Glenn: It's time for a reboot

On Thursday's Glenn Beck Program, Glenn explained why the world is in need a reset... but it's not as scary as you may think. Using the metaphor of attempting to reboot an old computer, Glenn showed why 'rebooting' the system might be exactly what America needs. How do we do that? Glenn offers some solutions in the clip below.

The below is the transcript for Glenn's monologue:

We brought this old dusty computer up here, and it’s amazing how slow our computers used to be.  This is an old one from the studio that has just been kind of sitting around.  When was the last time you use one like this?

Alright, I have this here for a reason, because this is the American system.  This is what we have.  Some would say that it’s old, it’s antiquated, it’s not working, blah, blah, blah.  But just a few changes need to be made.  I’ll get back to this here in a second.

First, earlier on this program, earlier this week, we mentioned the story of Madison Root, an 11-year-old girl from Oregon who wanted to help pay for her braces that her parents got her, so she came up with the idea to go to her uncle’s farm and to gather mistletoe which they grow there, put them into bags.  And so she did, and then she started selling them on the street in Oregon.  Great idea, right?  Except that’s not what the town said.

The town decided that they had to shut her down because she didn’t have the proper license or permit.  She’s 11, and they came and said you have to stop.  The town wouldn’t allow her to sell.  They actually told her, because she said what about the people over here that are begging?  And they said well, you can beg.  You just can’t sell.

You can’t sell in the marketplace, okay.  Well, it was the word “marketplace” that caught my ear when I heard the story because I have a marketplace, TheBlaze Marketplace.  Here’s the update to the story.  I had her on this morning, and I asked her if she would sell 1,000 of those.  Well, because of what she said – I’m going to play it for you in a minute – because of what she said and who she is, she sold those 1,000 mistletoes in 30 minutes.

So we called her back and said do you want to do another 1,000?  Do you have another 1,000?  Yeah, within an hour, those were sold out.  We called her up again, and she said I don’t know if we can get these out.  Her dad said we can get another 1,000 out – sold out again.  God bless America.  This isn’t about money.  This isn’t about anything, except someone being exceptional, someone saying I want to work for it.

Now, obviously she has exceptional parents.  We haven’t talked to the parents, but I did talk to her on the radio today.  I want you to listen to what she said.

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Glenn:  Did he volunteer that you could beg for the money?

Madison:  Well, we asked him about the beggars around us, and he said that they’re begging for money, so you could beg, but you can’t sell.

Glenn:  Does that make any sense to you?  You’re 11.  Does that make any sense to you at all?

Madison:  No, it does not make sense, because I’m working hard and trying to get something that I want, and I’m doing something.  I’m applying myself.  But now they’re saying that you don’t need to apply yourself.  You can just sit down and ask for money.  But what it really boils down to is this generation’s work ethic, and I think that how it’s going right now, it’s just disappointing.  It disappoints me that this country has come down to begging instead of working hard for something you want and need.

Glenn:  You go to public school.  Where are you learning this?  Because you’re not learning it in public school, are you?

Madison:  I don’t know.  My dad has his own company.  He’s an entrepreneur.  Everyone, my whole family, has always been entrepreneurs.  They always have some business going on.

That is an exceptional girl.  I mean, I love the fact that she’s like I can’t believe what this country is coming to.  I remember when I was eight, it wasn’t like this.  I mean, come on.  You don’t need a fancy Harvard education to solve America’s financial problems.  What you need is a little determination and common sense, and that is what we sorely lack.

When you have the people in charge in both parties that are supposed to be the adults, and they’re not, and they’re actually advising kids to beg for money instead of working for money, it’s not exactly surprising to learn that America has serious economic trouble.  We’re a group of people that quite honestly our men are addicted to pornography, our young men, and video games, and they’ve been sold a load of goods, a load of goods that everything will just fall their way.  And they know that they’ve been lied to.

So what do you do?  Jim Rogers, one of the top economic minds around the country, a guy I really appreciate, he’s been on the show several times because at least he’ll tell you the truth, no matter how ugly it is.  Now, whether you agree with him or not, that’s for you to do your own homework, but here’s his latest warning.

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Jim:  But eventually, Amanda, of course, the whole world is going to collapse.  We in the West have staggering debts.  The United States is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world.  This is going to end badly.  We’re all floating around on a sea of artificial liquidity right now, Amanda.  This is not going to last.  You know, 2008 was worse than 2002 because the debt was so much higher.  You wait until 2015 or 2016, Amanda.  The debt has gone through the roof.  The next one’s going to be really bad.  Be very careful.  Be prepared.  Be worried, and be careful.

Be worried.  Be careful.  So he says a global collapse.  The world has never seen what is coming, and you know, if you disagree, I hope you’re right.  But this is why Progressives have been feverishly working on building a framework, and when I say that, remember that Progressives are in both parties, because a massive reset is coming.

Let me explain it.  Go back to the computer.  Computer’s finally up.  Our system is like this old computer, and we have just put too much crap on it.  We have put all kinds of bugs in the system.  We’ve just been loading it up with all kinds of applications that are slowing it down, that are bogging it down, that don’t work, and so what happens?  It’s freezing up.  It’s not working, which means because we have done all kinds of repair, at some point, this has to happen, a reboot.

Now, this is the scary part, because you and I can sit here for a while and watch it reboot.  We can sit here and go okay, installing update one of 15; however, when a global system goes down, what happens when all systems go down?  The world doesn’t sit around and go okay, hang on, we’re just rebooting; we’re just trying to put together a new monetary system.  It ends badly.

Every successful investor always says the time to buy is when everybody else is selling.  When everybody else sees calamity, they see opportunity.  The same lesson applies here.  There is opportunity, but not financial opportunity.  We have the opportunity soon to be the people that our founders knew eventually would come.

In the Constitutional Convention, New York was asking for free stuff, and they wanted more free stuff in the Constitution.  And they said we won’t be able to bring this to the people in New York.  They’re not going to want it – what a surprise.  They’re not going to want it.  They didn’t want a new constitution.  They want the Articles of Confederation.

And that’s when George Washington stood up and said with everything that we have given – I’m paraphrasing – with everything that we have given everything, everything that we’ve done, we can’t screw it up now.  We can’t screw it up now.  Let us do the right thing.  Let us raise a standard.  Let’s put a banner up that everyone can see around the whole world and say this is what we think is the best thing, and then let us raise that standard so the wise and the honest can repair it.

We’ve screwed it all up, gang.  We’ve loaded everything onto it.  We have a spending and debt crisis.  If you taxed all Americans 100%, you still wouldn’t solve it, 100%.  There’s overregulation.  When you have an 11-year-old who’s being shut down on the streets because she’s trying to pay for her own braces, what is that?

State sovereignty is on life support.  Your own personal sovereignty is, your church’s sovereignty.  If you’re an atheist, you have…your sovereignty is up for grabs.  The federal government has overwhelmed the system of checks and balances, and the founders knew all of this.  Despite all of the protections they put in, they knew a government would eventually reach overbloated, out-of-control levels because they knew it would go corrupt because people do when power and money is involved.

But that’s why they included Article V of the Constitution, George Washington, so the wise and the honest can repair it.  Well, what is Article V?  Well, Article V basically says Congress can amend the Constitution at any time if two-thirds of both houses of Congress agree.  Well, are you ever really going to get term limits?  No, you’re not.  Why?  Because they’re not going to limit their time in office.  They have to vote for it.  It’s not going to work.  You think you’re ever going to get budget limits where you say spending limit?  You’re not going to get that.  Why?  Because it hurts their power.

The founders knew it.  They had one lever to pull.  If everything else failed, the American people could pull this one lever.  It’s our escape pod.  They lay out a possibility of a convention of states.  If you can’t get Congress to do it, all you have to do is call two-thirds of the states to submit applications on the same issue.

Now, this is something that Mark Levin has come out, and I am wildly intrigued by a convention of states.  And it’s starting to happen.  Check and find out if it’s happening in your state.  If not, find out why.  The question is can we get two-thirds of the states to participate?  Well, there’s a lot of people that are dealing in fear right now and saying well no, it could go horrible.  We could have this global government.

No, you need 13 states, 13 states.  If we can’t get 13 states to say no to global government, we’re going to get a global government anyway, gang.  Yaron Brook, he is from the Ayn Rand Center.  He was on last week.  He actually said something, you know, I think we should rewrite the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence.  Now, that might sound counterintuitive because most people, you know, the ones who are suggesting that we replace these documents are usually the Progressives, and they want to replace it with a charter of positive liberties instead of negative liberties, all the things the government has to do.

No, that’s not what we’re talking about.  Remember, you only have to get 13 states, 13 to disagree.  For an amendment, if you can get 38 states to say yes, do you think we could get 38 states to say term limits in Washington?  Remember, they’re local, so you’re with them.  You’re with the state.  Why wouldn’t they be for federal term limits?

How about unlimited spending?  Do you think your state wants the government to continue to straddle them with all of this debt?  How about do you think we can get 38 common-sense states to say Congress has to live by the same rules that we do for healthcare?

How about this one, I mean, I don’t know if there’s any ground support for this one, but how about matching the salaries of Congress to the median salary of those in the private sector?  They start making $65,000 a year like you are, and they don’t have all the fancy healthcare and everything else, they’ll fix this damn economy.  They’ll want your salary to go up because theirs will.

The point is we’re standing at a crossroads, and geez, we’re still on 15 of 15.  What happens when we reboot the system?  Because nobody has ever printed money and had it work out.  So what happens?  Are we going to move forward in fear or in love, in charity, in hope, in thinking about a brighter future?  I choose the latter.

All the tools have been put in place to make it happen.  It’s just going to take a major change in consciousness.  Einstein said the consciousness that created the problem can’t solve the problem, so it’s a major change in consciousness.  Get out of the system.  But it’s not just consciousness.  It really is only perspective.  A change of perspective, I believe, is a miracle really.

In Miracles and Massacres, we highlight some of the miracles, and people say no, a miracle is when, you know, God parts the Red Sea.  Really, is it?  Is it?  I can tell, I’ll bet you, you give me ten minutes, I bet you I could come up with 100 miracles I’ve seen in my lifetime, and none of them were parting the Red Sea, but they’re miracles because it’s a change in perspective.

And that’s what we need in a big way, because the current train of thought is leading us off a cliff.  We need to rid an entire generation of the lies that they have been taught and are currently being taught, that you can’t make it on your own, that you’re not good enough, that you’re not successful or you’re going to have a crappy job because somebody else became successful.  No, that’s not true.

We need to think out of the box.  We need more Madison Roots, more 11-year-olds that say I just want to sell this to pay for my own braces.  We need more voices teaching opportunity over hatred, oppression, more people teaching work ethic over welfare.

I’ve had a miracle happened in my life in the last few weeks, quite honestly.  I was on Hannity’s TV show for the first time ever this week.  That wasn’t a miracle.  The miracle was, and David Barton wrote to me last night about it.  He said Glenn, I’ve never seen you like this before.  I said I haven’t been this way.  It’s a miracle.  I had a very awkward pause.  Watch.

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Hannity:  What do you think privately is going to happen to this country?

Glenn:  I think…I think that we are…

Hannity:  In trouble.

Glenn:  Yeah.

This was the strangest thing for me on television, because I really couldn’t answer that question.  You know what I feel is coming.  I mean, reboot, it’s coming.  I couldn’t answer the question, what do you think is coming?  Now, I know I’m usually the Debbie Downer at parties because, you know, oh Glenn’s going to talk about economic collapse and make everybody cry.  Okay, I mean, I got it.  I got it.

But that’s not the way I view things really anymore.  I mean, I do think the reboot is coming, but I’m more optimistic than ever before.  My perspective is changing.  I am seeing the calamity, but in that calamity I am seeing tremendous opportunity if we choose it.

The Jim Rogers comment I played earlier, I don’t agree with that entirely.  I do think that it is coming, but you don’t need to be afraid.  Don’t be afraid, in fact.  If you are afraid, everybody else around you will be afraid.  Be confident.  Know that we survive.  Be good to your neighbors.  Be good to your family.  Raise them to be ready, to be prepared.

We have a chance.  In fact, I tell you now we are the people that our founders saw, the wise and the honest.  They knew it would fall apart.  They knew the system would have to be rebooted, and in 1822, Jefferson and Adams are going back and forth, and they said you have to trust the people, trust the people.  They’ll see what we were doing, and they’ll do it better.  We don’t have to deal with the compromises on slavery.  We need to free all people.

I’m really deeply religious.  You’re an atheist?  I’m fine with that.  We can’t regulate each other.  That is old thinking.  All of these czars and everything else, I mean, think of the miracle that has happened to a good portion of America in the last ten years.  Are you the same person that was reacting today the way you were reacting after 9/11?  I mean, are you the same person?  Would you say yes to the Patriot Act today?  I wouldn’t.  I wouldn’t.  I’ve changed.  That’s a miracle.  America is waking up.

We are the people who will raise a new standard, and it’s already happening.  You’re just not seeing it.  The amazing story from Highland Michigan, this is a town that is now known for prostitution and drug dealing and crime and violence.  Unemployment is 24%.  It is about as desperate as you can imagine, but there is a group of people that are not accepting any excuses.  They are not accepting the circumstances around them.

A 25-year-old teacher, affectionately known as Mr. V to his students, has decided he thought he could pull off a miracle.  What you’re about to see is that, a change of perspective.  It is a miracle in progress.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

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

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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.