Carnival Cruise Ship degenerates rapidly

A Carnival Cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico lost power, causing passengers to go into somewhat of a ‘roughing it’ mode. Power went out Sunday night - how long did it take for people to start fighting over food? Glenn explains and shows how dangerous things can get when access to our normal lives are cut off.

TheBlaze reported:

The stranded Carnival cruise ship and its more than 4,000 passengers enter day five without power after a fire in the engine room disabled the ship Sunday. Although the ship is currently being towed into an Alabama port and could arrive late Thursday or early Friday, conditions are still worsening.

Since the initial incident, many passengers have been living on deck in conditions that include feces and urine on the floor with some cases of food poisoning occurring. Recent footage of the ship shows passengers holding signs made with bedsheets and a deck that looked like “a shanty town, with sheets, almost like tents,” one father of a stranded passenger recounted.

Glenn said, "There's a story on the 3,000 passengers on the cruise ship off the coast of Mexico. They have no power, they have been forced to sleep on deck in tents, that you had the toilets are not working, meaning the passengers have to make do with bags and buckets. Now help is on the way. I don't know why it takes this long, but help is on the way. It's not like it's in the ‑‑ it's not like it's at the North Pole. It's in the Gulf of ‑‑ it's off the coast of Mexico, for the love of Pete."

"So here's this giant Carnival cruise ship and on Sunday the power went out. They can't cook any food, and it's all because they have engine problems. Okay. Now, I've been telling you for a while, what happens to us if our lifestyle dramatically changes? I want you to ‑‑ I want you to think about, Sunday, where were you on Sunday? How long would it take for you to go into complete and total chaos and become somebody described as a savage? Where you are fighting people for food? How long would it take?"

"Sunday, I was in my kitchen on Sunday. It was my birthday. And we were having birthday pie because my sister came down and she ‑‑ even though she is on a piatus, she is ‑‑ she's an unbelievable chef and she's a pie chef. And she has this ‑‑ her own business where she makes pies, and she ‑‑ I mean, I don't know how many hundreds of people, actually every month they get a pie from her and they're delicious. And so she came down and she just made an apple pie for me and a lemon meringue pie. My doctor came over and he made a strawberry rhubarb pie. And she made a banana cream pie and a coconut pie. But anyway, so she made some pies."

"So anyway, I was standing in my kitchen with my family on Sunday eating pie. Now, what would it take ‑‑ where were you on Sunday? What were you doing? What would it take for you to be described by somebody who met you yesterday to describe you as a savage? For these 3,000 people, it took living in a tent on a cruise ship with very little food, but food, and no toilets. But you can take it in a bucket and they can clean the bucket out. I mean, I know this is not ideal, but they, you know, you can throw it overboard. I mean, you can still ‑‑ you know, you don't have to keep the filth there in the ship. But they did. The carpets are soaked with urine, and people are fighting each other for food."

"It took them Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before they were savages. Now here's the amazing thing, to me at least. It's not like they're in the middle of Africa. They're in the Gulf of Mexico. They know help is coming. They know the Coast Guard cutters are coming. They can still ‑‑ they can still have outside communication. They knew that everybody was aware, there's got to be some backup generator, something that's at least enough for communication on that ship. So at least the captain and the crew can say, "We've alerted the authorities, they're on their way, it's going to be a few days." So they know they're getting off. They have to get off, and they will, you know, what do you call it, deboard the ship, what, tomorrow, the next day? And they have to ‑‑ they know they are going to have to live with themselves for the rest of their life and how they behaved. Because they were on a vacation cruise that went bad. And all of a sudden it's become, what is that, Lord of the Flies. All of a sudden it's Lord of the Flies. But in Lord of the Flies, I never read it, but those were kids that were ‑‑ and it ‑‑ and there was no hope of rescue. If I understand Lord of the Flies enough from memory, there was no hope of rescue. And there were kids that were raised as savages fending for themselves. That's not what this is. It's three days on a Carnival cruise ship, with the Coast Guard cutters coming."

"How long will it take for our society to break down? You're all having fun, but then the TVs stop working and the toilets won't flush. All of a sudden I have to eat cold food. All of a sudden I have food that was brought onto the ship in freezers and it's shrimp and so they can't get it to the right temperature. I'm going to have to eat ‑‑ I'm going to have to eat some cold veg ‑‑ you know they have enough food that they don't have to cook. There's enough food on that. It's not like anybody's going to starve to death. And it's not like, 'That's the last coconut! I'm going to kill you for it!' Quite honestly have you seen the American people? We could all stand to lose a few lbs. I'm just sayin'. Go to Disneyland. Look at us walking around. Look at us waddle around. You can the people who are from America because we're all like, 'Yeah, I've got to get an ice cream cone but first I've got to stop and get a corn dog.' We're not exactly the most in‑shape people."

"I wonder, I wonder ‑‑ we'll hear the stories of the savages but I wonder if anybody is looking for the stories of the pockets. Because out of 3,000 people, you know there have to be pockets of people. Because they will attract. Light attract light; dark attracts darkness. There has to be somewhere on that ship a pocket of light to where the people on board will become forever friends. They will probably vacation together, not on a cruise ship, but they will probably vacation together many times in their life even though they didn't know each other. But they will become lifelong friends. There will be a group of people that get off that ship that the captain or the crew members sincerely with tears in their eyes say, 'It was a pleasure to have you on board. Thank you.'"

"Are we going to hear the stories of those guys? I challenge the writers at TheBlaze to find those stories because somewhere on that ship out of 3,000 people, there was somebody, and most likely not a preacher like it was in the Poseidon Adventure where the preacher was leading the way out to the light. Most likely it was somebody that is pretty much a nobody that had perspective on the Carnival cruise line from hell. Just yet one of the other 150,000 reasons I ain't getting onto a cruise line ship. 'Here's a bucket for you to pee in." Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. It's been a great holiday.' How many of these people are going to get off the ship and sue?"

"Carnival cruise lines is in trouble because the lawsuits ‑‑ that's what everybody ‑‑ instead of making the best out of it, and I mean, I know this is horrible. I don't want to live like that, I don't want to be on that vacation, and believe me, I'd be pissed. Because I've worked hard for my vacation and I'm going to take this and then I'm going to go right back to work. It will be crazy. I'd be pissed. But somebody in my family, if it wasn't me and if it wasn't my family, if I was alone on the Carnival cruise lines, I'd be trying, 'Where's your 3‑D printer because I'm going to print a gun.' I would probably go crazy but if my family was there, I would be leading, for my wife and my children, I would be leading and saying ‑‑ because you know you're like this, at least I am. When everything else is burning down and the kids are crying and everything, there is a time that I just go, all of you, shut up. Shut it. And there is a time that you then after that say, 'Let's make the best of this. It doesn't have to be this way. Let's make the best of it.'"

"I told you last hour about a pocketknife that my daughter gave me. And if I were on that ship, I would hope that I would have this in there because at some point I would reach into my pocket and I would be saying to my family, 'Hard times make us.' How many people up in Connecticut with 40 inches of snow and they can't get out, that are complaining right now, 'It's been four days and the city hasn't cleared any of the streets.' Yep. Yep, sure is. How many are complaining? How many have their families, you know, falling into fights and everything else? And then how many families in that same situation are experiencing it? I think this is why the Lord said 'Come to me as a child,' are experiencing it like children experience. That they have done enough preparation so they have the food or they have whatever they need. They know they're not going to starve to death. And, yeah, we're going to ‑‑ you know, if you're at Pat's ‑‑ or Stu's house, you're going to ‑‑ you know, you're going to have sweet‑and‑sour sauce and pickles. But how many families have weathered that storm up in New England and now will come out the other end and they will talk about it for a few years and say, 'You know what? That was hard, but that was one of the best times of our life. Brought the family together. We sat and we played games, we read books, we told stories, we were cold, we were ‑‑ remember we were all bundled up, we all had to sleep in one bed and we had get extra blankets, we were all sleeping on the floor by the fireplace?'"

"This pocketknife that my daughter gave me just says four words: Hard times made us. The people on the cruise ship will say the same thing. But instead, instead of looking at that and really realizing that those hard times did make them in their case a savage, instead of doing self‑reflection on that and saying, gee, the hard times I could have gone a different way, instead they will call an attorney because it stops them from looking at the choices that they failed to make, and they'll sue because they'll say the Carnival cruise line made me into that."

EXCLUSIVE: Tech Ethicist reveals 5 ways to control AI NOW

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

How private stewardship could REVIVE America’s wild

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.