CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: April 22nd

April 22, 2020

WRITER

Glenn gives the latest coronavirus numbers, updating YOU on everything needed to know as Americans and officials monitor China's new COVID-19 virus:

Daily Stats as of 5:30 AM CT (from John's Hopkins)

Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 2,573,471 (up from 2,498,474 Yesterday)
Total Confirmed Deaths Worldwide: 178,558 (up from 171,332 Yesterday)
Total Confirmed Recovered Worldwide: 701,838 (up from 657,808 Yesterday)
The US has 819,175 Confirmed Cases and 45,343 Deaths, up from 792,938 cases and 42,518 deaths yesterday
The US currently has 14,016 people in Serious or Critical Condition, up from 13,887 yesterday
The US has now tested 4,190,002 people, with 21% of tests showing positive for SARS-CoV-2

Food/Meat Rationing Hits US https://finance.yahoo.com/news/food-rationing-reality-buyers-once-230000895.html

At a Publix store in St. Petersburg, Florida, handmade signs limit customers to two packages of beef, pork and Italian sausage products.
In Toronto, shoppers at a west end Loblaws can't buy more than two dozen eggs and two gallons of milk.
Shoppers at Walmart in Utah were limited to no more than 2 of any item from the stores Meat department.
Across the US, grocers have started limiting the amount of meat and other products whose supply chains have been impacted by COVID-19 outbreaks.
"The thing I'm struck by, in the U.S., we're so used to walking down a supermarket aisle and having thousands of choices," said Heidi Heitkamp, a former North Dakota Senator and current member of Alliant Group's strategic advisory board. "Now that's not what people see on the shelves and it's a little unnerving.
"But what everyone should be grateful for is that you can walk into any supermarket in a major metro area and you can still find food to eat. That's a critically important national security concern."
"Once we see the impact of workers testing positive in the meat packing plants, we're going to see a shortage of meat," said Heitkamp, the former senator.
49% of U.S. shoppers report their supermarket has had products out of stock, according to one industry survey. On popular items, "they could consider limits based on where the grocer may be located and when their supplier or wholesalers can get them product," industry analysts said in a report.

Iowa Governor "Meat Packers Must Remain Open" https://apnews.com/e4d88c7f43d429fd01c58c8bc08ab4e2

Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday that Iowa's meatpacking plants must stay open despite coronavirus outbreaks that have sickened hundreds of workers, saying that shutting them down would be devastating for farmers and the nation's food supply.
"But these are also essential businesses and an essential workforce," she said. "Without them, people's lives and our food supply will be impacted. So we must do our part to keep them open in a safe and responsible way."
If hogs are unable to be processed, farmers may "have to consider euthanizing" them, the governor said. "We're not that far from that and it will be devastating not only for the food supply but for the cost of food moving forward," she said.
The Tama National beef plant resumed limited production Monday after a two-week shutdown, employees said, despite the news that 177 workers out of more than 500 tested were positive.
Tyson Foods also said that its pork plant in Waterloo remained open, defying pleas from the mayor and other officials to temporarily close for cleaning and additional testing of workers.
Coronavirus cases in Black Hawk County have doubled in recent days to 356, with 90 percent of them traced to Tyson plant workers. The county reported two more deaths on Monday, both former Tyson employees.

Let Them Eat Ice Cream https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/21/biden-spent-nearly-11-thousand-on-pelosi-favorite-ice-cream/

Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign has spent nearly $11,000 on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's favorite ice-cream, which she has come under fire for after showing off her collection in an interview.
According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Biden's campaign has spent $10,600 on Pelosi's favorite ice cream as donor gifts between May 2019 and March 2020.
The description for the ice-cream in the FEC filing says "donor gifts." The Daily Caller contacted the Biden campaign to ask about the gifts but did not immediately receive a response.
Jeni's Gourmet Ice Cream has also responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic by offering customers free to download Zoom backgrounds featuring selections of Jeni's Gourmet flavors.
President Donald Trump's campaign released an advertisement Monday blasting Pelosi for focusing on eating ice cream instead of working with Congress to put together legislation for coronavirus funding.

VA Study: No Benefit From Taking HydroxyChloroquine https://apnews.com/a5077c7227b8eb8b0dc23423c0bbe2b2

A malaria drug widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus showed no benefit in a study of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals. There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported.
The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment. But with 368 patients, it's the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine with or without the antibiotic azithromycin for COVID-19, which has killed more than 171,000 people as of Tuesday.
Researchers analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at VA medical centers who either died or were discharged by April 11.
About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. About 22% of those getting the drug plus azithromycin died too, but the difference between that group and usual care was not considered large enough to rule out other factors that could have affected survival.
Hydroxychloroquine made no difference in the need for a breathing machine, either.
The study was posted on an online site for researchers and has not been peer reviewed by other scientists. Grants from the National Institutes of Health and the University of Virginia paid for the work.

Total US COVID-19 Deaths Double Over Last 8 Days https://news.trust.org/item/20200421211344-sn3xj

U.S. coronavirus deaths doubled in a little over a week and rising by a near-record amount in a single day.
U.S. deaths increased by more than 2,750 on Tuesday alone, just shy of a peak of 2,806 deaths in a single day on April 15.
Officials reminded the public that deaths are a lagging indicator since the average victim takes 24 days to succumb to the disease.
New reported U.S. cases appear to be slowing this week, rising by less than 30,000 a day for the past four days through Tuesday.
The United States had a high of 35,392 new cases on April 4.

First West Texas, Now Northsea Brent Crude Crashes https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-brent-crude-hits-1999-lows-as-oil-prices-continue-to-fall-072702942.html

Brent Crude, Europe's equivalent to West Texas Intermediary crude oil, crashed to levels not seen in 3 decades yesterday and is trading at levels well below production cost.
More than 140 Million Barrels are being stored at sea, according to one industry survey.
Some companies have taken to floating barrels chained together to form 'barrel rafts', a practice not seen since barrels of oil were floated down the Mississippi River in the early 1900s.
In Europe, demand for Petrol has dropped by over 30% since April 1st, as more and more countries limit travel and have closed borders.

Mexico Enters Phase III of Outbreak, Deaths Spike https://news.yahoo.com/mexico-entered-most-serious-phase-125222515.html

Mexico has entered what the government calls "Phase 3" of the spread of the new coronavirus, the most serious stage, as transmission of the virus is intensifying.
Mexico has registered 712 coronavirus deaths and 8,772 infections, with 511 new cases reported on Monday.
But health officials expect the real number to be substantially higher as Mexico has limited testing capacity.
The government's "Sentinel Surveillance" mathematical model estimated there were 55,951 cases across the country, and estimated over 2,800 deaths due to COVID-19. Hospitals in Mexico City reported nearly 3,000 more deaths so far in April compared to the same month last year.
Mexico's leftist leader, President Obrador once again vowed that the country would not enforce "authoritarian" measures such as curfews or travel restrictions, which other countries around the globe have implemented.
He has come under fire for downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak, and as recently as last week had allowed a bullfight in Mexico City, with nearly 28,000 spectators in attendance.

Survey: 4 in 5 Households Report COVID-19 Lockdowns Bring Family Closer Together https://www.studyfinds.org/quarantine-quality-time-4-in-5-parents-say-coronavirus-lockdown-has-brought-family-closer-together/

British study finds 4 out of 5 Parents report lockdowns have brought the family closer together.
Six in ten say they're happier with their spouse or partner than ever before.
A Quarter of respondents say the extra time together has improved their sex life.
The survey finds that half of families are getting together to play board games and make puzzles. Another 30% say they've formed book clubs and read together.
And some parents are engaging in new activities with their kids. Just over a quarter of families (28%) have picked up family gardening.
The study was conducted online by MumPoll, and included over 2,000 participants.

NY Times: Massive Undercounting of COVID-19 Deaths Worldwide https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html

There are tens of thousands of "Excess Deaths" across the globe, in a country by country analysis conducted by researchers from the Times.
Examining state medical records and official death statistics, more than 25,000 extra deaths were recorded compared to the same period last year.
The totals include suspected deaths from COVID-19 as well as those from other causes, likely including people who could not be treated as hospitals became overwhelmed.

AREA	PCT. ABOVE NORMAL	EXCESS DEATHS	−	REPORTED COVID-19 DEATHS	=	DIFFERENCE
Spain Mar. 9 - Apr. 5	66%	19,700	−	12,401	=	7,300
England & Wales Mar. 7 - Apr. 10	33%	16,700	−	10,335	=	6,300
New York City Mar. 11 - Apr. 18	298%	17,200	−	13,240	=	4,000
France Mar. 9 - Apr. 5	21%	10,500	−	8,059	=	2,500
Netherlands Mar. 9 - Apr. 5	33%	4,000	−	2,166	=	1,900
Istanbul Mar. 9 - Apr. 12	29%	2,100	−	1,006	=	1,100
Jakarta March	36%	1,000	−	84	=	900
Belgium Mar. 9 - Apr. 5	25%	2,300	−	1,632	=	700
Switzerland Mar. 9 - Apr. 5	21%	1,000	−	712	=	300

Among all countries who included causes, deaths by Automobile-Accident dropped dramatically and was down by over 59% in the US for April compared to 2019.

GLENN

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

GLENN

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

GLENN

Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Getty Images / Handout | Getty Images

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2025? Glenn offers guidance on what conservatives need to do to ensure the conservative movement doesn't fade into oblivion. We have to get back to PRINCIPLES, not policies.

To be a conservative in 2025 means to STAND

for Stewardship, protecting the wisdom of our Founders;
for Truth, defending objective reality in an age of illusion;
for Accountability, living within our means as individuals and as a nation;
for Neighborhood, rebuilding family, faith, and local community;
and for Duty, carrying freedom forward to the next generation.

A conservative doesn’t cling to the past — he stands guard over the principles that make the future possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm so tired of being against everything. Saying what we're not.

It's time that we start saying what we are. And it's hard, because we're changing. It's different to be a conservative, today, than it was, you know, years ago.

And part of that is just coming from hard knocks. School of hard knocks. We've learned a lot of lessons on things we thought we were for. No, no, no.

But conservatives. To be a conservative, it shouldn't be about policies. It's really about principles. And that's why we've lost our way. Because we've lost our principles. And it's easy. Because the world got easy. And now the world is changing so rapidly. The boundaries between truth and illusion are blurred second by second. Machines now think. Currencies falter. Families fractured. And nations, all over the world, have forgotten who they are.

So what does it mean to be a conservative now, in 2025, '26. For a lot of people, it means opposing the left. That's -- that's a reaction. That's not renewal.

That's a reaction. It can't mean also worshiping the past, as if the past were perfect. The founders never asked for that.

They asked that we would preserve the principles and perfect their practice. They knew it was imperfect. To make a more perfect nation.

Is what we're supposed to be doing.

2025, '26 being a conservative has to mean stewardship.

The stewardship of a nation, of a civilization.

Of a moral inheritance. That is too precious to abandon.

What does it mean to conserve? To conserve something doesn't mean to stand still.

It means to stand guard. It means to defend what the Founders designed. The separation of powers. The rule of law.

The belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress, but from the creator himself.
This is a system that was not built for ease. It was built for endurance, and it will endure if we only teach it again!

The problem is, we only teach it like it's a museum piece. You know, it's not a museum piece. It's not an old dusty document. It's a living covenant between the dead, the living and the unborn.

So this chapter of -- of conservatism. Must confront reality. Economic reality.

Global reality.

And moral reality.

It's not enough just to be against something. Or chant tax cuts or free markets.

We have to ask -- we have to start with simple questions like freedom, yes. But freedom for what?

Freedom for economic sovereignty. Your right to produce and to innovate. To build without asking Beijing's permission. That's a moral issue now.

Another moral issue: Debt! It's -- it's generational theft. We're spending money from generations we won't even meet.

And dependence. Another moral issue. It's a national weakness.

People cannot stand up for themselves. They can't make it themselves. And we're encouraging them to sit down, shut up, and don't think.

And the conservative who can't connect with fiscal prudence, and connect fiscal prudence to moral duty, you're not a conservative at all.

Being a conservative today, means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that serves -- survives by debt, and then there's the soul of the nation.

We are living through a time period. An age of dislocation. Where our families are fractured.

Our faith is almost gone.

Meaning is evaporating so fast. Nobody knows what meaning of life is. That's why everybody is killing themselves. They have no meaning in life. And why they don't have any meaning, is truth itself is mocked and blurred and replaced by nothing, but lies and noise.

If you want to be a conservative, then you have to be to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people, liberty cannot survive without virtue.

That freedom untethered from moral order is nothing, but chaos!

And that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void, where meaning used to live!

To be a conservative, moving forward, we cannot just be about policies.

We have to defend the sacred, the unseen, the moral architecture, that gives people an identity. So how do you do that? Well, we have to rebuild competence. We have to restore institutions that actually work. Just in the last hour, this monologue on what we're facing now, because we can't open the government.

Why can't we open the government?

Because government is broken. Why does nobody care? Because education is broken.

We have to reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul. Conservatives have to champion innovation.

Not to imitate Silicon Valley's chaos, but to harness technology in defense of human dignity. Don't be afraid of AI.

Know what it is. Know it's a tool. It's a tool to strengthen people. As long as you always remember it's a tool. Otherwise, you will lose your humanity to it!

That's a conservative principle. To be a conservative, we have to restore local strength. Our families are the basic building blocks, our schools, our churches, and our charities. Not some big, distant NGO that was started by the Tides Foundation, but actual local charities, where you see people working. A web of voluntary institutions that held us together at one point. Because when Washington fails, and it will, it already has, the neighborhood has to stand.

Charlie Kirk was doing one thing that people on our side were not doing. Speaking to the young.

But not in nostalgia.

Not in -- you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

In purpose. They don't remember. They don't remember who Dick Cheney was.

I was listening to Fox news this morning, talking about Dick Cheney. And there was somebody there that I know was not even born when Dick Cheney. When the World Trade Center came down.

They weren't even born. They were telling me about Dick Cheney.

And I was like, come on. Come on. Come on.

If you don't remember who Dick Cheney was, how are you going to remember 9/11. How will you remember who Reagan was.

That just says, that's an old man's creed. No, it's not.

It's the ultimate timeless rebellion against tyranny in all of its forms. Yes, and even the tyranny of despair, which is eating people alive!

We need to redefine ourselves. Because we have changed, and that's a good thing. The creed for a generation, that will decide the fate of the republic, is what we need to find.

A conservative in 2025, '26.

Is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government.

While actively stewarding the institutions. The culture. The economy of this nation!

For those who are alive and yet to be unborn.

We have to be a group of people that we're not anchored in the past. Or in rage! But in reason. And morality. Realism. And hope for the future.

We're the stewards! We're the ones that have to relight the torch, not just hold it. We didn't -- we didn't build this Torch. We didn't make this Torch. We're the keepers of the flame, but we are honor-bound to pass that forward, and conservatives are viewed as people who just live in the past. We're not here to merely conserve the past, but to renew it. To sort it. What worked, what didn't work. We're the ones to say to the world, there's still such a thing as truth. There's still such a thing as virtue. You can deny it all you want.

But the pain will only get worse. There's still such a thing as America!

And if now is not the time to renew America. When is that time?

If you're not the person. If we're not the generation to actively stand and redefine and defend, then who is that person?

We are -- we are supposed to preserve what works.

That -- you know, I was writing something this morning.

I was making notes on this. A constitutionalist is for restraint. A progressive, if you will, for lack of a better term, is for more power.

Progressives want the government to have more power.

Conservatives are for more restraint.

But the -- for the American eagle to fly, we must have both wings.

And one can't be stronger than the other.

We as a conservative, are supposed to look and say, no. Don't look at that. The past teaches us this, this, and this. So don't do that.

We can't do that. But there are these things that we were doing in the past, that we have to jettison. And maybe the other side has a good idea on what should replace that. But we're the ones who are supposed to say, no, but remember the framework.

They're -- they can dream all they want.
They can come up with all these utopias and everything else, and we can go, "That's a great idea."

But how do we make it work with this framework? Because that's our job. The point of this is, it takes both. It takes both.

We have to have the customs and the moral order. And the practices that have stood the test of time, in trial.

We -- we're in an amazing, amazing time. Amazing time.

We live at a time now, where anything -- literally anything is possible!

I don't want to be against stuff. I want to be for the future. I want to be for a rich, dynamic future. One where we are part of changing the world for the better!

Where more people are lifted out of poverty, more people are given the freedom to choose, whatever it is that they want to choose, as their own government and everything.

I don't want to force it down anybody's throat.

We -- I am so excited to be a shining city on the hill again.

We have that opportunity, right in front of us!

But not in we get bogged down in hatred, in division.

Not if we get bogged down into being against something.

We must be for something!

I know what I'm for.

Do you?

How America’s elites fell for the same lie that fueled Auschwitz

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.