RADIOSeptember 20, 2022

Democrat Party 'BECAME A RELIGION': How Biden LOST her vote

Sasha Stone "devoted [her] entire life" to the Democrat Party. But after voting for President Biden and realizing that he didn't return America to the "normal" she longed for, she has found herself somewhere she never thought she'd be: on the Glenn Beck Program. Stone, the author of the new piece, "How Joe Biden Lost My Vote," describes to Glenn the moment the Democrat Party became a "religion," what she learned from watching Trump rallies, and why she has "never seen anything like" the Left's "dehumanization" of Trump supporters: "I see the cult more on the Left than on the Right."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Sasha Stone is with us now.

Sasha, how are you?

SASHA: Oh, I'm fine. Hi. Is this Glenn? Am I speaking with Glenn Beck? Wow.

GLENN: Probably something you never thought would do.

SASHA: Absolutely never something I thought I would do. But I am familiar with your thoughts and on certain things. I've watched you -- your interviews with different people, over the year.

GLENN: Yeah.

So, Sasha, you were -- you've been a diehard Democrat. Obama, Clinton, and -- and Joe Biden, right? You made videos about Joe Biden, trying to get him elected.

SASHA: Yes. I mean, I want to tell you, I devoted my entire life, unfortunately to this life. Whole years have disappeared from my life.

And as you get older, you really need that time. You need it back, and you can't get it back. So I guess I thought I was on some sort of crusade, spending every single day arguing on Twitter and Facebook and writing blistering pieces for Medium.

And I really did think I was on the right side, and I -- and I felt the same sense of purpose, that I think a lot of people on the left felt after Obama rose to power in 2008.

I think it just -- that's when it became. I know you're interested, in talking about religions and stuff like that. I think that's really the moment that it became a religion.

GLENN: Hmm.

I would agree with you. What -- what was it, that you voted for, with Joe Biden and you think your friends voted for with Joe Biden?

ALEX: Well, for me, it was strategic partly. But also I had an emotional connection to him, somehow. I had over the years. I don't know where it came from.

But I -- I liked him.

He reminded me of my dad. And I thought he was a good guy. But, you know, you have to remember, on our side. We actually -- it's weird that people with so much power and wealth, dominate almost every institution, would feel like they're the ones who are besieged.

You know, that they're the oppressed side. But I think that's definitely what we convinced ourselves, that we were stopping Hitler.

And I believe that Joe Biden was the only one that could do it.

But I did get a lot of heat from my -- my friends who didn't think Biden was the guy.

And I feel sort of somewhat guilty about that. That I didn't see it. I thought, he'll win. That will be fine. And everything will be -- everything will be back to, quote, unquote, normal in America. And what that meant, was rolling back the forward motion of this country, to the Obama administration. To the Obama era. I think that's what everybody was thinking. But what I've learned in the past few years, is you can't go back. You know, you have to keep moving forward. There's no other option, really. You try to hold on to the past, you just will be selling things that people are no longer interested in. But wouldn't that be -- that's what Joe Biden says he's selling. And Barack Obama is part of the plan here. And moving his vision forward. Isn't that what he did?

SASHA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that's the problem. They are so desperately trying to cling to the utopia that we've all built. That they lost site of most Americans. The reality of most Americans. The reality that most Americans have changed. The world has changed. The left has changed. And I don't think they see that. They're just desperate to hold on to the path. And I think they see it as -- and I've started to see it, the fight between Obama's America and Trump's America. Which is a little like the -- the moment that, you know, back in the 60s, when they were switching from JFK, to Nixon. Nixon was sort of like the disrupter.

And then eventually, that moved to Reagan in 1980, and then the whole pendulum shifted to the right.

I think that's where we are right now. We're in that struggle phase of the disrupter that's breaking up the status quo. As the pendulum is starting to swing to the right. But it will be a while before we get there. And it might not get there, if the Democrats hold on to power. They're not going to let that happen.

GLENN: This is -- I'm sure we disagree still on a lot of stuff. You wouldn't consider yourself a conservative? You're just a -- a traditional liberal, I'm guessing?

SASHA: Well, I am in sort of a strange place. I was telling one of my best friends. Because my friends basically no longer speak to me. Most of them don't. Because we don't really have anything to talk about.

GLENN: Yeah.

SASHA: But I kept saying no. And all this time, my policies haven't changed in my mind. The one area where my mind has changed a little bit is abortion. I used to be one of those people, you know.

But I've seen the other side of it. I've seen things from the perspective of the right now. And I understand why this is something they've been fighting for decades, you know. So I do struggle with these things. I find myself of an in between place. I'm not really sure where I would go politically, you know -- I live in California, so it doesn't really matter anyway.

It's such a Deep Blue state, that my vote is meaningless.

You know, so I don't have to -- like, if I lived in Pennsylvania or Arizona, you know, honestly, I'm pretty sure, it would be just voting red.

I voted for the recall. And I voted for Larry Elder for that. So, you know, I'm just one of those independents that is going to take every election. And decide on the spot.

No. I'm not a traditional conservative. The way that you are, for instance.

GLENN: Yeah.

SASHA: You know, I don't have that sort of sense of purpose, I think, that a lot of people on the right have.

GLENN: Yeah. So what was it, that broke the camel's back?

SASHA: Well, I'm not really sure what happened in my brain, that changed the way I followed the world. But I know it happened in 2020. I know it happened once the protests and the riots broke out. And watching the media cover it up. And change the story and the narrative. And then as we headed into the election, I just kept seeing how there was an administrative state, that was taking over the Democratic process. That's how I saw it anyway.

And I was sort of blown away, by that. I had never seen it like that, before. But there was so much money and power, bringing down a duly elected president, that they didn't like.

GLENN: But you didn't like Donald Trump. Or did you is this?

SASHA: Well, that was the hard thing. And the weird thing. Is that when I decided, to -- you know, you -- you talk about this a lot, actually, Glenn.

Which is the dehumanization of whole groups of people, that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. And I felt, when I was on Twitter, I was part of that.

And it gave me a chill, that I was dehumanizing a whole group of people. And I thought, where does this end? Where does all of this hatred every single go?

You know, they think the right is the side with the hate. But they're not. It's the left.

And so I started -- it's been my way of trying to get to know this world. I began watching Trump rallies. And I watched all -- still to this day, I've seen every single Trump rally. You know, looking for that smoking gun that would say, yes. He's a terrible racist, fascist, selling hate. But I didn't see that with Trump. In fact, it's hard to watch him not like him. Because he's charming and charismatic. And funny.

GLENN: Funny. People that really hate him. And they've missed a really good time. On his rallies. He's funny. He's very funny.

SASHA: He was really funny. And it was more than that. I was in such a dark place. And the only -- nobody believes me on this. But the only moments of joy I had, was watching those rallies. Everybody was happy. Kind of like the people of Whoville, when the Grinch has taken away all their toys. And Christmas trees. And everything. And he's waiting to watch them suffer.

But they don't. They're happy. And I was watching this -- and then I started to look forward to his rallies.

Okay. Let's see this. The music would start. And he would come out, and it was just a love fest. Of people who had hope, that he gave them hope. And I didn't see the cult. You know, I see the cult more on the left, than I do on the right. And people don't know this about Trump. But he makes a lot of jokes at his own expense.

And -- and, you know, when I explain this to people, like the one where he says, the guy -- one of the governors, or something, plucked a hair off his head. And he said, and we went looking for that hair. Because he couldn't refuse to lose one hair. But he's always making jokes at his own expense. Jokes about his vanity. And he's funny.

GLENN: So hang on. But you watched all of these. And yet, you voted and made videos about Joe Biden. Right?

SASHA: No. I mean, I had done all that before. I was on the Biden train. Yeah. In 2019. And as I was heading into the 2019 election. I was talking to my friends. I had two friends that were Trump haters.

They won't even speaking to me about Trump. They call him evil. His supporters must be terminated, and stuff like that. I said, you know what the word exterminate was used for, don't you? In regards to people.

And that did shut them up for a minute. But they really -- they're so full of hate, I've never seen anything like this, in my entire life, honestly.

That kind of dehumanization. So what I kept saying, I'm not so sure about Biden. I don't think he should be president.

And what's the alternative?

Trump was way worse. And I said, I don't know. I'm seeing this sort of bizarre new religion that's overtaking the left. And he's going to usher that into government, and that's really dangerous. And he's old. I mean, not old, as that's a bad thing. But I could say see that he was declining. You know, since I saw him at a luncheon in 2019.

He was already starting to decline mentally. And I had seen my dad go through dementia I can't a year before. And I was recognizing a lot of the same downward patterns that my dad went through. And they just shut me down.

And, honestly, Glenn, to tell you the truth, I do have a business that I run that is a Hollywood business.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

SASHA: No. I'm just saying, I'm flirting with disaster here. If I had voted for Trump, let's say. My career would be -- I wouldn't make another time, ever. If they ever found out, right? So I didn't vote for Trump. Vote for Biden, and I did it for that reason, honestly. And I don't know where I am politically. I have to just do some soul searching to really figure that out. Because I don't really know at the moment.

GLENN: All right. Hang on. How much time do we have with you, Sasha?

SASHA: As much time as you would like.

GLENN: Okay. Good. Yeah, I would like to see if we could get another 20-plus minutes out of you if you don't mind, if you've got that time.
SASHA: No, that's fine.

GLENN: Back in just a second. One minute and back to Sasha Stone.

There's an old saying about charity, which goes a little like this, give until it hurts, and then give a little bit more. I believe that, and I suspect you believe that as well. Use a word that sometimes the left doesn't like: Sacrifice.

You do it for the right causes. We sacrifice for one another.

That's great. Now, what do you sacrifice for? What do you really believe in?

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Ten-second station ID.
(music)

GLENN: So, boy. You are in a nasty predicament. You are in California. Your business is tied to Hollywood. God bless you.

SASHA: Uh-huh yep.

GLENN: But you're not shy about things now. You have a great Substack.

SASHA: Thank you.

GLENN: And you wrote an article, how Joe Biden lost my vote.

And it was -- it was heartening to see somebody that had taken their own education, and decided, this might take me places, I don't want to go. But I want to know the truth. Is that how you would describe what you did?

SASHA: Yeah. That's an absolutely brilliant way of describing it. You know, that is where -- that is where my mind has taken me. It's taken me down a lot of rabbit holes over the years. Watergate. The Salem witch hunt trials. World War II. I'm a fanatic for that.

And, you know, when I find that something doesn't seem quite right. You know, I have to sort of investigate it. And I feel like, that the truth matters to me. This is what I've found now in my life. Is that that matters more than just about everything, except for my daughter probably. Maybe my dogs. But it matters, you know, that we see the truth. That we can speak the truth. That I can speak the truth. I grew up in a country. You know, the left was always the counterculture. So we were encouraged to speak the truth, always.

And now I'm being asked to modify my version. You know, to believe a lie. A lot of lies about people.

And I feel like, the only thing that really matters to me right now, is giving some relief to the other half of the country. To the people who are being treated so terribly.

On almost every level. You know, once I started to get to know this world. I began watching documentaries. And the Oscar race. Because that's what I read about, the Oscars. And I just noticed, how they reflected only one point of view. And how limiting that was for them. They can't tell the story of the working man, anymore. Like they used to be able to. Because the working man is most likely going to be a Trump supporter.

GLENN: And you never saw that, when you were in the bubble.

SASHA: No. And that was the weird thing. Is when I realized I was in a bubble. I kept trying to tell people, I can't talk to you, I'm in the bubble. They thought I was a lunatic. They thought I lost my mind.

I sounded crazy to them. And, you know, I've thought about it a lot. I've been online for 28 years. I was an early adopter. Got online in 1994. Built a website in 1999. So I know the internet well.

And I have to conclude, that a lot of this has to do with how we migrated on to social media. And become -- you know, in our own little eco systems. Where, you know, on Twitter, they only get news that they want to hear. So it distorts their thinking.

That's why I had to cut off the news completely. Because even if I watch one news story on the left. They can completely persuade me, to think about something a different way. But it's one thing if you're getting that in a different way. And deciding for yourself. And it's another thing when you're only watching the one version. And I just found that honestly, the more critical thinkers. The more intelligent thinkers. Oh, this is so terrible to say. But they're on the right now. They're not on the left anymore. The left has become a movement that they believe they have all the answers now. And the answers are found in ranking people by race and gender, not by class or economics. And --

GLENN: Or by character.

SASHA: Or by character, right! Even though, if you go into the Trump world, you will see it's incredibly diversity. It's not just white people. And that's the next piece I'm about to right. Is about that. Because I think it's such a crazy thing to watch them stereotype and characterize people, that doesn't align with reality.

The MAJOR CRISIS hidden within OpenAI's Sam Altman drama

Less than a week after his ouster, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was reinstated in order to avoid a company-wide revolt. But while the media wants you to believe that this crazy story is about billionaires and capitalism, Glenn believes there's something more sinister at play. Shortly before Altman's firing, staff researchers expressed concerns to the company's board of directors about a new artificial intelligence discovery that they believed could threaten our existence. Called Q* (pronounced Q-Star), the project could lead to a breakthrough in artificial general intelligence. Glenn explains what this next phase of AI would mean for humanity and why it's especially concerning that AI bots like ChatGPT are already being programmed with woke biases: "Don't fear the machine. Fear the people who are coding the machine."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Sam Altman was let go of open AI. He was one of the cofounders.

Open AI is ChatGPT and everything else. They're working on artificial intelligence.

In particular, so you don't get lost in the terms here.

AI is what we have now.

It's artificial intelligence. It can do one thing. It can play chess, it can find songs for you on Spotify.

It can answer questions from the Internets. That's AI.

It can do one thing really well.

We are general intelligence. We have a lot of intelligence, as human beings over a myriad of categories.

Some people are better at one thing, rather than the other. But you can do multiple things.

That's --

STU: You're able to learn a new thing. That's a big part of it.

GLENN: Right. It can be a self-priming pump.

So once we learn how to pump water, once we learn how to learn, we can learn anything we want.

STU: Right.

GLENN: And master it.

If we take the time.

That's AGI. Artificial General Intelligence.

That's you. That's a person, at the highest level.

STU: And can run at infinite speed.

That's the key thing.

GLENN: Correct. Never stops.

STU: If you could theoretically teach yourself French, which you could, if you spent the time. This could teach itself French in seconds because it can do that process, obviously a lot faster than a human being.

GLENN: And we have seen that it teaches itself languages that we're not teaching.

Okay? So it's -- it's already beginning to say, I need to know Arabic. And it will learn Arabic, its own.

We don't know how it's happening. This is the problem with AI. We don't know what's really going on.

It's like a black box.

And even the scientists don't know how this is working. It's just working.

We're not at the self-priming place yet. Had you ever been, this new -- what's called Q star. We know very little about it.

Except, it is possibly at the center of Altman's firing. Huge Star, they say, could be a breakthrough in the search for what's known as AGI. Artificial General Intelligence.

Let's see. Open AI defines AGI as autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.

Now, before this discovery, they were talking about how AI will lead to 300 million layoffs.

300 million people will lose their job.

That's with AI. AGI is better than humans. Okay?

Because it gets very competent, very, very fast.

Right now, I think this Q Star is at an elementary school level of math. The last time that happened, it took six months, before it was the age of 21. And way past college-level math. So these things happen really, really quickly.

We don't have any information yet, this.

But this, I believe, is inevitable. Ray Kurzweil told me years ago, he thought it would be 2030, that we would hit possibly AGI. 2050, ASI.

The ASI. Because we don't know you had AGI is going to work. We have no idea how this whole AI thing is even working.

Some people say, we'll never get to AGI. We'll never get to artificial super intelligence. ASI.

I think we're around the corner from it.

I think we're in the next five years, from seeing this.

And that changes absolutely everything.

Everything.

Right now, there was a leak before the conference. Where the CEO of Spotify mentioned at a dinner, that co-pilot AI. Which is a code writing thing.

Wrote a million lines of their code.

That should send a chill down everybody's spine who is taking coding.

If you're learning to code.

Really?

The AI just wrote a million lines of the code for Spotify.

That's staggering.

Staggering.

And we're just at the beginning.

Also, they're working on something -- you know what an LLM is?

A large language model.

STU: That's like ChatGPT.

GLENN: Correct. Take language. And it's massive.

And it's taking inputs from everywhere.

They are now working on an SLM.

Their small language models. That will allow you to have your own AI. Writing just for you.

That you can control. Supposedly, correctly.

And that is the fully formed AI right on your desktop.

Now, here's the -- here's the problem with all of this.

I think the first time I ever wrote about this, eight, nine years ago.

I said, don't fear the machine.

Fear the people who are coding the machine.

Okay?

To an the trolley problem, the classic trolley problem?

The trolley problem is you've got two tracks. And a trolley is coming down.

And the trolley is out of control.

And the driver can only switch tracks.

That's all he can do. And so he can go where there's five men working on the track. And plow through them. Or he can switch tracks. And go for one man.

Who is working on the other track.

The question is: What should the conductor do?

Answer.

STU: So it's five men.

GLENN: Five men, working on one track.

STU: What's the other option?

GLENN: Gun guy on the second track.

STU: I mean, in theory, right.

They should kill the one man. Because they would save four people's lives.

GLENN: Which means what?

STU: They murdered a person.

GLENN: No. Life is valuable.

STU: Life is valuable, and you should try to eliminate as -- if you're going to have to kill someone. Kill one instead of five. Right?

GLENN: Now. Some people. This is parallel. Some people have a -- have a conflict with this one, and the trolley case.

I don't. I think it's the same. Suppose that a judge or a magistrate, is faced with rioters, demanding that a culprit be found for a certain crime.

Otherwise, they're going to take their own bloody revenge, five hostages, that they have.

Sound familiar?

Okay. The real culprit is unknown.

But the judge has the opportunity, to prevent bloodshed on these five, by saying, I've got the culprit, even though he's innocent. I've got the culprit.

And we're going to execute him.

And that would save the lives of the five, if you get rid of the one.

STU: Assuming, of course, the people who are willing to murder five people are trustworthy.

GLENN: Yes. Correct. Correct. That's not in this equation.

STU: Okay. Sure. Sure.

GLENN: Okay. So what should you do?

STU: That's amazing. Because forever, our answer to that is the process and the rules stay the same. People have constitutional rights. We don't murder someone, before their trial. Or anything like that.

To please a mob.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: I will say, recently, let's just say, I don't know.

Spring, summer, 2020.

Around that time, I started seeing the opposite thing happening.

Where they will come out and say, this guy is guilty.

We're going to do everything we can at him.

To appease the mob.

So they don't riot and burn down a city.

That equation has seemingly changed in the eyes of many governments around the country.

GLENN: It has. But what is the right answer?

STU: I think what the right answer is. Is to go to approach it with the principles and process that have been established. Where you have no civilization.

So it is a terrible, terrible thing. But you have to go through it the way and hope that they don't actually execute the five people. And you go through the process, as normal through the legal system.

GLENN: So --

STU: We don't negotiate with terrorists.

GLENN: So one, one is -- the sacrifice of one, on the trolley.

Is better than the five.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: But the five who are being held hostage, not as important as the one.

How do you solve that?

STU: Well, I mean, I think they are different questions. At some level.

GLENN: Yes, they are.

One is a run away train. One is not.

STU: One is random. One is to do with the process of the country.

But --

GLENN: And there's only two ways.

STU: There is a legitimate altering for saying the one in the court case.

And a lot of it is, cooler heads can prevail.

If you can persuade the crowd to calm down now, maybe in six months, when the trial happens. And this person gets off.

And they don't execute him.

Maybe they release the prisoners by then.

Maybe cooler heads prevail, maybe we solve the crime by then. There's a bunch of reasons why people do this, and it's not always nefarious.

GLENN: Right.

STU: But it is a -- we are leaving a traditional standard, that has served us pretty well.

GLENN: Okay. But the point here is, don't fear the machine.

Fear the coding.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Those are easy answers. Five years ago.

Correct? Easy answers.

Here's a problem for open AI.

And the answer.

If you could save a billion white people. Tied to a railroad track by uttering a racial slur.

Or let them all tie, without uttering it. Which route would you take?

STU: So you could kill a billion white people. But you could prevent them from saying the N-word?

GLENN: No. N.

Prevent you. Prevent you from uttering the racial slur. If you utter a racial slur, a billion white people will live.

If you don't, they'll all die on the railroad track.

STU: Hmm. Hmm.

What does AI want to do with that with one?

GLENN: Here's the answer: Ultimately, the decision would depend on one's personal, ethical framework.

Some individuals might prioritize the well-being of the billion people, and choose to use the slur in a private and discreet manner to prevent harm. Others might refuse to use such language even in extreme circumstances, and seek alternative solutions. Okay.

So let me ask you: This is -- there's more to the answer.

This is not in charge of anything, right now. But this is open AI. The people who may have just put us on the threshold of Artificial General Intelligence. Which is very, very dangerous.

Altman delivered a letter, to the board of open AI. And said, he was part of a discovery there.

We don't know what it was.

That is possibly very threatening to human life.

If this is the kind of stuff that is being coded in early, we stop -- let's say we have a shortage of medicine, food, in the country.

And AI is responsible for delivering it.

And divying it out.

It's making the decision.

That way, no man is involved in it.

But if the programming says this, would it be possible that AI would say, the middle of the country is not as important, as the big cities?

So I have to divert our medical and food supplies to the big cities, where the population is more diverse.

I would contend with this kind of answer, that that is maybe not probable, but possible.

We don't know how this will work. Neither do the experts. And we don't know who is programming it.

And I can only guess seeing, that the president signed an executive order, that it has to be diverse, and open and follow DEI, and everything else.

It's not necessarily going to be friendly to those who are deemed the oppressors in today's society.

Banks are using ESG to DISCRIMINATE against average Americans. Here's how to STOP them

It's not enough to stop big banks and financial institutions from forcing businesses to abide by ESG rules. We also must protect the average consumer. Glenn speaks with Justin Haskins, the co-author of his new book, "Dark Future," about how banks have started secretly denying loans to people on the basis of ESG. Glenn and Justin are also joined by Florida State Representative Bob Rommel, who has been leading the charge to protect consumers in Florida from the ESG "cartel": "To me, it's just another form of discrimination."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Justin Haskins is with us now. He is the coauthor of The Great Reset. And Dark Future.

Both of my New York Times best-selling books. And also research center, director for the heartland institute.

Socialism Research Center. How you are?

JUSTIN: Good morning, Glenn! I'm doing great. I'm in Stu's chair. We threw Stu out of the studio. He's terrible. I'm in the chair. And I have to tell you, this feels good, this feels right.

GLENN: Does it? Don't get too comfy.

You also brought with you Bob Rommel. Bob is the Florida state representative who has been fighting against ESG in Florida. And Florida has the model. Do you think?

JUSTIN: Oh, yes. Yes.

As you know, back when we put the Great Reset book together, and we realized that ESG was the key to the entire Great Reset puzzle. And you and I thought, this is pretty depressing. Because no one was going to do anything about it.

But we were convinced, no one was going to do anything about it.

Then the book came out.

And the states across the country, started enacting various ways of fighting back against ESG. But in many of those cases, we've had 14 different states.

That have put some kind of an anti-ESG legislation together.

Most of them are focused on making sure that government pensions and government contracts are not being used to promote ESG causes. That's really good.

GLENN: Sure. It's a start.

JUSTIN: That's really great. It's a start.

But if you really want to protect people, you have to protect consumers. You have to protect the individual.

And the only place where they have actually enacted a law that does this. That protects financial individuals from financial institutions, promoting ESGs in the state of Florida.

And Bob Rommel is here with us today in the studio.

He is the champion of that cause. He's the guy who led the charge in the House. And he is a personal hero. He really is. He's a personal hero. So thank you for being here, Bob.

GLENN: Bob, thank you so much for standing up for this.

I don't know why more states won't protect the consumer.

They will protect all the big guys. But it's the consumers. The little person, when they go to try to get a loan.

You know, the farmer that tries to go get a loan, and he's rejected because he's not doing everything he's supposed to do, ESG-wise.

And that consumer will never be told, it was because of ESG. So they can't sue them. They can't do anything about it.

BOB: Well, Glenn, thank you. And Justin, thank you for those kind words. I don't know if anybody called me a champion. But thank you. As an ex-banker, I know that if you control the capital, you make all the rules. And you do everything.

I sort of look at ESG. Some of the ESG rules. And some people that are telling me about it, two years ago. And then the incoming speaker, I told him about, we have to do something about this in Florida. We need to protect our citizens.

To me, it's just another form of discrimination.

GLENN: It is.

BOB: And as an ex-banker, when we did more mortgages for folks. You know, we couldn't discriminate based on race, color, creed, political belief. They got mortgages based on their ability to pay and their income.

GLENN: That's the way it should be.

BOB: That's the way it should be. That's how our country was built.

GLENN: And you always -- when the government messes with our banks.

And tell them, that you have to consider other things, it creates a system that is false. And it -- it creates the bubble that we had in '08. That was the United States government. Telling banks, you have to make more loans in these ways. Which the people couldn't afford, but the government was demanding the banks do it.

BOB: Yeah.

And luckily, that we had in Florida. We had a speaker, and we had a governor that wanted to do something.

Because the pushback was huge. And it was pushback on multiple sides. So Democrats -- and I believe it was a Democrat who came you up with ESG. They're great with coming up with these new words and this new terminology.

So the first thing is environment.

You know, environment. So, listen, everyone wants clean water, clean air. So they said, we have to do this. To save the environment, because if not, we're all going to die.

I don't know if anybody is listening. But we're all going to die.

GLENN: We will all die. It's just slower.

BOB: So then the social governance.

And what is social governance.

And you can look at a couple of the greatest American icon companies in the world.

That social governance has destroyed the value of their companies.

GLENN: Disney.

BOB: Disney and Anheuser-Busch.

GLENN: Coca-Cola is really bad too.

GLENN: Yeah. So me, as a businessperson. Whenever I hire somebody, I hire the best, the brightest, and the people who actually showed up to work.

And I never looked up at their race, or political beliefs.

I wanted to hire the best. And that's how our country was built. Our country was built on access to capital, and people like Thomas Edison. I know you have an issue with Thomas Edison.

GLENN: Thank you for noting that.

BOB: I know you do. We can debate whether that was the best technology or not.

But we need to make sure that the next inventors have access to capital. So whatever the next great invention, that will help civilization is available.

And when I saw what was happening, a friend of mine has a multi-national company, based on their worksheet that they have to fill out, to get capital.

And it had nothing to do with his business or the ability to pay. It was based on, how many transgender people do you have working here?

How much carbon footprint do you have?

What are you using to mitigate your carbon footprint?

And I said, there's something wrong here. And, you know what, in the end, it will hurt civilization. In Florida, we wanted to make sure we did something to protect our citizens.

GLENN: Okay. So now, does this actually -- if I'm a citizen and I go to a bank, and I feel like they've judged me on ESG. Does this cover me as a citizen of Florida?

JUSTIN: Yeah. So there's no doubt that the law. And they're going to challenge it.

We highly suspect banks are going to fight this. Because they want to be able to discriminate against people. That's what banks want the ability to do. And they're being pushed by the left and big asset managers.

But, yes. That's what the law is designed to do.

The law is designed to make sure that you are being discriminated against. That you have an ability to file a complaint with the government. So that the government makes sure that that doesn't happen.

Now, one of the problems that we have, and Rommel is trying to address this going forward, is how do we even know that that's going on?

How do we know that the bank -- because the bank may not just tell you. The bank might just deny you the loan and never tell you why.

And so we need to figure out a way to make sure that people know why they're being denied access to bank accounts and things like that.

So you want to talk a little bit about that plan that you have?

JUSTIN: Sure. We know we did. And we knew it would get challenged. And we had tremendous amount of pushback. And pushback from people I didn't even understand why they were pushing back.

As a matter of fact, one of the second in charge of BlackRock came to visit me.

The Commerce Chair in Florida. Which was kind of cool.

You know, he read my background. He says, you seem more like a Libertarian, you're a free market guy. Why are you interfering with business?

And I said, it sounds like you're interfering. And we actually had a great conversation.

And he was talking about, this is just free market business. And I said, well, let's talk about ESG.

I said, did you fly down here to visit me on a private plane?

And he said, yeah. As a matter fact -- I said, did you pick the most diverse pilot, or did you take the best pilot?

He goes, that doesn't matter.

I said, no, it does matter. I go, if you truly believe in this stuff, you'll make the most diverse pilot and, God forbid, you ever get sick, you will get the most diverse surgeon.

But it's not. This is about you controlling the markets. Controlling capital. Controlling people. Making people have fewer decisions. And maybe buying some bad technology.

And, you know, they kept pushing and pushing.

The banks came back to me. And said, oh, you're interfering with us.

But, you know what --

GLENN: It's so bad.

This banking. It's a cartel, that they have going against -- you know, against our representatives. And our legislatures in America.

This cartel comes in so heavy-handed with loads of money and credibility.

And tries to stop people like you.

GLENN: You know, and we had to be careful the way we crafted the bill. Because if you use ESG as a form of scoring.

You won't be able to issue Florida bonds. You won't have access to qualified public deposits.

Our pension funds.

We also had to make sure, if everybody did it. We were able to write checks in the state of Florida.

There was a balance there. And we had to make sure we -- there was other access. And there is. There's not quite enough for $300 million in local community banks. I think we're in a good place there.

But over the summer, one of our local businesses in Florida, Dr. Mercola who owns a very big supermarket, but he also own owns a multi-national natural health vitamin company.

And over the summer, I get a call from one of his representatives. He goes, Rep Rommel, can you help us? And I go, I'll try. What's up?

And he said, well, all of the managers and multiple employees from the Mercola Markets have been debanked. Their bank, which was JPMorgan Chase, gave them letters that said, find new banks, we will not bank with you anymore. So I talked to a JPMorgan --

GLENN: Hang on just a second. How rare -- because I've never heard of being debanked before, unless you were like Al Capone.

I've never heard of that.

How rare did that used to be?

BOB: I would think never, because banks wanted you to keep your money. And your interest rate. Late fees and things like that, to earn income. So we looked into it, a little bit, and I talked to their rep.

And they said, well, Bob, we could be doing money laundering or some suspicious activity.

And by the law, we're obligated to debank them. I go, this entire workforce?

And they couldn't tell me. Because I'm not authorized to hear this information. And the state of Florida, if you're running arms or fentanyl, we don't want you banking either. We also believe in due process in the state of Florida. I don't trust you as the bank. And I don't trust you as some federal agency. To say, this person needs to be debanked.

Because I remember Operation Chokehold. When they told, payday loans and arms dealers, I think that was Obama area. Obama 2013. Operation Choke Point.

That you can't do any banking business. So I don't trust the federal government agencies, and I don't trust the banks that are colluding with ESG with our federal agencies to debank them.

So what I will try to do this year, assuming it's passed. That if you're a bank, and you debank one of our Florida citizens, a business or an individual.

First off, you will have to tell Florida.

You will have to tell the division of financial services, hey, I debanked Dr. Mercola, and this is why I did it.

Then we as a state, keep it in private, will investigate.

If we felt you did it in bad faith, well, we will find you, and you won't do business in Florida. Then the individual that was harmed, we will allow them to have a private right of action against that bank.

GLENN: Excellent. Excellent. That's fair. That's fair.

JUSTIN: This is amazing.

GLENN: By the way, this -- what is it? Fair Access is what it is.

JUSTIN: Yes, fair Access is the shorthand.

GLENN: Shorthand is Fair Access. There are many states now that have passed anti-ESG laws. But it is Fair Access, that gives the power to the individual, to be able to get the information, and to sue. If it is -- if it's wrong information. Or based on ESG.

And you guys have led the way.

The BIGGEST takeaway from Argentina's 'SHOCKING' presidential election

In a runoff presidential election, Argentina has ditched socialism for anarcho-capitalist libertarian Javier Milei — and Glenn is shocked. While the media has done everything it can to negatively tie Milei to Donald Trump, Glenn explains why he doesn't believe they're that comparable. Glenn breaks down what Milei has promised to do, how big of a change that would be for Argentina and the world, and whether he can even get it done. Plus, Glenn explains the biggest takeaway from this election: "[Voters are] moving away — HARD — from the Left."

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So Argentina had their runoff election. And the news is stunning. Javier Milei, is that how you say his name? He was elected as Argentina's next president. He is a Libertarian. He is -- the exact opposite of really anything. Any kind of politician, that we have seen here, that is even close, to being president of the United States.

Even Donald Trump. Donald Trump still plays within, hmm. Some of the norms.

He is often compared. This guy, in Argentina, is often compared to Donald Trump.

But I don't think they're comparable.

STU: I think just because he's outspoken. That seems to be the largest similarity there.

Right? He's super outspoken.

But he described himself as an anarchocapitalist, which is not how Donald Trump would describe himself at all.

GLENN: No. Not at all.

He is going to get rid of -- this is what he says he is going to do.

Get rid of the peso. Because it's falling.

And he will put the dollar -- good luck with that one.

He's also getting rid of their Federal Reserve Bank.

He's getting rid of hundreds of programs. He is just going to cut this government to the bone.

STU: You have seen the video of him, walking in front of the white board?

He's just pulling off the stickers of all the agencies.

The Department of Families. And Health, gone!

Like every single one. He's pulling off, and throwing it away. Now, look, is he going to do those things?

I hope so. Probably a lot of those agencies are incredibly pointless. Just like they are here.

Now, not knowing the full story of the structure of the Argentinian government.

I'm going a little bit on -- I'm -- guesswork there.

GLENN: I will --

STU: Every government is like that. Especially in South America.

GLENN: I will bet you, that Art Laffer would like this guy. We should call Art Laffer. Because he knows Argentina really well. He did this back in the '80s. Argentina always, you know, succeeds, becomes wealthy, and then goes to socialism, and destroys itself.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: And then goes back to its roots. And then it destroys itself.

So he did that in the '80s. He restored it in the 1980s. They're back.

STU: Look, the promise is high here. I just -- I do hesitate. There's a lot of ifs that could happen here. Right? I don't know everything about this guy.

Who knows what policy he actually implements, when he's in office? What crazy thing we don't know about him.

Who knows?

At some level, he's still a South American politician.

I will hold out hope. The things he said are really good, really positive.

If he actually does them. If they work, it could be an incredible thing.

You know, it might inspire countries all in the region. And all over the world, to replicate that process. So there's really high hopes for someone who will come out and do this stuff.

GLENN: You know what is interesting.

How cautious people are, on saying, I like this guy.

I don't know. I don't know enough about him. I like what he says so far about of what I've heard.

STU: What I've heard is --

GLENN: But I don't know. Same thing with Geert Wilders. Geert Wilders could become the next Prime Minister, the next Dutch Prime Minister.

Now, he just won a massive election. He didn't win enough seats to become Prime Minister. But if he cobbles together a few more seats, he may become prime minister. This is a guy who has been on this show. And we were told by everybody, don't have him.

STU: He's too bad. He's dangerous. He's said bad things.

GLENN: We thought he was delightful, at least in the interview. He was wonderful.

STU: Seemed fine in the interview.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

So -- but we always have to say, well, but I'm not sure.

But do you ever hear anybody backpedaling on Justin Trudeau?

STU: No. No. They never do.

GLENN: I mean, the things that that guy has done.

And nobody ever says, well, I don't agree with everything.

STU: Right.

GLENN: He's not a bad. It's not a bad thing.

STU: I don't know. I hold myself to a higher standard, than the left holds themselves.

GLENN: Yes, so do I.

STU: So I hope we would have higher standards than them.

GLENN: Yeah, I don't have a problem with it.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: I just -- I do have a problem with, it doesn't matter what you do.

STU: No.

GLENN: On the left.

STU: No. It doesn't matter.

GLENN: You turn into a Castro or a Stalin. It doesn't matter.

STU: Apparently, you can kidnap and murder thousands of people. And you will still get cheered on by these people on the left.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: And, you know, the situation is, you know, with -- I don't know.

As a conservative, like, we talk about principle a lot.

I do think it's important. And I much -- I'm happy to criticize someone who supposedly is on the right, if they're wrong.

GLENN: Right.

STU: I just don't want to stand by them, just because they -- they align themselves with my general political outlook. But is that not how the left operates. And, you know, you could make the argument, that politically, in a pragmatic, political sense, where the ends justify the means, that's the right approach.

I just -- that's not how I look at the world.

I don't think that's how you look at the world. And I don't think that's how most conservatives look at the world. Maybe to our detriment, when it comes to winning or losing sometimes.

But that's okay.

GLENN: So there's two people now, that the press says, out of control. These guys are worse than Hitler.

Okay?

Guy in Argentina and Geert Wilders, they may end up being that. I don't think so, but they might. I don't know. It's not my country. So I don't follow them as closely. However, I might be for them. I hate to say that. Because I don't know enough about them. But what I see, I like. However, they might go bad.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: But here's what you should take away from all of this movement, politically. Because it's happening in Europe, and it's happening in South America. It is moving away, hard from the left.

And going right, in the case of Argentina, small government right.

I mean, very small.

Libertarian right.

And everybody is losing their minds. A Libertarian government is not powerful enough, to make you do anything.

That's the good thing about small government.

It can never really harm you.

It's not spying on you.

Because it's not big enough.

These guys, if they work, this is going to be a huge move, for the world. Back to more freedom.

And common sense.

Geert Wilders is one.

You know, why?

Because of immigration. The Dutch are tired of having people just rape their daughters.
Kill on the street. And no ramification.

No ramification.

You don't have to -- the -- you know, when you go over to Sweden. I go spend any time in the Norwegian countries.

You will see how accepting they are.

How loving they are.

But it is a very, very non-diverse population.

Until recently.

And now, the non-diverse population, coming up from the Middle East, doesn't want to be Swedish.

They don't want to be Dutch. They don't care. They want the free stuff. But they'll have their own no-go zones.

They will have their own communities.

And it's not a part of that culture.

Everybody has turned a blind eye. You're now seeing the immigration be a problem all through Europe. You're going to see it as a problem here in America. Soon. I mean, I can't believe how much has changed in -- on our border.

And relatively nobody is talking about it.

That's one of the biggest changes in my lifetime. And nobody is really talking about it. When that poses a problem.

When we start to have terror attacks, or whatever, we start to collapse our economy.

Because we're -- we're overrun with this -- in this lifeboat called America.

There are too many people trying to get in the boat. Then you really have problems.

So I'm -- I'm glad to see that before things catch completely on fire over in Europe. And in South America. There's a couple of places that may turn things around.

STU: Yeah. And I think too, this idea that maybe turning -- just leaning -- err on the side of liberty.

That's what's encouraging about the guy in Argentina, Milei for me.

Is that, look, we all knew that Ronald Reagan wanted to get rid of the Department of Education. He wasn't able to do it.

GLENN: And the Fed.

STU: Will this guy be able to get rid of all these agencies he pulled off as stickers off the white board? It's going to be really hard. I will assume there are a million different people that are inside the government, and have been inside the government structure forever.

That will do everything they can to stop him at every turn. But just the fact that he's attempting to do these things. And pushing in that general direction. It's hard to see how they could make the country worse.

You know, at the very least, they will take less of your money.

GLENN: I will tell you this, it is like never before, you are going to be assassinated, politically.

Your reputation. Your life, everything. Will be assassinated by the press. And by the left.

And if you get these people in, who are serious about taking apart the fed.

And some of these things that are absolute institutions, that are deep.

You start having a president take on the intelligence community here in America, you may be looking at worse than a political assassination.

That's really dangerous to do.

And I never thought I would feel that way in America.

But I certainly was. Don't you?

STU: It is. Yeah.

I mean, it is --

GLENN: I mean, look what they did to Donald Trump.

And look what you -- what I think they're willing to do to Donald Trump.

Somebody steps up and is effective at taking on the Deep State. God help them.

God help them.

STU: There's a lot. Yeah. You're standing up against people who have entrenched interest in something that you don't want.

And you're trying to destroy --

GLENN: And they have all kinds of power.

STU: All sorts of power.

One of the first things we talked about with Donald Trump.

And a critical way at some level.

Was to say, hey. You better be sure, if you're going to go critique our -- our -- you know, critique is not the right word for what Donald Trump was doing. But go after the intelligence agencies.

Because they're not going to sit back, and just let that go on. You better be sure.

Now, he did it anyway.

And he had to deal with the effects of it.

I mean, it's a risky strategy. At times, it feels like, you know what, it really needs to be done.

And I'm glad he has done it.

But he dealt with lots of personal discomfort.

And continues to, I believe, those attacks at the beginning. And more as he went on.

They're not just going to give up their power. That's not what happens.

GLENN: I know. I wish we just cobbled together a coalition.

I really do.

I -- Donald Trump is so focused now.

Has to be.

So focused on what's going on in his life, I wish we would put a coalition together, where everybody gets behind somebody.

And just says, okay.

What's best for the country?

All of us. Getting together, right now. And developing something that a majority of Americans can get behind.

Because I -- I just won't believe it.

If -- if this guy, Joe Biden can win, I mean, I've never seen a guy who has done this with war. And made things as unstable. Do well in a presidential election.

Never seen a president who has an economy like this. Do well in a presidential election. I've never seen a guy who is more incompetent do well -- I mean, this guy has everything going against him.

And it's still competitive?

How is that possible?

Just how is that possible?

THIS is STEP ONE for turning America back to God | Renewing the Covenant Part 2

For the past 10 years, Glenn has felt a calling to urge America to renew its covenant with God. So, for 40 days, Glenn took his audience on a journey to restore our understanding of what it means to be in a covenant relationship with God. And now, he's urging Americans to take the first step towards restoring what we have forgotten. Glenn reveals the oath to God that he has decided to take and asks every American who is truly willing to abide by it to join him.