Morning Brief 2022-07-22

BOTTOM OF HOUR 1

GUEST: Eric Schmitt
TOPIC: Missouri Sheriff refuses to release gun owner info to the FBI, even at the risk of his career.

TOP OF HOUR 2
GUEST: Bill O'Reilly
TOPIC: Bill's top stories of the week!

BOTTOM OF HOUR 2
GUEST: Michael Malice
TOPIC: How self-defense continues to be criminalized.

TOP OF HOUR 3
GUEST: Steve Deace
TOPIC: WATCH OUT: The Left is going to turn monkeypox into the next pandemic. Plus, Steve gives a sneak peek at BlazeTV's explosive special on COVID-19 vaccines.

CB, RR, JB, SK, BM

Domestic News...

Is the Hunter Biden probe delay to protect Dems in the midterms?
DOJ memos warn of “election year sensitivities” in relation to indictments. Yet the probe has stretched out for years now; there’s been plenty of time to make announcements.

Hunter Biden investigation developments 'don't add up', former federal prosecutor says
"None of this adds up. None of it makes sense. Indictments should have been brought when you first started calling witnesses and close thereto, that's standard," former U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman said.

Officials Identify First Case Of Polio In United States In Years
The first case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade was identified in New York Thursday.

Townhall: 10-Year-Old Rape Victim's Mom Is in Domestic Relationship With Child's Alleged Rapist
As the heartbreaking rape case involving an impregnated 10-year-old child unfolds, Townhall has revealed additional details about the exploitative environment the little girl was—and might still be—subjected to.

Steve Deace: Underground training for 'abortion doulas' and DIY abortions in Iowa exposed
An organization calling itself the Iowa Jane Collective recently held "abortion doula" training and instructed participants on how to perform do-it-yourself abortions at home and support women seeking to terminate their pregnancies as states move to restrict the procedure.

Bodycam shows 4-year-old shooting at police while they were arresting his father at McDonald's
Police said the child told them, “I grabbed my dad’s gun and tried to shoot the police so he could be free and do what he wanted.”

Starbucks employees attacked in LA by the homeless
LA Starbucks barista reveals homeless people attacked staff with metal chairs in woke Democrat-led city where illicit drugs are being 'handed out like crack pipes' after firm said it'll shutter 16 stores in US due to violence

Massive brawl breaks out at Disney World between families on line
Two families got into an argument while waiting in line, sparking a fracas that landed at least one man in the hospital.

Politics...

Trump gave order to 'make sure' Jan. 6 rally was 'safe event,' Pentagon memo shows
Gen. Milley’s recollection undercuts months-long effort by Democrats to suggest Trump wanted to incite violence.

Voter confidence in elections has plummeted since Jan. 6: CNN poll
Republicans, the poll showed, saw a modest increase in electoral confidence

GOP Rep. Zeldin attacked at New York gubernatorial campaign event
“I’m OK,” Zeldin said in a statement. “Fortunately, I was able to grab his wrist and stop him for a few moments until others tackled him.” The attacker climbed onto a low stage where the congressman spoke. A video shows the two falling to the ground as other people try to intervene.

Marjorie Taylor Greene rips Dems for 'incredibly hostile work environment' at 'dangerous' Capitol
Greene has had three security incidents near her office that required Capitol Police investigation, plus numerous death threats.

Biden’s pathetic anti-crime package is an empty press release
This is barely a press release, with the headline “$37 billion” and “100,000 new police” numbers meant to sound bold to those not paying attention, even as more than half the cash would go for stuff the left keeps pushing instead of actually getting tough on crime.

Florida Democrats paint DeSantis as 'dictator' and 'a disaster' in primary debate
"He is a disaster of a governor, he's the worst governor in modern Florida history," Crist, who trails DeSantis in the polls by 8-points, said.

In South Texas, Democrats go back to their party's racist roots
Democrats are rapidly losing their hold on the Hispanic vote. A genuine realignment is afoot. It's not enough anymore for Democrats to hurl ethnic insults such as "Tio Taco" and "Coconut" at the candidates in order to intimidate their peers out of voting Republican.

PA Democrat John Fetterman To End Absence From Campaign Trail Two Months After Stroke
Fetterman gave his first media interview since May to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday — emphasizing that although he may “miss a word” or “slur two together” from time to time, he’s “feeling really good” and has “nothing to hide.”

Paul Pelosi's trading demonstrates the need to toughen up the STOCK Act
Just days before the Senate was to vote on a bill benefiting the chip manufacturing industry, financial disclosures show that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, purchased up to $5 million of stock in a top semiconductor company.

Mike Pence to run for President in 2024: adviser
An adviser to Pence told CNN on that Pence has "aspirations" to run for President, stoking further speculation about a 2024 Presidential Election bid.

Lawsuit: Illinois Gov’s Office Made Secret Payments To Former Campaign Aide
Payments were made after she was caught stealing from taxpayers, the lawsuit claims.

Economy...

BlackRock, The King Of ESG, Lost $1.7 Trillion Of Clients’ Money In Just 6 Months
The massive sum is the largest amount of money lost by an individual investment firm over that time period.

Nearly half of small businesses are in hiring freeze, citing inflation and costs
The small business network Alignable released its July Hiring report which found that "45% of small businesses are halting their hiring, largely because they say they can’t afford to add staff.

Trucker strike in the Port of Oakland threatens supply chain disruptions
“The cargo won’t flow / until AB5 goes!” rhymed the protesters.

Tesla sells 75% of its bitcoin amid crypto collapse
“The reason we sold a bunch of our bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain as to when the COVID lockdowns in China would alleviate, so it was important for us to maximize our cash position,” Musk said in an earnings call on Wednesday.

Central Park’s iconic Boathouse to close due to rising costs
He further cited increased labor and insurance costs as the predominant economic hardship the business faced. Recently, these proved too much to overcome, despite the eatery’s consistent popularity.

Border...

DC feels sting of Biden border policy
The flow of illegals, encouraged by Biden and supported by most Democrats, has taxed the resources of border states. What Abbott and Ducey have done, by sending illegals to Washington, which is, after all, a sanctuary city, is spread the burden around.

WAR News... 

Ukraine and Russia to sign grain export agreement, Turkey says
Will sign an agreement Friday to restart grain exports that had been blocked in the Black Sea, according to a Turkish government official.

NPR: Corruption concerns involving Ukraine are revived as the war with Russia drags on
Zelenskyy's dismissal of senior officials is casting an inconvenient light on an issue that the Biden administration has largely ignored since the outbreak of war with Russia: Ukraine's history of rampant corruption and shaky governance.

Ukraine pushes for debt freeze to dodge hard default
Ukraine has asked its creditors for a two year payment freeze on its international bonds in a bid to focus its dwindling financial resources on repelling Russia.

COVID-19...

Biden Takes Maskless Photo In West Wing After Testing Positive For COVID
President Biden took a maskless photo in the White House just hours after officials announced he has symptomatic COVID and would be isolating.

"No One Wants Kamala": Twitter Gets Fooled By Parody Trump Statement
"Doctors described my fight against the China virus as Herculean, and not meaning the woke Disney Hercules but rather the Kevin Sorbo one. The Lou Ferrigno one as well. Joe, I wish you a speedy recovery, even though you are taking America in the wrong direction. No one wants Kamala!”

NIH accidentally unmasks official who hid Chinese-submitted coronavirus data in March 2020
Agency asks court to seal records related to FOIA lawsuit that name NIH "curator" who approved removal request and Chinese researcher who submitted it. Whistleblower support activist says names were publicly available to researchers, not "classified information."

Entertainment...

Russell Brand Rants Against The ‘Great Reset,’ Green Energy ‘Agenda’ to European farmers
“The objective isn’t to get the farmers to behave in an organic, responsible ecologically apposite manner, no, far from it. It’s in order to bankrupt the farmers so that their land can be grabbed,” he said.

Meghan insisted Harry compare her plight to Diana’s, book claims
“Knauf suggested that over-dramatizing Meghan’s distress would backfire, but Harry was adamant. If Meghan’s wish to be equated with Diana was not satisfied, insisted Harry, he would probably lose her. Knauf acquiesced.”

Pat Benatar won't play “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” on tour because of gun violence
There's enough demand for Pat Benatar to go on tour?

Media...

Van Jones on Biden's economy being worse for Black Americans
Remember when the economy under Trump saw record employment for Black Americans?

NY Times columnist admits he was 'wrong' about Trump's supporters, says Russian collusion story was a 'hoax'
Despite this revelation, columnist Bret Stephens argued that he would not be "morally" wrong to "lambaste Trump’s current supporters"

CNN Boss Begs Lawmakers To Do Media Hits On His Network
Chris Licht reportedly met Tuesday with under a dozen lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill to enhance their relationships with the network.

Chris Cuomo Launches Podcast
Will it last longer than CNN+?

Europe...

Million-Dollar Wine Heist Ends With Mexican Beauty Queen Arrested in Europe
Priscila Lara Guevara, former Miss Earth 2016 for Mexico State, and her partner spent months on the run after stealing the bottles from an upscale restaurant hotel in Spain.

Middle East...

Biden’s Failures In The Middle East Are A Gift To American Adversaries
Putin teaches Biden an important lesson: America’s deterrence of adversaries around the world depends on its leadership in the Middle East.

US allies think Iran is playing Biden for time at risk of war
Iran is manipulating international nuclear talks to buy time for its weapons research, according to U.S. allies monitoring the need for a military strike against the regime.

Top Middle East Air Force official expects Iran to resume attacks on US
The top US Air Force general in the Middle East warned on Thursday that Iran-backed militias could resume attacks in the region against the United States and its allies as tensions rise - assaults that could lead to a new Mideast escalation.

As West ignores Iran protests, Iranian dissidents gather for major rally
As the U.S. and its Western allies remain largely silent about ongoing anti-government protests raging across Iran, the world's biggest Iranian resistance movement is set to hold its annual rally this weekend.

Environment...

A Biden Climate Emergency Would Unleash Unconstitutional Actions
The powers Biden is considering invoking are considerable, though none of them were intended by Congress to do what administration is preparing to do.

LGBTQIA2S+...

The Left’s Trans Agenda Is All About Erasing The Past To Control The Future
The left doesn’t just want you to deny biology in the present. They want you to ignore that it was ever valued as reality in the past.

Education...

LA schools implement 'Queer Theory into K-12 pedagogy': Christopher Rufo
"Los Angeles Unified has adopted a year-round program glamorizing transgender identity and promoting an uncritical, ‘trans-affirming’ culture in the classroom."

50 School Districts Granted $10,000 By LGBT-Group To Promote Ideology In Schools
An LGBT organization awarded 50 school districts nationwide a $10,000 grant to promote gender ideology and support “Gender Sexuality Alliance” clubs.

Student behavior among major reasons teachers are leaving their jobs: survey
Of those that said pay was a secondary reason though, 447 teachers said that student behavior was their primary reason for leaving, while 128 said their reason was progressive political activity.

Health...

Big Pharma May Have Made Billions Based On A Falsehood About Depression, New Research Shows
New research from the University College London is calling into question whether widespread prescription of antidepressants is truly an effective way of treating depression.

Technology...

YouTube to remove abortion ‘misinformation,’ add ‘context and information’ to related content
"We’re also launching an information panel that provides viewers with context and information from local and global health authorities under abortion-related videos and above relevant search results."

James Lindsay locked out of Twitter for saying 'ok, groomer'
Author and mathematician Dr. James Lindsay was locked out of Twitter on Thursday for responding to a Media Matters journalist's tweet with the words, "ok groomer."

Science...

Mysterious bundle of string on Mars' surface found by Perseverance rover
Officials at NASA said that they believe the object to be a string left over from Perseverance's landing.

Sports...

Woke NASCAR launching electric racing series in 2023
NASCAR hasn't hidden its intention to electrify stock car racing in the coming years, but it may happen sooner than expected.

Animals...

NY Fishing Restrictions May Have Played A Role In Recent Shark Attack Spike
“The reason why people are interacting with sharks more often this year and more than last year is because of conservation efforts over the years [that] has protected a food source known as the Atlantic Menhaden,” an expert told the NY Post.

July 22, 2008 - Glenn filled in for Larry King last night on CNN... The media will destroy its credibility pushing Obama... Glenn's new green programming... Americans could show up at the Capitol with pitchforks and torches at any moment...

July 22, 2013 - Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman fallout... Glenn mocks Geraldo’s selfie in towel... Why don't progressives care about Chicago murders?...

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?

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

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.

Why the White House restoration sent the left Into panic mode

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Presidents have altered the White House for decades, yet only Donald Trump is treated as a vandal for privately funding the East Wing’s restoration.

Every time a president so much as changes the color of the White House drapes, the press clutches its pearls. Unless the name on the stationery is Barack Obama’s, even routine restoration becomes a national outrage.

President Donald Trump’s decision to privately fund upgrades to the White House — including a new state ballroom — has been met with the usual chorus of gasps and sneers. You’d think he bulldozed Monticello.

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s ‘visionary.’

The irony is that presidents have altered and expanded the White House for more than a century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East and West Wings in the middle of the Great Depression. Newspapers accused him of building a palace while Americans stood in breadlines. History now calls it “vision.”

First lady Nancy Reagan faced the same hysteria. Headlines accused her of spending taxpayer money on new china “while Americans starved.” In truth, she raised private funds after learning that the White House didn’t have enough matching plates for state dinners. She took the ridicule and refused to pass blame.

“I’m a big girl,” she told her staff. “This comes with the job.” That was dignity — something the press no longer recognizes.

A restoration, not a renovation

Trump’s project is different in every way that should matter. It costs taxpayers nothing. Not a cent. The president and a few friends privately fund the work. There’s no private pool or tennis court, no personal perks. The additions won’t even be completed until after he leaves office.

What’s being built is not indulgence — it’s stewardship. A restoration of aging rooms, worn fixtures, and century-old bathrooms that no longer function properly in the people’s house. Trump has paid for cast brass doorknobs engraved with the presidential seal, restored the carpets and moldings, and ensured that the architecture remains faithful to history.

The media’s response was mockery and accusations of vanity. They call it “grotesque excess,” while celebrating billion-dollar “climate art” projects and funneling hundreds of millions into activist causes like the No Kings movement. They lecture America on restraint while living off the largesse of billionaires.

The selective guardians of history

Where was this sudden reverence for history when rioters torched St. John’s Church — the same church where every president since James Madison has worshipped? The press called it an “expression of grief.”

Where was that reverence when mobs toppled statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Grant? Or when first lady Melania Trump replaced the Rose Garden’s lawn with a patio but otherwise followed Jackie Kennedy’s original 1962 plans in the garden’s restoration? They called that “desecration.”

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s “visionary.”

The real desecration

The people shrieking about “historic preservation” care nothing for history. They hate the idea that something lasting and beautiful might be built by hands they despise. They mock craftsmanship because it exposes their own cultural decay.

The White House ballroom is not a scandal — it’s a mirror. And what it reflects is the media’s own pettiness. The ruling class that ridicules restoration is the same class that cheered as America’s monuments fell. Its members sneer at permanence because permanence condemns them.

Julia Beverly / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump’s improvements are an act of faith — in the nation’s symbols, its endurance, and its worth. The outrage over a privately funded renovation says less about him than it does about the journalists who mistake destruction for progress.

The real desecration isn’t happening in the East Wing. It’s happening in the newsrooms that long ago tore up their own foundation — truth — and never bothered to rebuild it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.