: And we've attempted literal regime change with this country. And we've not --

GLENN: Correct. He's a bad guy.

STU: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: He is part of -- he is a drug lord. Maduro was this bus driver. He's now the head of the drug crime syndicate called the sun or something like that. So he's actually a drug lord himself now. So he's not the sweet little bus driver he used to be.

STU: Moving on up.

GLENN: Moving on up. And making friends with all of the wrong people. At least on our hemisphere.

STU: I will say this. If you were a Venezuelan citizen, would you take a boat outside of your territorial waters for --

GLENN: I wouldn't put a boat in my bathtub.

STU: Yeah. They -- they -- they really need to come up with a new way to get their drugstores here.

I think that's probably been a big focus of these networks now.

Because it's difficult to do by land.

GLENN: This is -- this is kind of what I expected him to do in Mexico.

And that's -- that might be another thing.

If he's -- if he's going after the drug lords. If you start to see these trucking lords just show up dead. He's sending that message to Mexico. You know, I'll do it. I'll do it.

You're not safe wherever you are. And it might have been easier for him to do it in Venezuela. Or so he thinks. Than in Mexico.

And so he's sending that message. Because the drug lords in Mexico are sending big messages to him.

STU: Yeah. I mean, they're putting bounties on ICE members.

GLENN: Oh, yeah. Up to $50,000. Yeah. You kill a certain rank of ICE or politician. And they'll give you 50 grand.

I mean, this is the wild west. When it comes to these -- these drug runners and these cartels. It's become the Wild West. And I think that -- I think that play plays a role.

Glenn's Show Prep

‘Everyone Is Watching Each Other’: Author Explains North Korea’s Isolation From the World

Whitney Webb EXPOSES the Shocking Rise of the Surveillance State

Glenn Beck predicts THIS is why Democrats won’t end the government shutdown

Transcript

The real agenda of the 'No Kings' movement revealed

Transcript

Is THIS why Trump sent CIA and B-52 bombers to Venezuela?!

Transcript