A Cashless Society Enslaves You to the System

Less than a week after India's surprise move to scrap its highest demonstration cash notes, another war on cash has intensified in Australia. Yesterday, the banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia's $150 bill would be good for the economy, eliminate black market money and strengthen banks so they only have to deal in digits, not actual money.

"You want to talk about true power? True power comes from everyone knowing exactly where you've spent your money, every penny, you not having the ability to make any transaction at all in cash. So somebody wants to stop you, all they have to do is freeze your funds. All they have to do is wipe out your bank account," Glenn said Thursday on his radio program.

Cash is one of the few remaining options for financial privacy that doesn't create a permanent record of every purchase or transaction you make. It's also an easy way to reduce your exposure to risk in the broader financial system. Without cash, you are an absolute slave to the system.

Read below or listen to the full segment for answers to these valuable questions:

• What happens in the event of a catastrophic failure if everything is digitized?

• Will every transaction require approval, like selling a car or gun?

• Will purchasing with cash become illegal?

• Can banks use your money to pay off their debt?

• What would be the biggest heist in human history?

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: This is absolutely incredible. Less than a week after India's surprise move to scrap its highest demonstration cash notes, another war on cash has intensified now in Australia. Yesterday, the banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia's 150-dollar bills would be good for the economy and good for the banks.

Now, here in America, we've been hearing -- and nobody in the mainstream media is talking about this. And I'm telling you, there's going to come a time -- I promise you this: There's going to come a time that no one will be talking about this. And within two weeks, it will be the only thing that anyone is talking about: America going cashless.

Yesterday, they said that -- UBS said that it would be good for the economy and good for the banks. The reason why they say it will be good for the economy is because you'll stop any black market. You'll stop the, you know, drug trade, et cetera, et cetera. And good for the banks, because the banks won't have to handle all that money. It will all be digits.

This is the real reason -- I'm sorry. No. This is one of the real reasons why this is happening, is because it will save the banks a lot of money.

And, remember, the banks are the ones who are ruling the world. But you want to talk about true power -- true power comes from everyone knowing exactly where you've spent your money, every penny, you not having the ability to make any transaction at all in cash.

So somebody wants to stop you, all they have to do is freeze your funds. All they have to do is wipe out your bank account.

In a time where our Pentagon is being hacked by the Russians, the banks are saying, "Let's digitize everything."

You want to wipe out the debt? You want to wipe out the trillion dollars of debt? Digitize everything, and then have some catastrophic failure. Well, I guess we all have to start over again. Well, I guess everything's been equalized now.

In -- yes.

STU: Isn't that the plot from Mr. Robot?

GLENN: Yes, it is.

STU: Essentially.

(laughter)

GLENN: In September 2015, Australian bank Westpac published its free credit report -- its cash-free credit report, suggesting that the country would become cashless by 2022.

In July 2016, Australian payments from Tyro published an enormously self-serving blog touting the benefits of a cashless society, saying, quote, it's only a matter of time. The media and the political establishments have now chimed in as well.

Two days ago, Citibank -- yes, the Citibank that we have -- announced it was going cashless at its Australian branches.

In February of this year, Sydney Morning Herald released a series of articles, some of which were written by officials from Australia's Department of Treasury, suggesting that eliminating cash will save billions of dollars and moving to a cashless society is the next step -- is the next step for the Australian dollar.

The government, media, and banks and academia now have formed a single unified chorus to push the idea to consumers that cashless is good for everyone.

It's happening across the planet now: Australia, India, Europe, and in North America, partially right. Going cashless will save a lot of money. Paper currency is costly to transport in large quantities, due to the need of security. But it is also accurate to suggest that going cashless will be good for the banks.

As UBS pointed out yesterday, demonetizing Australia's 50 and 100-dollar bills would force anyone holding those notes to deposit them back into the banking system.

So bank deposits would rise as a result. So would bank profits. Now, let me think: If we're going to negative interest rates, which means that I would want to pull my money out of the bank because it's costing me money to put it in the bank. And that's the only way the bank survives, is by bleeding me dry, what could the bank possibly do?

Well, if I'm taking my money out because they're giving me a haircut -- they're just taking two -- one, two, three percent -- or if the government so deems it, 10 percent of whatever I have in my bank, I could either take my money out, or the banks could make it so I couldn't take my money out.

Now, they're already doing that by saying you can't make a big deposit -- or, a large withdrawal. They're already trying to make it impossible. But this traps the money because your money won't have any value on the street.

It's not like if you have the money, I can still go out and buy things. I take it out of the bank. No, no. They will outlaw all cash transactions. So no one will take cash, and cash will have zero meaning.

So it would be like trading in toilet paper. That way, I have to do business with the bank. They are able then to give all of us a haircut because all of us have to have our money in the bank.

PAT: And every transaction you ever make will be tracked. So if you ever wanted to be off the grid for whatever reason, you can't be. You just can't be.

GLENN: You can't.

If you want to let's say close the loophole on I want to sell my gun to my friend Steve for $200 -- that's totally legal to do. The gun show loophole. I'm just a private citizen, and I'm selling my private -- I'm selling like a chair. And I'm selling it to this guy. You don't have to worry about that gun show loophole anymore. Because I won't be able to sell even my car on the street with a sign that says, "For sale, call this number."

I can't say it's $800. Just give me $800, and I'll give you the title of the car and go drive away. He won't have the $800. I will have to go to a bank, who will then be paid to make that transaction for me.

Even policy wonk academics would have the rare opportunity to take their lousy theories and PHD dissertations for a test-drive. This means, your politicians have more control over your savings and fewer obstacles to impose capital controls and engage in civil asset forfeiture.

Remember what we were fighting against a year ago or so? Civil asset forfeiture, where already the government is just taking it?

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And saying, "Well, we don't know where this money came from." Oh, well, you have been charged with a crime, so we're just going to take it from you.

And then you're guilty. They don't give it back. You have to go to court to get it back from them.

JEFFY: Prove that you're not a criminal.

GLENN: Prove that you're not a criminal. Prove that that money -- prove that that asset was yours. And we've been railing on this saying, "This is a really dangerous precedent." Well, what happens when somebody wants to stop you and nothing -- nothing is of value except a digital? You are an absolute slave to the system. Boy, you want to talk about bitcoin becoming through the roof and gold.

STU: It is up, by the way.

GLENN: Bitcoin is up?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: Cash is one of the few remaining options for financial privacy that doesn't create a permanent record of every purchase or transaction you make. It's also an easy way to reduce your exposure to risk in the broader financial system.

Think about this: The banking system is full of institutions that never miss an opportunity to demonstrate they can't be trusted with our money.

Hardly a month goes by without some major baking scandal. They're caught colluding on exchange rates, manipulating interest rates, fraudulently establishing fraudulent accounts. It's disgraceful.

In many banking systems across the world, especially in Europe right now, banks have precariously low levels of capital and already suffering the effects of negative interest rates. In the United States, banks routinely employ very clever accounting tricks to conceal their true financial condition.

You won't have a say in the matter. Here's what could happen, and all of these things are contingent on a thousand different things. And it doesn't have to be this way. But what could happen is a major global financial disaster, where the markets all around the world are hit and hit hard. A global banking holiday, where everything has shifted so much, they've got to get a handle on the global markets because somebody hacked into the market. Somebody did something wrong. Somebody made a policy that was bad. A country collapsed. There was a terror strike. It doesn't matter what happened.

But there is a global impact on the markets. And we have a global depression. And a collapse of confidence in the banks, in the governments, and in currency.

And so the government says, "Banking holiday, okay. We're set. Two weeks later: Everybody bring all cash in. We're banning all cash. Bring it in. And we're resetting this as a global market. Global cash. It's all in digits. And, by the way, if you don't bring your cash in and you're caught trying to buy anything in cash, you're trying to buy anything without digits, you'll be thrown into jail."

It's pretty much what happened in the Great Depression. Don't think that it can't happen now. This is the kind of thing -- all you need is an excuse. What is -- you know, I just asked the financial adviser that we had on yesterday or day before. I said, "So is there another TARP?" Yeah, it's this.

What's going to save the banks? Because the minute you get scared, you're going to pull your money out, and then it all collapses. Well, they already have the right. Check your bank. Call your bank. Ask for the fine print. Almost all of the banks have changed their fine print to where a bail-in is now their right, that if the bank becomes insolvent, they can take the same percentage of everybody's account to pay off the debts that they have.

So you're the last line. You're the last creditor that they have to pay. You think that you're the first creditor. Because what you're doing is you are loaning your hard-earned money to the bank. The bank then takes that and makes more money on your money by lending that money out to somebody else.

But the bank also has made investments in the stock market, in -- in mutual funds, in treasuries, in all kinds of different things. So they've made investments.

They've also made loans to other people that they can't cover if everybody starts to default on their loans. So there's a hierarchy of who gets paid back. You are now the creditor of last resort. You are the last person the bank has to pay back. You lose your money. And that's all in the -- in writing now.

If they want to make sure the rich get richer -- if you want to see the biggest heist in human history, it's this: Force everyone to put their money into the bank, and then they'll pay off who they will. And then they'll divvy the rest out to you.

[break]

GLENN: You know, it's really amazing how this has just creeped up on the world. And what have we been doing? We have been arguing over --

PAT: Other things.

GLENN: -- nonsense.

JEFFY: Yeah.

GLENN: No, not even other -- we're not even talking -- we haven't been arguing for the last year and a half about anything important.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: We've been arguing about, you know, Miss Universe.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: We haven't been talking about anything important. And look at what happened: This week, in -- have we --

STU: Who is we?

GLENN: I know. I know. I'm saying the western world. Generally speaking, the western world. And especially North America has not been paying attention to what's happening.

STU: Yeah, that's fair.

GLENN: Really happening.

PAT: And people from Australia -- that this is happening at Citibank branches in Australia and think, "Eh, it's Australia."

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: I want to make sure it's clear. I want to clarify something. This is not all branches. I thought it was all branches.

PAT: Yeah, it's some branches.

GLENN: It's some branches. So they're just starting this now at Citibank.

PAT: But they say the government, media, banks, and even academia have formed this single unified chorus to push the idea to consumers --

JEFFY: Yeah.

PAT: -- cashless is good for everybody. And it's happening across the planet from Australia to India, Europe to North America.

JEFFY: Right.

PAT: This isn't limited to Australia.

GLENN: Nobody is paying attention to what's happening in India. I mean, gold prices in India shot through the roof because they didn't go cashless. They just took everything over a 50-dollar bill. And it almost stopped the country. This week, they just did it. This cashless society is closer than any of us think, and if you think somebody is not going to -- they're going to let a crisis go to waste, you're mistaken.

Featured Image: Indian people wait in a queue to withdraw money from a mobile ATM machine in New Delhi on November 15, 2016. India is to use indelible ink to prevent people from exchanging old notes more than once, the government said, a week after the withdrawal of high-value banknotes from circulation in a crackdown on 'black money'. (Photo Credit: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump's education secretary has BIG plans for the DoE

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Our education system is broken, and the Department of Education is a massive failure. But that all ends now.

It's no secret that America's school system is seriously lacking in many ways. President Trump pointed out that despite our massive spending per pupil, we are behind most of the developed world in most metrics. Our scores continue to plummet while our student debt and spending skyrocket—it's utterly unacceptable performance and America's students deserve better.

That's where Linda McMahon, Trump's pick for Secretary of Education comes in.

The former WWE CEO and leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration during Trump's first term, McMahon laid out her harsh criticisms of the DoE during a confirmation hearing on the 13th and revealed her promising plans to turn things around. McMahon described the public education system as "in decline" and promised that under her authority, the DoE would be reoriented towards student success.

Here are the top three changes to the Department of Education:

1. Dismantling the Department of Education

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From the beginning Trump's orders for McMahon were clear: oversee the end of the Department of Education.

During her Thursday hearing, McMahon clarified what dismantling the DoE would entail. As Democrats have repeatedly pointed out, Trump does not have the authority to destroy the DoE without Congressional consent, as an act of Congress created it. That is why Trump and McMahon's plan is to start by shutting down programs that can be stopped by executive action, then approach Congress with a plan to dismantle the Department for good. The executive orders have already begun to take effect, and once McMahon is confirmed she will author a plan for Congress to close the Department.

McMahon also promised that the end of the Department of Education does not mean an end to all the programs currently undertaken by the doomed department. Programs that are deemed beneficial will be transferred (along with their funding) to departments that are more suited to the task. The example given by McMahon was IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding, which instead of being cut would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services.

2. School Choice

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In a huge win for parents across the country, McMahon pledged her support for School Choice. School Choice is the idea of allowing parents to enroll their student in any school of their choice, including religious schools and private schools. It would also mean that part or all of the funding that would have gone to a relocated child would follow them and continue to pay for their education.

This gives parents the ability to remove their children from failing schools and seek a better education for them elsewhere. A growing body of evidence suggests that the way we run our schools isn't working, and it is time to try something new. School Choice opens up education to the free market and will allow for competition.

Our children deserve better than what we can currently offer them.

3. COVID and DEI

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Trump's government-wide crackdown on DEI will ironically serve to increase inclusion in many American schools.

McMahon said as much during her Senate hearing: “It was put in place ostensibly for more diversity, for equity and inclusion. And I think what we’re seeing is, it is having an opposite effect. We are getting back to more segregating of our schools instead of having more inclusion in our schools.” She also spoke in support of Title IX, and the push to remove biological males from women's and girl's sports. In the same vein, McMahon pledged to push back against the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, which many Universities have failed to adequately address.

On Friday, February 14th, President Trump signed an executive order barring any school or university with COVID-19 vaccine mandates from receiving federal money. This only applies to the COVID-19 vaccine, and other vaccine mandates are still standing.

POLL: What DARK government secrets will Trump uncover?

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Will the dark secrets of the Deep State finally see the light of day? Or will they slip back into darkness, as they have many times before?

The Trump administration is gearing up to fulfill one of Trump's most anticipated campaign promises: to make the contents of the JFK files, along with other Deep State secrets, available to the public. Kash Patel, who has promised to publicize the highly anticipated files, is expected to be confirmed next week as Trump's director of the FBI. Moreover, the House Oversight Committee created a new task force headed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called "Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets," which is tasked with investigating and declassifying information on the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, UFOs, the Epstein list, COVID's origins, and 9/11. This all comes after the FBI found 2,400 "new" records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy following Trump's executive order to release the files.

Glenn discussed this topic with the cast of the Patrick Bet David podcast. Glenn expressed his confidence in Trump's radical transparency—on the condition that Kash Patel is confirmed. The cast was not as optimistic, expressing some doubt about whether Trump will actually unveil all that he has promised. But what do you think? What files are likely to see the light of day? And what files will continue to linger in the dark? Let us know in the poll below

Do you think the JFK, RFK, and MLK files will be unveiled?

Do you think the 9/11 files will be unveiled?

Do you think the COVID files will be unveiled?

Do you think the UFO files will be unveiled?

Do you think the Epstein list will be unveiled?

Transgender opera in Colombia? 10 SHOCKING ways USAID spent your tax dollars.

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The government has been doing what with our tax money!?

Under the determined eye of Elon Musk, DOGE has rooted out the corruption that permeates USAID, and it turns out that it's worse than we thought. Glenn recently read a list of atrocious causes that were funded by USAID, and the list was as long as it was shocking.

Since the January consumer index report was published today, one thing is clear: eggs are bearing the brunt of inflation. That's why we illustrated the extent of USAID's wasteful spending of YOUR taxpayer dollars by comparing it to the price of eggs. How many eggs could the American people have bought with their tax dollars that were given to a "transgender opera" in Colombia or indoctrinating Sri Lankans with woke gender ideology? The truth will shock you:

1. A “transgender opera” in Colombia

USAID spent $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia. That's over 135,000 eggs.

2. Sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala

$2 million was spent funding sex changes along with whatever "LGBT activism" means. That equates to over 5.7 million eggs!

3. Teaching Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid binary-gendered language

USAID forked over $7.9 million to combat the "gender binary" in Sri Lankan journalism. That could have bought nearly 23 million eggs.

4. Tourism in Egypt

$6 million (or just over 17 million eggs) was spent to fund tourism in Egypt. If only someone had thought to build some impressive landmarks...

5. A new "Sesame Street" show in Iraq

USAID spent $20 million to create a new Sesame Street show in Iraq. That's just short of 58 million eggs...

6. Helping the BBC value the diversity of Libyan society

$2.1 million was sent to the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) to help them value the diversity of Libyan society (whatever that means). That could have bought over 6 million eggs.

7. Meals for a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda

$10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group. That comes up to be just shy of 29 million eggs.

8. Promoting inclusion in Vietnam 

A combined $19.3 million was sent to two separate inclusion groups in Vietnam inclusion groups in Vietnam (why where they separated? Not very inclusive of them). That's over 55 million eggs.

9. Promoting DEI in Serbia's workplaces

USAID sent $1.5 million (4.3 million eggs) to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”

10. Funding EcoHealth Alliance, tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology's "bat research"

EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs that funded the Wuhan lab's bat virus research, received $5 million from USAID, which is equivalent to 14.5 million eggs.

The bottom line...

So, how much damage was done?

In total, approximately $73.8 million was wasted on the items on this list. That comes out to be 213 million eggs. Keep in mind that these are just the items on this list, there are many, many more that DOGE has uncovered and will uncover in the coming days. Case in point: that's a lot of eggs.

POLL: Should Trump stop producing pennies?

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On Sunday, February 9th, President Trump ordered the U.S. Mint to halt the production of pennies. It costs the mint three cents to produce every penny, which Trump deemed wasteful. However, critics argue that axing the pennies will be compensated by ramping up nickel production, which costs 13 cents per coin.

In other news, President Trump promised on Truth Social that he would be reversing a Biden-era policy that mandated the use of paper straws throughout the federal government. From potentially slashing entire agencies to saying farewell to pennies and paper straws, Trump is hounding after wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.

But what do you think? Was Trump right to put an end to pennies? And should plastic straws make a comeback? Let us know in the poll below:

Should Trump stop the production of pennies? 

Do you agree with Trump's reversal of the plastic straw ban?