Ok, how does Taylor Swift do all this amazing stuff for her fans?

July 09, 2015

WRITER

Every other day there’s a story about Taylor Swift doing something for a fan. She’s delivery gifts, singing in hospitals, or - in the latest case - donate $50,000 to a fan with leukemia! How does this happen?

Stu and Pat have the story and reaction on Thursday’s radio show. Listen at 1 hour into today's podcast:

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

PAT: It's Pat and Stu. 877-727-BECK. 877-727-BECK. I'm starting to wonder if Taylor Swift is even human.

STU: That's an interesting question. Do we have enough time to debate that before the end of the program?

PAT: I don't think so. I'm pretty sure she's not even human.

STU: Why do you believe that?

PAT: Look at all the stuff she does. All the good works she does. It's not natural. Okay. Stop it.

STU: It's also not just her. I'm sure she has a team of 20 people just monitoring social media just for these opportunities.

PAT: You think so? So she set up like a team --

STU: She is a brand. I mean, she's a business. She does it right. She knows what she's doing. She's very smart.

PAT: Yeah.

STU: That's not to say -- I think she really does post on Instagram and post on, you know, Facebook and Twitter. But, you know, she's got people.

PAT: She's everywhere.

STU: Yeah, she has people that says this is a good opportunity. Do this one.

PAT: Every time I look, like almost every day, she's driving to somebody's house to drop off gift and money. Then she's off to some hospital to drop off gifts and money. Then she does this thing with the 11-year-old girl in Arizona who had leukemia, and she was diagnosed in late June with an aggressive form of leukemia under orders from her doctors, she was not allowed to leave the hospital. So it forced her to miss Taylor Swift's concert in Phoenix. She was bummed about that. She talked about it online. After she was diagnosed, she put online some video where she chose Taylor Swift's song Bad Blood. I don't know it.

STU: Yeah, it's a big, big hit.

PAT: It's her fight song when she battles cancer. So Taylor Swift or one of her people saw that. And just two days after in fact it was posted, she donated $50,000 to Oakes' online funding campaign. $50,000. And said, to the beautiful and brave Naomi, I'm sorry. You have to miss it. But there will always be more concerts. Let's focus on getting you feeling better. I'm sending you the biggest hugs to you and your family.

STU: She's a little too perfect. I think it was your point.

PAT: She's absolutely perfect.

STU: I mean, look, she's doing a great job.

PAT: Jeez.

STU: And is it really nice? Yes, it really is.

PAT: I'm sick of it. Okay. Stop it with your good works.

STU: That's not where I was going. I think she should continue to do this.

PAT: Stop your good works. You're making the rest of us look bad. Now stop it. I'm getting pissed. Stop it.

STU: Yeah, but is it worth the $50,000 in just advertising? I mean, to put it in a really plain capitalist business sense, man, she looks unbelievable. She will actually -- she will be the face of every product from now until the end of time.

PAT: But you're looking at this in a really cynical way as I am so we're destroying another cool thing. Another really, really good -- a really feel-good story. And we're destroying it with cynicism.

STU: I'm disagreeing. It's not cynical. It's showing that capitalism is good. You know, here she is. She's doing good things with her money, and it winds up paying off. It winds up furthering her career, and it winds up helping others. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing cynical about that. It's great. I'm really -- I'm happy when you see people like this.

PAT: It's great. She's phenomenal though.

STU: Yeah, she really is.

PAT: No matter how she's finding all this stuff and doing all this stuff, it's -- it's an amazing -- it's an amazing effort. And she doesn't have to do any of it. You know, there are 99.9 percent of all artists don't.

STU: Well, that's the thing. She had to make the decision to put 12 people on to monitor social media all the time.

PAT: Right. Because it meant something to her.

STU: It means something to her. She wants to do something that is good. No person physically can catch every single person that misses a concert and has an illness. Look, she's able to do this. She does this weekly, at least. It might be twice a week.

PAT: I think so, yeah.

STU: And every time she does it, she gets glowing media attention, and, you know what, deservedly so. She's doing something good with her money. Thank God. That's great.

PAT: Yeah. She's amazing.

STU: I can't necessarily take her surprise at awards shows anymore. That I can't deal with. You win every award, Taylor. Stop being shocked. I can't take that. But outside of that, she's pretty much the perfect person.

PAT: Is she winning pop awards now? Because she left country.

STU: She wins everything.

PAT: So she won all the country awards. She came over to pop music. And now she's winning awards on those shows too.

STU: Oh, yeah. She's winning everything. And the funny thing, people who used to abandon country for pop used to get wrecked for it.

PAT: Oh, yeah, sellouts.

STU: She absolutely -- this is her biggest CD of all time, of her entire career.

PAT: Is it really?

STU: Oh, yeah, this thing is huge. It's literally saving the music industry. It's the only thing doing anything.

PAT: Well, she was the first artist I think -- we just had the story a while ago. She was the first artist to have three straight multi-platinum records.

STU: It was something like that, I can't remember exactly what it was. It was hard to believe.

PAT: Or maybe it was that she was the first -- the first female artist to have a million plus in the first week. That's what it was.

STU: Three consecutive releases.

PAT: For three consecutive releases, she sold over a million copies. And the thing is, nobody does that anymore.

STU: No, it's not the same.

PAT: The music industry has been decimated by i Tunes. So it's almost over for these artists. Scant few of them are making any money anymore.

STU: Yeah. It's sort of the reverse of the NFL quarterback. Which, back in the day, getting someone over 3,000 yards was a major achievement. Now, multiple people are doing 5,000 yards a year. So the new quarterback records aren't maybe as impressive because all the NFL systems have changed. The reverse is happening with music.

Nobody is selling records like that anymore. Nobody is selling CDs like that anymore. Even with all the downloads and the digital stuff, it doesn't happen anymore. She's still able to do it. Not to mention tours and endorsements and everything else. I mean, it's pretty freaking amazing.

PAT: So she should be able to command whatever she wants to get from her record company when she signs her next deal because she's the only artist that is really keeping everybody afloat right now.

STU: Yeah. And she's done it in a way -- she hasn't, you know, taken her clothes off. And done it in that way.

PAT: No, she's classy. She's a class act.

STU: Yeah. She didn't Miley Cyrus it.

PAT: Thank you. Thank you for that. I'm so glad about that. She does get wrecked for having brief relationships, I guess. When they go wrong. But she gets a lot of songs out of it. So...

STU: She does. Well, that was the situation she had -- look, I don't know. Maybe this isn't a conversation that this audience finds mega relevant. I don't know. But when you talk about a person who is using capitalism to help other people, it's actually a great example of what should be happening.

PAT: Yeah, it is.

STU: And to the point of, not only that, but there's also there's that part of entertainment that obviously goes down the Miley Cyrus road. You get praised for that. I think you flame out a lot faster when you go down that direction. But Taylor Swift had a situation where she released photos of herself in a bikini, which was kind of a big deal at the time because she hadn't done that stuff. The only reason she did it is she apparently got caught in the bikini by paparazzi and she just wanted to beat them to the punch. She knew these pictures were coming out anyway, so she released them on her own. Every single decision she makes seems to work out.

PAT: So savvy. I don't know if it's her or she has some tremendous manager.

STU: Got to be both.

PAT: Wow.

STU: She has to have a great team around her as well. Although, I will say the last time I talked this glowingly about a celebrity was probably Tiger Woods and that didn't work out so well.

Featured Image:DUBLIN, IRELAND - JUNE 29: Taylor Swift brings The 1989 World Tour to 3Arena on June 29, 2015 in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Carrie Davenport/Getty Images for TAS)

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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