WATCH: This man has a message you absolutely need to hear

December 02, 2014

Writer

Watch the full interview on TheBlaze TV

Monday night on The Glenn Beck Program, Glenn introduced the audience to a man who delivered some serious truth to the protestors in Ferguson. He's not famous. He's not a pundit. He's not an Al Sharpton or a Ben Carson. He's just an everyday guy named Jonathan Gentry, but he has a message everyone needs to hear.

Watch his message below, and scroll down for more from the interview:

Glenn: That man is Jonathan Gentry, and he is with us now. How are you?

Johnathan: Good. How are you doing, Glenn?

Glenn I am really good. Tell me first of all, before we get into that, who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?

Johnathan: I’m just a regular human being, honestly. My mom raised three boys by herself. My mother and father have been divorced for over 25 years, you know, so I always was back and forth with my mother, with my father. You know, I see a lot of the messages. People say oh, this stuck-up black rich kid. I’m by far none of that, and it hurts me because I’ve seen the struggle growing up. I grew up right there where the riots broke out in ‘92, ’91-‘92.

I’ve seen it. I was part of it, and it breaks my heart to see the same continued cycle of how we react, even in the midst of turmoil. Instead of us showing our greatest strength, we specialize in showing our greatest weakness for decades. And I’m in my early 30s, and that’s what we specialize in. Then we wonder why we’re stereotyped. Then we wonder why people don’t see us the same. It’s because of our actions at how we respond to issues that take place in our lives.

Glenn: I mean holy cow, you want to talk about sacred cows, and that video, which I think the full video runs about five minutes, you speak more plainly than most people are willing to speak. I wouldn’t classify you as angry in that, but you were clear.

Johnathan: It was passion. I think people misunderstand anger and passion. You know, my mom raised us. In spite of the struggles I have gone through, in spite of the struggles we have gone through growing up, I could have chose the wrong path. I could’ve chose to steal, kill, murder, purse snatch, do all that, but I stayed focused on my decisions in life. You know, we’re all human. We’re all human beings; however, I had choices to make as a young man.

And like I said, the cycle, especially in our youth, especially in our young generation, I felt God’s spirit when I did that video. It was Him. A man cannot move like that on his own capacity. I didn’t write nothing down. I didn’t have notes. I didn’t have a memorandum. I didn’t have anything. It was just record, flow, go. Like He said, write it down plain on tablet. Make the vision. Spread the blueprint.

Glenn: What was it that prompted you?

Johnathan: It was what I was seeing, how we reacted, like I said, in the midst of turmoil. We’re throwing elbows and angry and pissed off. Where is that line drawn amongst yourself? I’m just saying self-examination, look at yourself. Look at yourself. Timeout with all the racism. Timeout with all the foolishness. Timeout with what’s taking place. Look at yourself right now and tell me, are you happy with you? And I guarantee you you’re going to look in the mirror and say no, because if you look yourself in the mirror and see the self-examination that’s taking place, you will not be happy.

Because if you see around you, you’re tearing up where you live. You’re tearing up your own community, not no one else’s. You’re tearing up yours. So if you can examine yourself, calm down, and examine yourself, you will see that you’re not in a place of happiness, and that’s what I wanted to point out. That’s what I want people to see. People say you hate us blacks. I’m African-American myself. How can I hate?

And the problem is a finite mind cannot understand where I’m coming from. A person who does not understand the things of God will knock me, you know? That’s why I said the deep things of God are spiritually discerned to a carnal man. Neither can he know Him because they are spiritually discerned. So what I’m saying and what I’m bringing is at a level where you can’t understand it if you’re finite and superficial. I’m just telling you to look at yourself and tell me, are you happy? Tell me when you look yourself, not everyone around you, not white, not black, not the police departments, but yourself.

When you look at yourself and see your actions, your actions got you here. Your irresponsibilities have gotten you here, nothing no one else did to you. Stop blaming slavery and segregation for what’s happening now. It is you. It’s not them. It’s not this person. It is you standing in the need of prayer. That’s what I’m trying to represent, and that’s what I am representing, but they’re missing that, a lot of the African-American community. Some are understanding, but a lot miss it.

Glenn Okay, I want to come back to that. When we come back, I want to ask you, is that intentional? Because there is the Jesse Jacksons and the Al Sharptons of the world that I think that’s intentional. I know Al Sharpton. I know him. I’ve been with him. That man knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing. Let me get your opinion when we come back.

[break]

Glenn: That is a powerful message that needs to be heard. You talk about the civil rights leaders, and I think you even said you call them what I call them, so-called civil rights leaders. Who are they? Do they know?

Johnathan: I mean, now you have to understand times have changed. Understand again, like I said, racism is there, but it’s not like it was back then. You’re using a method that worked then. You understand? And what I say now to the youth and to the world, to the nation, our leaders today, you cannot be an effective leader reliving your past. You cannot. You cannot be an effective leader of no kind, of no background, of whatever race, reliving your past, because what you’re going to do is rejuvenate and recycle hate, pain, anger into an innocent generation. You understand?

What you went through, you’re recycling it to an innocent generation that has nothing to do what you experienced. And I’m not talking about history. You understand? History is one thing. Recycling anger into God’s children is another. That’s where I come in, and that’s what I’m doing. I am hitting the brakes on these leaders who are recycling anger, pain, into an innocent generation who experienced what you did not.

Glenn: Can I ask you a question? Because I really truly believe…first of all, I grew up in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. When I was growing up, I think there might have been four black people, and they may have come in, I don’t know, you know, for a show or something. I have no idea. I remember the first time I saw an African-American, and my father said to me don’t stare. But I’d never seen anybody. So we didn’t have…where I was growing up, we didn’t have this strife. There wasn’t the strife that we had in the South and everything else growing up.

So maybe I just come from a different place, but I think America has moved on from the 1960s, the 1970s. Racism still exists. When I went down to Birmingham, Alabama, and I did a show down there, I was at a theater, and the general manager said to me…I said look, we start on time? And they said well, not down here. And I said why not? And they said we’re on colored standard time. And everybody just laughed, and my friends and everybody, we’re there, and I sit here, and I was like did I just hear that? I mean, what the hell is that?

I realize, I mean, I expected, you know, Archie Bunker to come back out from behind the curtain there. So it exists, but we’re not the kind of people that we were in Martin Luther King’s time. We made great advancements, and now we’re being dragged—

Johnathan: Back.

Glenn: You just said these guys believe…maybe…maybe they don’t believe it. They believe we’re the same people that we were when Martin Luther King was alive. We’ve grown.

Johnathan: Right, we have, and that’s the sad part, because that’s what’s being pushed. Unfortunately that’s what Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and a lot of these activists, Najee Ali and a lot of these guys on the West Coast, that’s what they’re pushing—these white folks and the police are the KKK. Okay, time out. Hold on. Wait a minute, because you have to understand, with a spiritual mind, I’m filled with God’s spirit, so don’t feed me that nonsense. You understand?

I understand racism still exists. For instance, when all these riots broke out in Ferguson, they burned down their own church, the church Michael Brown’s father attended, and they had the audacity to blame it on the KKK. Did the KKK burn down the AutoZone too? Did they burn down the McDonald’s too? Did they burn down the police cars too? So you guys burned down all the police cars, and you blame the church on the KKK because you knew it was wrong. Because they knew it was wrong, KKK did that. This, oh no.

You burned down all this. What did you do that? Why? You see, it’s the examination of a person’s self, and I’m just holding up that mirror, you know, and what I’m seeing is…go ahead.

Glenn: Okay, so let me ask you this, because the KKK exists. There are real racists.

Johnathan: Of course.

Glenn: There are spooky, spooky people, so when we come back, let me take a quick break and then come back and just ask you so how do we straddle this and say look, we as reasonable people need to say KKK and racists and racist cops, enough, but the good cops, the good people—

Johnathan: Yeah, not all cops are bad.

Glenn: Some are bad. They’re people. Some are bad. Some are good. And what we’re doing is just planting these seeds of hatred. So how do we break through and stop this nonsense of race wars that I think people are intentionally seeding? We’ll be back in just a second.

[break]

Glenn: So, you have received death threats. I mean, I know what my Facebook is like. I can’t imagine what yours is like. Nobody wants to even look at the facts of the case. They’re rioting when the facts of the case are completely upside down. How are we going to solve this? Forget about Ferguson. How are we going to solve the hate problem that is being sown by everyone it seems?

Johnathan: They’re taking sides, and we shouldn’t, Glenn. Honestly, we shouldn’t, because it’s what’s being taught, you know? How can a 15-year-old know that the police and white folks are bad? Who teaches that child that, you know? So it’s what’s being taught into our communities. So my job honestly and what I’m going to continue to do, it’s…God created us all equal. Regardless of what you’re seeing out here, regardless of what the media is pushing, we have all been created equal. And again, I say I do not hate my race. I’m just telling us to take responsibility.

Don’t hold up a sign to the police department saying black lives matter when we’ve been killing each other all year, okay? Either put the sign down or reflect it toward your own community, you understand? Because that’s where the crime rate is. That’s where we’re dying is in our own community.

Now all of a sudden Michael Brown has become the black male who has died. There’s 500,000 that we killed as an African-American community. We need to come to the level of responsibility and accountability where we live. This is not a police problem. This is not a white problem. This is a black problem that we need to address.

The same intensity you’re bringing to the police department and to the nation with your foolishness, take it right back to where you live in your own community. That’s all I’m saying. That’s where we’re going to rise above, when you can take action to yourself and change who you are, imposing to ask someone to change who they are.

Glenn: How do you teach that to a group of people, and I don’t mean this about black people, I mean this about all people, that don’t want to take responsibility? This is the easy way out. Everybody wants the easy way out.

Johnathan: They do. It’s like who doesn’t want to take responsibility? That’s like you waking up not wanting to brush your teeth. You’re just nasty. Why would you not want to change? You understand what I’m saying? Why not take responsibility for what you do? Who doesn’t? You’re going to have to take responsibility for who you are. It’s who God created you to be. You have to take accountability.

Glenn: But society is telling you you don’t have to.

Johnathan: Exactly. That’s the sad part about it, because the hip-hop culture, if you notice, and a lot of the youth listen to the Jay-Z, the Beyoncé, the Kanye West, unfortunately. They listen to them. I mean, they haven’t said nothing, zero, about what’s taking place. They will listen to them, but they said nothing. As a matter fact, the rapper Rick Ross, if I was them, I’d be doing it too. You see that mindset, and they listen to that foolishness, and then they go out there and react.

So they’re being poisoned by the hip-hop culture and the generation itself by this foolishness. Because you have to understand too, Glenn, a man cannot serve two masters. You’re either going to love one or hate the other. You understand what I’m saying? If you’re not loving God, who else are you loving? You understand what I’m saying?

The stuff runs extremely deep spiritually, and a lot of people say I’m not a religious person. It doesn’t matter. Your spirituality is going to have to come into effect somewhere, because if you’re not obeying what God wants you to do and who God is love, you’re serving someone else. You’re giving authority, and you’re bowing down to another system. What is it? What’s causing you to react like this?

Glenn: That’s one of the things you brought up, change, and you talked about—we only have a minute, but you talked about the campaign and change. And I don’t want to get political, but I’ve always asked, change to what? We’re not defining anything. What you’re saying here is, you know, if you’re not serving God, which is love, who are you serving? And nobody wants to think about that. We want change, but change to what? We need definitions on this is the direction, this is specifically where we’re headed.

Johnathan: Politically I could go another direction.

Glenn: Don’t.

Johnathan: I won’t. Spiritually, however, we have to understand we have grasped on to the…people have to understand Grand Theft Auto is a videogame, not a lifestyle. We have adopted that into our communities. That is a videogame. You are acting like a videogame. That is not reality. Come to your senses.

Glenn: Will you come back?

Johnathan: I will.

Glenn: You are great. God bless you.

Johnathan: God bless you too.

Glenn: Thank you. You can find his videos online, and we’ll post some more at TheBlaze.com and GlennBeck.com. Thank you so much.

Johnathan: You’re welcome.

Fort Knox exposed: Is America's gold MISSING?

Christopher Furlong / Staff | Getty Images

President Trump promised that we would get a peek inside Fort Knox, but are we ready for what we might find?

In this new era of radical transparency, the possibility that the Deep State's darkest secrets could be exposed has many desperate for answers to old questions. Recently, Glenn has zeroed in on gold, specifically America's gold reserves, which are supposed to be locked away inside the vaults of Fort Knox. According to the government, there are 147.3 million ounces of gold stored within several small secured rooms that are themselves locked behind a massive 22 ton vault door, but the truth is that no one has officially seen this gold since 1953. An audit is long overdue, and President Trump has already shown interest in the idea.

America's gold reserve has been surrounded by suspicion for the better part of a hundred years. It all started in 1933, when FDR effectively nationalized the United States's private gold stores, forcing Americans to sell their gold to the government. This gold was melted down, forged into bars, and stored in the newly constructed U.S. Bullion Depository building at Fort Knox. By 1941, Fort Knox had held 649.6 million ounces of gold—which, you may have noticed, was 502.3 million ounces more than today. We'll come back to that.

By 1944, World War II was ending, and the Allies began planning how to rebuild Europe. The U.N. held a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, where the USD was established as the world's reserve currency. This meant that any country (though not U.S. citizens) could exchange the USD for gold at the fixed rate of $35 per ounce. Already, you can see where our gold might have gone.

Jump to the 1960s, where Lyndon B. Johnson was busy digging America into a massive debt hole. Between the Vietnam War and Johnson's "Great Society" project, the U.S. was bleeding cash and printing money to keep up. But now Fort Knox no longer held enough physical gold to cover the $35 an ounce rate promised by the Bretton Woods agreement. France took notice of this weakness and began to redeem hundreds of millions of dollars. In the 70s Nixon staunched this gushing wound by halting foreign nations from redeeming dollars for gold, but this had the adverse effect of ending the gold standard.

This brings us to the present, where inflation is through the roof, no one knows how much gold is actually inside Fort Knox, and someone in America has been buying a LOT of gold. Who is buying this gold? Where is it going and for what purpose? Glenn has a few ideas, and one of them is MUCH better than the other:

The path back to gold

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

One possibility is that all of this gold that has been flooding into America is in preparation for a shift back to a gold-backed, or partial-gold-backed system. The influx of gold corresponds with a comment recently made by Trump's new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, who said he was going to:

“Monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people.”

Glenn pointed out that per a 1972 law, the gold in Fort Knox is currently set at a fixed value of $42 an ounce. At the time of this writing, gold was valued at $2,912.09 an ounce, which is more than a 6,800 percent increase. If the U.S. stockpile was revalued to reflect current market prices, it could be used to stabilize the dollar. This could even mean a full, or partial return to the gold standard, depending on the amount of gold currently being imported.

Empty coffers—you will own nothing

Raymond Boyd / Contributor | Getty Images

Unfortunately, Glenn suspects there is another, darker purpose behind the recent gold hubbub.

As mentioned before, the last realaudit of Fort Knox was done under President Eisenhower, in 1953. While the audit passed, a report from the Secretary of the Treasury revealed that a mere 13.6 percent was checked. For the better part of a century, we've had no idea how much gold is present under Fort Knox. After the gold hemorrhage in the 60s, many were suspicious of the status of our gold supply. In the 80s, a wealthy businessman named Edward Durell released over a decade's worth of research that led him to conclude that Fort Knox was all but empty. In short, he claimed that the Federal Reserve had siphoned off all the gold and sold it to Europe.

What would it mean if America's coffers are empty? According to a post by X user Matt Smith that Glenn shared, empty coffers combined with an influx of foreign gold could represent the beginning of a new, controlled economy. We couldstill be headed towards a future where you'll ownnothing.

Glenn: The most important warning of your lifetime—AI is coming for you

NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence isn’t coming. It’s here. The future we once speculated about is no longer science fiction—it’s reality. Every aspect of our lives, from how we work to how we think, is about to change forever. And if you’re not ready for it, you’re already behind. This isn’t just another technological leap. This is the biggest shift humanity has ever faced.

The last call before the singularity

I've been ringing this bell for 30 years. Thirty years warning you about what’s coming. And now, here we are. This isn’t a drill. This isn’t some distant future. It’s happening now. If you don’t understand what’s at stake, you need to wake up—because we have officially crossed the event horizon of artificial intelligence.

What’s an event horizon? It’s the edge of a black hole—the point where you can’t escape, no matter how hard you try. AI is that black hole. The current is too strong. The waterfall is too close. If you haven’t been paying attention, you need to start right now. Because once we reach Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), there is no turning back.

You’ve heard me talk about this for decades. AI isn’t just a fancy Siri. It isn’t just ChatGPT. We are on the verge of machines that will outthink every human who has ever lived—combined. ASI won’t just process information—it will anticipate, decide, and act faster than any of us can comprehend. It will change everything about our world, about our lives.

And yet, the conversation around AI has been wrong. People think the real dangers are coming later—some distant dystopian nightmare. But we are already in it. We’ve passed the point where AI is just a tool. It’s becoming the master. And the people who don’t learn to use it now—who don’t understand it, who don’t prepare for it—are going to be swallowed whole.

I know what some of you are thinking: "Glenn, you’ve spent years warning us about AI, about how dangerous it is. And now you’re telling us to embrace it?" Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Because if you don’t use this tool—if you don’t learn to master it—then you will be at its mercy.

This is not an option anymore. This is survival.

How you must prepare—today

I need you to take AI seriously—right now. Not next year, not five years from now. This weekend.

Here’s what I want you to do: Open up one of these AI tools—Grok 3, ChatGPT, anything advanced—and start using it. If you’re a CEO, have it analyze your competitors. If you’re an artist, let it critique your work. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, have it optimize your budget. Ask it questions. Push it to its limits. Learn what it can do—because if you don’t, you will be left behind.

Let me be crystal clear: AI is not your friend. It’s not your partner. It’s not something to trust. AI is a shovel—an extremely powerful shovel, but still just a tool. And if you don’t understand that, you’re in trouble.

We’ve already seen what happens when we surrender to technology without thinking. Social media rewired our brains. Smartphones reshaped our culture. AI will do all that—and more. If you don’t take control now, AI will control you.

Ask yourself: When AI makes decisions for you—when it anticipates your needs before you even know them—at what point do you stop being the one in charge? At what point does AI stop being a tool and start being your master?

And that’s not even the worst of it. The next step—transhumanism—is coming. It will start with good intentions. Elon Musk is already developing implants to help people walk again. And that’s great. But where does it stop? What happens when people start “upgrading” themselves? What happens when people choose to merge with AI?

I know my answer. I won’t cross that line. But you’re going to have to decide for yourself. And if you don’t start preparing now, that decision will be made for you.

The final warning—act now or be left behind

I need you to hear me. This is not optional. This is not something you can ignore. AI is here. And if you don’t act now, you will be lost.

The next 18 months will change everything. People who don’t prepare—who don’t learn to use AI—will be scrambling to catch up. And they won’t catch up. The gap will be too wide. You’ll either be leading, or you’ll be swallowed whole.

So start this weekend. Learn it. Test it. Push it. Master it. Because the people who don’t? They will be the tools.

The decision is yours. But time is running out.

The coming AI economy and the collapse of traditional jobs

Think back to past technological revolutions. The industrial revolution put countless blacksmiths, carriage makers, and farmhands out of business. The internet wiped out entire industries, from travel agencies to brick-and-mortar retail. AI is bigger than all of those combined. This isn’t just about job automation—it’s about job obliteration.

Doctors, lawyers, engineers—people who thought their jobs were untouchable—will find themselves replaced by AI. A machine that can diagnose disease with greater accuracy, draft legal documents in seconds, or design infrastructure faster than an entire team of engineers will be cheaper, faster, and better than human labor. If you’re not preparing for that reality, you’re already falling behind.

What does this mean for you? It means constant adaptation. Every three to five years, you will need to redefine your role, retrain, and retool. The only people who survive this AI revolution will be the ones who understand its capabilities and learn to work with it, not against it.

The moral dilemma: When do you stop being human?

The real danger of AI isn’t just economic—it’s existential. When AI merges with humans, we will face an unprecedented question: At what point do we stop being human?

Think about it. If you implant a neural chip that gives you access to the entire internet in your mind, are you still the same person? If your thoughts are intertwined with AI-generated responses, where do you end and AI begins? This is the future we are hurtling toward, and few people are even asking the right questions.

I’m asking them now. And you should be too. Because that line—between human and machine—is coming fast. You need to decide now where you stand. Because once we cross it, there is no going back.

Final thoughts: Be a leader, not a follower

AI isn’t a passing trend. It’s not a gadget or a convenience. It is the most powerful force humanity has ever created. And if you don’t take the time to understand it now, you will be at its mercy.

This is the defining moment of our time. Will you be a master of AI? Or will you be mastered by it? The choice is yours. But if you wait too long, you won’t have a choice at all.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Trump's Zelenskyy deal falls apart: What happened and what's next?

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump offered Zelenskyy a deal he couldn’t refuse—but Zelenskyy rejected it outright.

Last Friday, President Donald Trump welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington to sign a historic agreement aimed at ending the brutal war ravaging Ukraine. Joined by Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump met with Zelenskyy and the press before the leaders were set to retreat behind closed doors to finalize the deal. Acting as a gracious host, Trump opened the meeting by praising Zelenskyy and the bravery of Ukrainian soldiers. He expressed enthusiasm for the proposed agreement, emphasizing its benefits—such as access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals for the U.S.—and publicly pledged continued American aid in exchange.

Zelenskyy, however, didn’t share Trump’s optimism. Throughout the meeting, he interrupted repeatedly and openly criticized both Trump and Vance in front of reporters. Tensions escalated until Vance, visibly frustrated, fired back. The exchange turned the meeting hostile, and by its conclusion, Trump withdrew his offer. Rather than staying in Washington to resolve the conflict, Zelenskyy promptly left for Europe to seek support from the European Union.

As Glenn pointed out, Trump had carefully crafted this deal to benefit all parties, including Russia. Zelenskyy’s rejection was a major misstep.

Trump's generous offer to Zelenskyy

I believe Trump is playing 4-D chess with Zelenskyy. pic.twitter.com/L19RtQdCF6
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck)
March 3, 2025

Glenn took to his whiteboard—swapping out his usual chalkboard—to break down Trump’s remarkable deal for Zelenskyy. He explained how it aligned with several of Trump’s goals: cutting spending, advancing technology and AI, and restoring America’s position as the dominant world power without military action. The deal would have also benefited the EU by preventing another war, revitalizing their economy, and restoring Europe’s global relevance. Ukraine and Russia would have gained as well, with the war—already claiming over 250,000 lives—finally coming to an end.

The media has portrayed last week’s fiasco as an ambush orchestrated by Trump to humiliate Zelenskyy, but that’s far from the truth. Zelenskyy was only in Washington because he had already rejected the deal twice—first refusing Vice President Vance and then Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It was Zelenskyy who insisted on traveling to America to sign the deal at the White House. If anyone set an ambush, it was him.

The EU can't help Ukraine

JUSTIN TALLIS / Contributor | Getty Images

After clashing with Trump and Vance, Zelenskyy wasted no time leaving D.C. The Ukrainian president should have stayed, apologized to Trump, and signed the deal. Given Trump’s enthusiasm and a later comment on Truth Social—where he wrote, “Zelenskyy can come back when he is ready for peace”—the deal could likely have been revived.

Meanwhile, in London, over a dozen European leaders, joined by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, convened an emergency meeting dubbed the “coalition of the willing” to ensure peace in Ukraine. This coalition emerged as Europe’s response to Trump’s withdrawal from the deal. By the meeting’s end, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a four-point plan to secure Ukrainian independence.

Zelenskyy, however, appears less than confident in the coalition’s plan. Recently, he has shifted his stance toward the U.S., apologizing to Trump and Vance and expressing gratitude for the generous military support America has already provided. Zelenskyy now says he wants to sign Trump’s deal and work under his leadership.

This is shaping up to be another Trump victory.

Glenn: No more money for the war machine, Senator McConnell

Tom Williams / Contributor | Getty Images

Senator McConnell, your call for more Pentagon spending is as tone-deaf as it is reckless. The United States already spends more on its military than the next nine countries combined — over $877 billion in 2023 alone, dwarfing China ($292 billion), Russia ($86 billion), and the entire EU’s collective defense budgets. And yet here you are, clamoring for more, as if throwing cash at an outdated war machine will somehow secure our future.

The world is changing, Senator, and your priorities are stuck in a bygone era.

Aircraft carriers — those floating behemoths you and the Pentagon so dearly love — are relics of the past. In the next real conflict, they’ll be as useless as horses were in World War I. Speaking of which, Europe entered that war with roughly 25 million horses; by 1918, fewer than 10 million remained, slaughtered by machine guns and artillery they couldn’t outrun.

That’s the fate awaiting your precious carriers against modern threats — sunk by hypersonic missiles or swarms of AI-driven drones before they can even launch a jet. The 1950s called, Senator — they want their war plans back.

The future isn’t in steel and jet fuel; it’s in artificial intelligence and artificial superintelligence. Every dollar spent on yesterday’s hardware is a dollar wasted in three years when AI upends everything we know about warfare. Worse, with the Pentagon’s track record, every dollar spent today could balloon into two or three dollars of inflation tomorrow, thanks to the House and Senate’s obscene spending spree.

We’re drowning in $34 trillion of national debt — 128% of GDP, a level unseen since World War II. Annual deficits hit $1.7 trillion in 2023, and interest payments alone are projected to top $1 trillion by 2026.

This isn’t sustainable; it’s a fiscal time bomb.

And yet you want to shovel more taxpayer money into a Pentagon that hasn’t passed a single audit in its history? Six attempts since 2018, six failures — trillions unaccounted for, waste so rampant that it defies comprehension. It’s irresponsible — bordering on criminal — to suggest more spending when the DOD can’t even count the cash it’s got.

The real threat isn’t just from abroad, though those dangers are profound. It’s from within. The call is coming from inside the house, Senator — and not just the House, but the Senate too. Your refusal to adapt is jeopardizing our security more than any foreign adversary.

Look at China’s drone shows — thousands of synchronized lights painting the sky. Now imagine those aren’t fireworks but weaponized drones, each one cheap, precise, and networked by AI. A single swarm could cripple our planes, ships, tanks, and troops before we fire a shot. Ukraine’s drone wars have already shown this reality: $500 drones taking out $10 million tanks. That’s the future staring us down, and we’re still polishing Cold War relics.

Freeze every bloated project.

Redirect everything — every dime, every mind — toward winning the AI/ASI race. That’s the only battlefield that matters. We’ve got enough stockpiles to handle any foreseeable war in the next three years and a president fighting to end conflicts, not start them. Your plea for more spending isn’t just misguided — it’s a betrayal of the American people sinking under debt and inflation while you chase ghosts of wars past.

Or is it even that senator? Perhaps I have buried the lede, but I am not sure if the following stats will help people understand why this op-ed might have been written by someone in your office.

Your state, Kentucky is:

45th in GDP Per Capita
44th in Employment
42nd in High School Diplomas

And 11th in Defense-related defense contract spending

Who are you actually concerned about, Senator? The safety of the American people or your war machine buddies?

Thanks, but no thanks.

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