RADIOJanuary 15, 2025

California Fire Chief Reveals BIG Issue with Federal Forest Agencies

It's not just California that needs to clean up its forests before more devastating fires break out. Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy tells Glenn that the United States Forest Service and the Department of the Interior BOTH need to clear more brush: "I've worked for both the USDA and USDI. Let's face it...we've got an unhealthy landscape out there. We need to start putting beneficial fire on the landscape.” But he warns that these agencies are losing firefighters FAST: “It doesn't matter how many millions or billions of dollars you throw at the problem if you don't have the people there to do the work."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: As the gods of the copybook headings limp up to explain once more that fire will certainly burn us and water will wet us. They could learn that in California.

We have Brian Fennessy. He is the Orange County California fire chief.

To tell us a little bit about what's going on. And how is Orange County doing, Brian?

Welcome to the program.

BRIAN: Hey, thank you very much. You know, a little bit about the fires, just across from LA. You know, they're not spreading. As they were, I think both are kind of in a stable position. But there's certainly a lot of heat, you know, in those. And on those fires. In the new wind event approximately albeit. Not 80 miles an hour. One hundred-mile-an-hour gusts. Are still very concerning.

Those fires will be wind tested. Here in North Carolina, it's blowing hard. It was up last week. I think we here dodged a bullet.

But we're expecting that for another couple of days. I'm told there might be another Santa Anna wind event forecasted for next week. So we sure can't stand much more.

GLENN: So, Brian, this is totally predictable. Was it not?

BRIAN: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. When I started in 1978. We would usually have a few days notice.

You know, meteorology is not what it is today. We start to get notified about ten days out.
And then confidence builds at seven days.

And then when you're about four days out, we're pretty sure, you know, what's going to expect.

Yes. Forecasting predicting is far better than it's ever been.

GLENN: Right. So what should have been done in those four days before the fire broke out?

BRIAN: Well, I'll tell you what was done. And we have a program called prepositioning. About six years ago, the fire chiefs in the state, got the state of California to fund -- to put money behind this prepositioning meeting. If we go through a matrix, you know, county-by-county, and we meet certain criteria. I mean, there's a number of things. We are approved for prepositioning funding.

Which means, I can bring on additional aircraft, additional bulldozers, engines.

And the state will pay for them. So that not only are all my stations filled and ready to go.

But I might have two or three more strike teams, strike teams five engines. I might have additional helicopters, dispatch staff.

So all of the Southern California counties were approved for prepositioning. So we had definitely extra resources available, should they be needed.

And certainly, they were deployed very, very quickly.

GLENN: But that's Orange County.

BRIAN: No, that's every county -- every county of the state is eligible for it. But each county has to go through this matrix to meet it.

And so I don't know for sure. But I would expect that Santa Barbara county south, were all approved for prepositioning funding.

And, quite frankly, here in Orange County and when I was the fire chief in San Diego city, we didn't wait for prepositioning. If this weather was going to surface, we are going to staff up.

And if we go overbudget, we go overbudget.
Our job is to protect our communities. And the mayor I worked for at the time, understood that.

So it's nice to be reimbursed for it, but that's not a necessity. We are going to staff up, even beyond what the state approves, if we believe we need to do that.

GLENN: Right. Yeah.

So as we're watching this from Texas and all around the country, it seems as though, it was, A, known that it was going to happen. This is routine. You expect the Santa Anna winds, every year.

You expect forest fires.

And brushfires, in California. Every year.

So this was just one of the really bad ones.

Then it seems like incompetence of cutting the funding for the fire agencies. Not really, truly being prepared. And then on top of it, it seems incompetence to a level that is almost criminal.

And then the third part of this, as we see it, as I see it. Is there might be some actors after the main fire started, that are also, you know, setting fires. What they're -- what their motives are, are yet unknown.

There are also some arsonists involved in that.

Do I have that picture right?

VOICE: Partially. And maybe totally. I don't know for sure.

But I will tell you this. I live in -- I grew up in Altadena. That's one of the towns pretty well wiped out.

When you live that close to the foothills. You're used to Santa Anna winds.

You know they're coming, and they can be brutal right there in the foothills. And it's not uncommon for a strong -- we consider strong Santa Anna, forty or 50 mile an hour winds steady, with gusts maybe to 60, 70.

The event that was experienced last week. And you know this, was 60, 70, steady, gusts, 90 to 100. Something like that. We have a hard time dealing with the former.

Something like that. We're trying to manage expectations, as -- we can't stop that fire.

And I think that, you know, many times, you know, the public. Let me put it this way.

If this were a hurricane or a tornado. Firefighters aren't stopping those either.

GLENN: Right. But they do preposition.

You look at Florida. They've got the trucks lined up before that thing comes ashore.

BRIAN: Yep. They're the best. They get disaster preparations in advance. They get that moving. Florida is an amazing model.

And Texas is a good model as well.

But in terms of, I can't speak of LA city. I don't know what they're prepositioned or upstaffed. They could have another thousand engines. And we weren't going to stop this fire.

Now, having said that. Once the winds diminished. And the fire. This is no longer a wild land fire.

This became an urban conflagration.

House to house spread.

The fuel was structures.

And so, you know, once the wind diminished to a point where, you know, firefighters could get in there and start working on the structures.

There were just so many.

I mean, I drove those fires -- I've been doing this since 1978.

I couldn't believe the structures, the businesses, that were burning so far, from the mountain, that it came off of.

I mean, it was even incredible for me. In terms of the water. I think that's being sorted out. I'm probably hearing the same things that you are. The reservoirs may not have been as filled as they needed to be.

Yes. A draw in the system, can cause some decrease in pressure. But I've never heard of anything that -- where there actually wasn't pressure.

I do know. And I've shared this with people.

In 2003, in San Diego, at the time, the largest fire in California history. We lost pressure.

But that was because pump houses. Pump stations had been burned.

And we didn't know they existed. Had we known, we would have protected those pump houses, as much as we protect a house.

To ensure that we have pressure.

GLENN: Right.

BRIAN: So I'm confident in the city of LA, and I'm hearing the governor is ordering an investigation. That's going to get sorted out. That's going to get public.

And, yes, it could be quite embarrassing and life-changing for a few people, involved in whatever decision made by both parties.

GLENN: Good. Good. We have to learn from our lessons. You know, learn lessons from our mistakes.

BRIAN: Totally agree.

GLENN: You are being talked about going into the Department of Interior.

You had not heard that?

BRIAN: Oh! Well, I'm hearing rumblings. People asked if I was interested in perhaps even becoming the new US forest service chief. And I have served with others that should I be approached at some point. I would certainly consider it.

Because, quite frankly, that agency is a mess, when it comes to fire fighting.

GLENN: Yeah.

BRIAN: They -- you know, paying benefits for -- the firefighters are leaving in droves.

They are so underpaid and underbenefited, that they're leaving, you know, to go to work for state and local government agencies, like mine.

And like L.A. Counties. And this isn't anything new.

You know, I used to work for them, for 13 years. Both the USDA foresters, and the Department of Interior. BLM. And I left as a crew superintendent. And I ran crews. And back then, you know, we were significantly underpaid.

I left the municipal department in 1990. Went to San Diego, because of it. And it's gotten worse.

And it's not managed or organized like a fire department. And if they're going to be in the fire business, you know, they need to be organized and led like a fire department.

Yes, there are resource agency. And, yes, they have things beyond fire, but if you look at the forest service budget, primarily now, it's fire being funded.

GLENN: Sure.

BRIAN: And they definitely need some help in their firefighters. Quite frankly, Glenn, they will be without a fire department very, very soon.

GLENN: Jeez. I have to tell you, it was the national forest service that helped save my neighbor's ranch and probably mine. If we would have had high winds, it would have been over. But the local fire came out. And immediately, the forest service had already positioned.

Because they looked at my canyon and went. This is dry. This is just a disaster waiting to happen.

And they were ready for it.

And they saved it. They did a great job there.

BRIAN: They have amazing firefighters.

GLENN: Yeah. They do.

BRIAN: Spent 13 years in a hotshot group.

I know the business. And I know the people that are out there now. Their firefighters are amazing. Their smoke jumpers. Their hotshots. Their engine cruiser.

Unfortunately, you know, again, they're organized in such a way, that nationally.

They don't -- it would take too long to speak.

But it's just sad to see.

I mean, here in California, I'm told that they're -- we're only able to staff the stations at 60 percent. In my own county. I have three forest service stations.

And they can only staff one of those stations.

Two on occasion. Eight to ten all summer.

We had a fire. We had a fire.

The airport fire, earlier this summer. That burned 100 homes.

And the station closest to that fire was not staffed

And so, you know, I made Congress aware.

And others aware.

And right now, I don't think the forest service is happy with me.

Because I'm being very public about things they should be very public about.

GLENN: So would it be the forest service or the department of interior, that would be responsible for getting under brush cleared?

MIKHAIL: Well, I think it's both. I worked for both the USDA and the USDI.

And let's face it. At least out in the west, the firefighters for decades did such a great job, suppressing fires quickly. That it caused this growth.

And we had an unhealthy landscape out there. And we need to have beneficial fire back on the landscape.

Here's another thing, Glenn. The same firefighters that were losing, those are the people that were going to do the work.

GLENN: I know.

BRIAN: So if you don't have the workforce to do the work, that needs to be done. How will you get it done? It doesn't matter how many millions or billions of dollars you throw at the problem, if you don't have the people, there to do the work.

But, yes. I mean, we need to do something about this unhealthy -- and people are working hard at it.

Certainly, Cal fires are showing amazing, incredible success with it. But you're years behind them.

GLENN: Oh, I know.

BRIAN: This is decades of not treating the fuels and the landscape. And it's going to be decades to fix it.

But we've got to do something. And we have to have a workforce to be able to do it. And like I say, if asked -- and I haven't been asked by anybody officially.

Jut informally. People have suggested and asked, is that something I would consider?

And absolutely.

And, you know, certainly, pay is less of an issue. It would be a pay cut for me. But it's not about that.

It's about -- it's about, you know, what we as firefighters, you know, have sworn to do, and we need to fix that organization.

GLENN: Quickly. Quickly. Can I ask you, am I up against a network break? Can I just ask you about the safety inspections about the Oregon fire trucks and everything.

That is not to make sure of the missions.
That's to make sure that we could function, correct?
Which seems insane too, but go ahead.

GLENN: You know, I'm unaware of what you're talking about.

I know we do expect. Not we. But the state or the feds will inspect, you know, engines or what not. When they arrive. And then before they leave to make sure they're safe.

So I'm not familiar at all, with the situation you're talking about.

GLENN: All right.

Brian, thank you so much.

I hope you're called up. Because we need to take all of our agencies.

And especially all of our services that are protecting us.

Seriously again, we haven't for a long time.

Brian, thank you so much.

BRIAN: Yep. We need change. So thank you.

GLENN: Yep. Brian Fennessy, orange County Fire Chief. All right

I have MAJOR QUESTIONS after Tucker Carlson’s Thomas Crooks exposé

Tucker Carlson recently revealed new information about the attempted Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks that appears to debunk the narrative that he had practically no online presence. Glenn reviews the new evidence and asks the questions we NEED answers to.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let me walk you through some things that Tucker Carlson has just released. And I want you to hear it. Not as partisan, you, but as -- as an American, who I think deserves straight answers. Because there's -- there's something happening in our country, and we all know it.

And it's easy for us to get lost and go town can the road of conspiracies.

And, you know, one of my favorite lines from John Kennedy, you know, Senator John Kennedy is, we need some new conspiracy theories.

Because the old ones, all turned out to be right.

And we don't need new conspiracy theories. What we need are conspiracy facts.

And we are starting to see the outline of something that does not -- should not make everybody feel really good.

And I'll get into that here in just a second.

But first, the more we learn about Thomas Matthew Crooks, this is the would-be assassin, that got within an inch.

A refraction of an inch of killing President Trump, the story bends in Washington.

And when a story bends forever, that -- that tells me somebody is very, very busy trying to keep it from breaking.

From day one, the FBI, and the cheerleaders in the mainstream media.

MSNBC, CNN, the whole alphabets, all pushed one story line. Crooks was pro-Trump. Anti-immigration. A fringe right-winger radicalized by MAGA memes. Remember that?

That's what the Biden administration said about him. Then we never heard anything else.

Because the story is incomplete. And as we're finding out now. It's also, very, very misleading.

We were told over and over again, he had almost no online footprint. How many times did you hear that, Stu?

He had almost no online footprint.

STU: Yeah. I do remember, as you kind of mentioned. Bits and pieces, came out. He said this. It wasn't a prolific poster.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. And how did this guy come up this sophisticated way of coming up to kill without any online footprint?

Okay. So apparently, there's a very large footprint. He had a discord account. He had a Snapchat account.

He was extremely active on YouTube. His comment history.

And that's where things start to get really, really strange.

So let me take you through the phases of the guy who tried to kill Donald Trump.

Here's phase one.

In 2019, violent, yes.

But directed at Democrats.

In 2019, Crooks' YouTube comments were violent. Very violent. No question.

But they were directed almost entirely to anti-Trump people. And democratic officials.

When I say violent, he was talking about decapitations.

And shootings, taking out government officials.

Now, we all know. I mean, you may not know. I know, but you may just feel like, of course. That's happening.

The government is monitoring everything. Okay?

There are key words. Decapitation of fill in the politician. That shows up!

That rings alarm bells.

If you are talking about violent things, and politics, you get on a list. It's just -- and, you know, you should get on a list. You're talking about things like this.

Taking out government officials. You should. The government should be monitoring stuff like that. Now, remember, this isn't a period when the US government -- we later have learned, was monitoring social media more aggressively than any other point in US history. Okay?

They were looking for these kinds of things. People were arrested for memes! At this time.

But Crooks, nothing. Nothing.

Not a warning. Not a knock on the door. Not the one single action.

Why?

Why?

Because he at that time, apparently was a MAGA reporter.

Why was there no knock on his door.

Now he has a pivot. And I'm not really sure why this happened. Something happened.

And it might have been COVID. Here's the part of the story, no one ever told you.

In 2020, Crooks' online comments, they flip, and they flip dramatically. Suddenly, he is violently anti-Trump. He has anti-Trump supporters.
And, again, still extremely violent. But the FBI and the media, why did they only report the first half of the story.

The half that fit the predetermined story line.

I think we all know, that's the way the system was working.

Why leave out the part where he abruptly becomes very anti-Trump?

Why not tell the American people the whole truth?

Why frame him exclusively as a pro-Trump radical, when the -- when the data clearly contradicts this.

He was. And then he wasn't. You tell me!

Okay. Then enters somebody we don't know who this is. Named Willie Tepes. T-E-P-E-S.

He's the ghost in the machine. Around the same time of the flip, a bizarre online persona appears in Crooks' orbit.

Willie Tepes. Now, this account begins encouraging Crooks' violence, openly, agreeing with assassinations, approving of attacks on government officials.

But here's the kicker. The name Willie Tepes, appears on a national socialist website in Sweden. Now, we don't know if that's the Willie Tepes. But that's the one you can find online.

And we know for a fact, that the State Department, and the intelligence community monitor these circles aggressively.

Okay?

So now you're -- you have our State Department.

We have our intelligence community.

That is monitoring people online, especially Nazis.

In the rest of the world.

And Nazis here. And yet, there's nothing!

Not a single red flag is triggered. Not a single investigation. No monitoring. No intervention.

So why was this FBI monitoring, you know, Catholic churches and priests?

But nothing on Thomas Matthews Crooks. Why?

You're going to have to draw your own conclusions.

And I honestly don't know -- I have fears. But I don't know the reason!

Now, here's where his YouTube history goes absolutely insane!

As the assassination attempt nears, Crooks' search history explodes.

Tucker laid this out.

He searched Trump hundreds of times.

He searched Jack Ruby. He searched bomb making. Car attacks. Sniper attacks. Successful assassinations. How to escape police gunfire. All of these things should ring every NSA alarm bell.

Nothing! Again, nothing! Not then. Not during the attempt. Not afterward. They didn't try to stop him. They didn't stop him. They didn't prevent or try to prevent. They didn't warn anyone.

Instead, as soon as he was shot, they rushed out a narrative. A very specific narrative.

And then they shut down anything that conflicted with it!

Okay. If that's not weird enough, here's where it gets even more unusual. The FBI -- Trump's own FBI at the time, kept all of Crooks' shifting political and violent history quiet.

Okay. I understand it. When it's Biden's FBI.

But now Trump's FBI.

Now, why didn't Trump's FBI immediately come out. Because I know that you have tan Bongino.

We have it on tape, where he is saying, the guy had no footprint. No digital footprint.

And he's in -- he's being questioned in front of the Senator or the House.

And he's like, look, that's not possible.

There's no way this 20 something-year-old had no digital footprint.

Well, now, he's second in command at the FBI. He would know this!

Why didn't the FBI do anything?

And I want to be really careful on Trump's FBI, or Biden's FBI.

Because I'm not sure there is a difference anymore.

I want you to think of the FBI, and this Deep State, I want you to think of an iceberg.

Okay?

You see an iceberg. And you see just the top of it.

Two-thirds of that is under the water. So we're seeing the tops change. And we're seeing people put in at the top. And we're like, oh, the iceberg is different now. But I'm not sure that anybody has any idea how deep that iceberg goes. So I'm not even -- I'm not willing to blame the people up at the top.

I'm -- I'm questioning, does anyone know how deep this goes. Because I don't think it matters, who is running it. Even more bizarre, they suddenly release the body for cremation. There's no extended autopsy. There's no forensic review. There's no independent experts. It's just all gone. And the crime scene is washed and scrubbed.

It's all washed. Literally washed and scrubbed, before a full reconstruction can be done. Why would you do that?

You don't do that in a presidential assassination attempt. You don't do that in a local homicide case.

Unless, you want something gone.

Unless you want something buried.

Unless you want a narrative. And only that narrative. To survive.

So that's what Tucker laid out today.

Now, based on this, there are questions that need to be asked.

And so let me give you the questions that I have, that need to be asked, and we must demand answers! You feel the republic slipping through your fingers. If we do not correct these things, we have -- we do not have a government of, by, and for the people.

We don't. You must answer these questions. We must demand these questions be answered.

Okay. So let's start with some questions, that have to be asked, just on this case.

Why did the FBI present only the early pro Trump posts?

And they hid the anti-Trump phase?

There's two answers that need to be had. The first one is under Biden.

And I think we know the answer to that. They were building a narrative. Okay.

But it should be asked and answered.

Why did that happen?

Who was involved in that decision?

Then you have to say, okay. After that election, why did the FBI still toe that line. Who made that decision?

Next, we know they're monitoring people. And I'm for the government, finding, hey, how do I build a bomb? How do I get away from an assassination scene?

Successful assassinations, and where are these political people being, you know -- where are they going to be in the future?

That is -- that should be tied together by an algorithm. And it should be notified, so somebody is watching this.

Okay?

We know it's already being done. So why did they ignore Crooks' really unbelievable threats. When ordinary Americans were arrested for memes, why was he completely ignored?

Why did the intelligence agency monitoring extremism somehow miss a kid, openly fantasizing about assassinations?

And then connecting with some guy, it looks like, is from Sweden, who is part of a big Nazi movement over in Sweden.

Why was that ignored?

Why did they clean the scene prematurely?

Why was every digital trace of his political shift kept out of the public discussion? Why did they say he had almost no footprint, when the footprint looks to be really, really large. It was just scrubbed!

Why did every single mistake that our FBI and government made, why does it seem to point in the same direction.

Towards ignorance? Negligence. Hiding inconvenient at that time.

Shaping a political narrative!

When every accident points the same way. It stops looking like an accident.

So was this incompetence?

I don't know what conclusion Tucker is pulling from all of this.

I just appreciate the information.

And I'm not telling you this is a conspiracy.

I am telling you, there is something wrong here.

There is something very wrong.

The official story is impossible to believe.

And the question every American should be asking themselves is really simple: Why would our government the same government that monitors everything, suddenly becomes blind, deaf, and mute, the moment a presidential assassin emerges on their radar. It's not a partisan question.

Because one -- under one president, you can say, oh, well, that's because they were doing -- but then when the president is changed. And this president was the one that they tried to kill. And he said, I want answers to this.

The narrative didn't change.

Why?

Why?

That's not a pro-Trump question. That is a self-preservation question.

If the -- if the government can see everything that you do, and somehow missed all of this! What does that say about our FBI and our DOJ and our CIA.

Because they all would have been involved in this. I mean, they're either lying, they're incompetent. Or they only monitor the people they want to monitor.

None of these options should help us sleep at night. Okay?

The FBI and the mainstream media, MSNBC for sure, referenced leaks from Crooks' social media, the YouTube comments that showed he was pro-Trump. And anti-immigration.

We were also told that Crooks had almost no online social footprint. But he had discord. Snapchat. Very active YouTube. His YouTube comments, in 2019, very violent, decapitating of government officials. And then something happened. He switches. Something is not right here!

I think this iceberg is way beneath the water line.

I think this thing goes so deep, I'm not sure that these -- I had a friend to me, I think the CIA is completely out of control!

And this is a guy, you would not know his name. And you wouldn't know his name for a reason.

But he was very, very highly placed, years ago.

And this is the kind of stuff he did. And he said, I don't think the CIA answers to anybody anymore.

I'm not sure that it's just the CIA. I'm not sure -- it feels a little like you can shuffle the -- the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.

But it's the -- it's what's below the water line that really makes the difference, on that ship.

SHOCK POLL: The % of Young People Who Support SOCIALISM is Insane

New polling reveals a shocking truth: young Americans aren’t just open to socialism... they overwhelmingly want a socialist president in 2028. Glenn Beck and Justin Haskins break down five alarming surveys showing massive ideological shifts among voters ages 18-39, including young Republicans. Why is socialism exploding in popularity, and what does this mean for the future of America? Are we on the brink of a political transformation or potentially even a national crisis?

Watch This FULL Episode of 'Glenn TV' HERE

Property Taxes are OUT OF CONTROL - And Here's Why! | Guest: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

Texas Governor Greg Abbott joins Glenn Beck to expose why Texans are being crushed by skyrocketing property taxes — and how local governments, not the state, keep driving homeowners deeper into financial distress. Gov. Abbott breaks down his five-point plan to impose strict spending limits, force voter approval for tax hikes, reform out-of-control appraisals, empower citizens to slash taxes themselves, and eliminate school district property taxes for homeowners altogether. Glenn argues that property tax is morally wrong because it prevents Texans from ever truly owning their land, and Abbott lays out his strategy to fight both parties in the legislature to finally deliver lasting relief.

Joe Rogan & Glenn AGREE: We just got CLOSER to civil war

Joe Rogan recently warned that we may have gotten to Step 7 of 9 in the lead-up to civil war. Glenn reviews the 9 Steps and explains why he believes Rogan nailed this one. But Glenn also lays out what Americans MUST do to reverse this trend...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So if you take what Fetterman said yesterday about how people are cheering for him to die on the left, and then you couple it with something that was on the Joe Rogan show on Tuesday. He was saying that the reaction to the death of Charlie Kirk makes him think that the US is closer to Civil War than -- than he thought.

Now, let me quote him. He said, after the Charlie Kirk thing. I'm like, oh, my.

We might be at seven. This might be he step seven on the way to a bona fide Civil War. Charlie Kirk gets shot, and people are celebrating.

Like, whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

You want people to die that you disagree with?

Where are we now on the scale of Civil War?

Well, let me go over the scale of Civil War, because it's sobering.

Now, none of this has to be true. If we wake up and decide, I don't want to do this anymore!

Okay?

Here's step one.

Step one. Loss of civic trust.

Every civil conflict begins when people stop believing that the system is fair. Are we there?

We're so far -- we're so far past the doorway, we are comfortably asleep on the couch on this one. Gallup and Pew both show trust in Congress, the media courts, and the FBI government are now at record lows.

The Edelman Trust Barometer classifies the US now as severely polarized. Majority of Republicans distrust federal elections. Majority of Democrats don't trust the Supreme Court.

Americans are really united on one thing, and that is the other side is corrupt!

When faith in the rules collapses, the republic begins to wobble. But that's step one. Step two, polarization hardens into identity!

Political disagreement is normal!

Identity conflict is fatal!

But that's what Marxists push. Identity politics. This is when politics stopped being about policy, and started being about who you are as a person.

Have we crossed this one into step two?

I mean, we're neck deep into this. A study on this, from PRRI.

It's a survey, found 23 percent of Americans believe political violence may be necessary to save the that I guess.

I think that's an old study. Americans now sort themselves by ZIP code into ideological enclaves. The big sort: Universities, activists, corporations. Everybody is promoting oppressor versus oppressed.

And that -- does what?

It puts us into incompatible tribes. Opponents aren't wrong anymore. The opponent is dangerous!

If I go back and you look at civil wars, Lebanon, before 1975. Yugoslavia, before 1991. That's -- we're doing that. Okay?

Step three. Breakdown of the gatekeepers. The gatekeepers are kind of like the referees of society. It's the media, political parties, churches, civic leaders.

When they fail, extremism fills the vacuum. Okay. Where are we on this? Have our gatekeepers failed us?

Yeah. I think both parties, especially the left, you know, everything I predicted that the left was going to be eaten by the extreme left, and then the communists and the socialists is now happening.

They've lost control of the fringe of each party. Media transformed, you know, from referees into team coaches. Tech platforms. It's outrage for profit. Universities are not there to cool things down. They heat them up.

Churches. Churches are useless. Useless.

When the referees leave the field, the game devolves into a brawl. And the refs are gone off the field. So there are only nine steps. We're at step four. Here's step four.

Are you ready for this one?

Parallel information realities.

Civil wars don't require different opinions. They require different realities.

I remember reading about Germany, at the beginning of, you know, the Nazi era. How the two new newspapers. One was propaganda for the government.

And the other one, it was the last one that was kind of the holdout.

And they said, you could read them, and they would cover the same thing.

But they had almost no information was the same. Except, that happened yesterday.

Here's what they said. And then everything else was different. That's exactly -- I mean, step four is complete!

We can't agree on facts, right?

Crime rates. Border numbers. Inflation. Election security.

Two Americans can watch the same video. And see opposite truths.

Social media algorithms are creating customized political universes.

Digital echo chambers. Deepfakes. We're just at the beginning of that. And both sides accuse the other of running disinformation machines.

Why? Because we don't have a shared reality. So if you don't have a shared reality. How do you settle any dispute?

On the nine steps, we're up to number five. Coming in at number five.

Loss of neutral rule of law.

This out of the nine steps with, five is the pivot point.

It's not corruption, it's the belief that the law is no longer neutral.

Are we there yet?

Let me tell you the CBS you.gov poll. 67 percent say the justice system is used for political purposes.

I think that's low. January 6 defendants given years in prison, 2020 rioters were released. High profile political figures, prosecuted or shielded based on party.

FBI whistle-blowers alleging pressure to inflate domestic extremism numbers. States like Texas, directly defying federal directives, on border enforcement.

And now, leading the way, with the federal government.

History is really cold and unforgiving on this point.

Once the people believe justice is political! Remember, this is the turning point.

The republic stands on borrowed time. Once you no longer believe that justice is achievable. Step six.

Are we there?

I think we are.

Step six. Normalization of political violence!

This is where violence stops shocking the system. Are we there?

Remember, where violence stops shocking the system. Look at evidence just from Virginia. What they just voted for.

He was calling for the death of a -- a political opposition.

Calling for his children to be killed.

Was called on it, never apologized.

Never said anything other than, yeah. I know. He dug it deeper.

Was anyone shocked by it? Apparently not. They elected him. Here's the evidence. 2020 riots.
574 events. $2 billion in damage. Was anybody outraged by that? Or was it downplayed and excused?
Assassination attempts. Assassination attempts against the president. Supreme Court justice.

Fistfights. And mob actions on college campuses. To silence speakers. Rising to do for punching a fascist or stopping genocide. Depending on the ideology. Online chatter discussing Civil War, national divorce, and revolution.

When violence becomes part of the political language, a nation crosses an invisible line. We're now up to step seven out of nine.

This is where Joe Rogan said, are we at step seven?

The rise of militias and parallel forces.

When a state loses he is monopoly on force.

Countdown accelerates. So where are we on this one?

I think we're seeing, maybe early signs of this.

You're starting to see the -- the states kind of organize these mobs, you know, to go after ICE.

Right?

Armed groups, right-wing, left-wing radical secessionists. Anyone.

Once they start forming their own police forces. Or their own option forces, then you have -- then you have everything really falling apart.

Entirely!

I don't think we're there, yet!

But we're starting to see the beginnings of this.

Step eight. The trigger event.

Civil Wars don't begin with a plan. They begin with a spark.

So where are we?

We're not here yet. The conditions are right. Potential triggers, disputed election in '26 or '28.

Political assassination or major attack.

Supreme Court decision that ignites mass unrest.

Financial crisis or dollar crisis.

A state federal standoff turning violent!

Nothing is ignited yet, but the room is soaked in gasoline. So we don't have seven. We're on the verge of eight, at any time. And here's nine.

This is the point of no return.

When police, military, or federal agencies split, even if no one calls it that, well, where are we?

Well, I just read a story about how with the Mamdani election in New York, a good number of the police force is going to leave. And they're going to go join police forces elsewhere. You also have the tension between the state National Guard, and the federal directives, the state guard and the state directives. Law enforcement recruitment is at crisis lows. The distrust of the FBI, DOJ, CIA. Tens of millions of Americans. I always really respected those institutions. I have no respect for them now. If you have states openly defying federal rules on immigration, drug laws, sanctuary policies.
Whistle-blower claims of internal politicization.

All of these things are in play for the first time in 150 years, people can imagine!

So I give this to you, not to be fearful of, but to know where you are. As a map!

Know where you are.

And hopefully, it might wake some people up, if you chart America on, on the nine step model of Civil War. Steps one through four, completed!

Step five, happening!

Step six, happening! Step seven, beginning! Step eight, just waiting for it. And step nine, avoidable, only if step eight, never happens. Again, I'm not telling you for doom purposes, this is diagnosis. This is a doctor going, I want you to look at the chart.

And this is a doctor saying, I want you to look at -- do you see what's happening to your body?

If you don't stop this habit, you are going to die. You don't have to die. You can stop smoking and drinking right now. You can start exercising. But if you don't, you are going to die.

The question is, are we the nation that says, nah, that's not going to happen to me. Or are we the nation that wakes up and sees our chart and says, good heavens, it's way far more gone than I thought it was. But I feel something in the air.

I'm going to change my behavior. The nation that refuses to look and wake up and stop calling their neighbors enemies, is the nation that fails!

We have to strengthen these things that have already fallen. And, you know what, the easiest one to do is?

Church. Where are you ministers and pastors priests and rabbis?

Where the hell are you?

I think there's going to be a special section for you, when you cross over to the -- because you're doing things in the name of God!

So when you get to the other side, I think there's going to be a special section for those who remained silent. While his rights were being taken away.

You don't own that right.

I don't own that right.

The Lord gave us those rights, and said, protect them!

By you, being the representative, the voice box, if you will, of the Lord, to shepherd his people. By you not standing up and saying, hey, by the way, we have -- we have a moral responsibility to protect these rights for the next generation! By you refusing because you're afraid. Because I think, there's no politics in the Bible! There's no politics in the Bible. Really?

The whole thing is about politics. Is about the moral way you have to live your life.

Calling things as you see them. Calling them back to eternal principles.

He didn't tell anybody how to vote. Render to Caesar what is Caesar's.

But there are certain principles that you have to have, or you lose not only this citizenship, but the next citizenship. The one that really matters. And, boy, if you are doing it because you're a coward, you are in the wrong business!

Get out of the pulpit, and go to work at Jack in the Box.