Dear Media, You Have a Golden Opportunity to Do the Right Thing

Following the arrest of four people who allegedly kidnapped and tortured a special needs man for being a Trump supporter, the media are reporting that, according to Chicago police, the alleged crime was not racially or politically motivated.

"Jeff, despite all of that racial and hateful rhetoric that you heard in those videos, the Chicago police superintendent says he does not believe these videos were politically motivated," said Sylvia Perez, a local reporter in the Chicago area.

CNN anchor Don Lemon downplayed the actions of the four people shown in the video, saying I don't think it was evil...just bad home training.

Given the media's current concern with lies and fake news, Glenn issued a challenge.

"Media, you have a golden opportunity right now to reset things and to show that you have learned something. Please, take this opportunity," Glenn said.

Read below or listen to the full segment from Hour 2 for answers to these questions:

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

GLENN: How dare they do that.

PAT: How dare they say that!

GLENN: How dare they say that.

PAT: How dare you.

GLENN: You will not believe what is being said about Dolce & Gabbana now and what they're being told, "You better fall in line."

JEFFY: Oh, my gosh.

GLENN: I want to continue our conversation with the left and just point out some things that, please, stop doing this. It's not going to make things better. I have not heard -- I keep hearing, you know, the different reasons why Hillary Clinton lost. Hillary Clinton lost because nobody even on your side actually believed her. Nobody believed her. That's why she lost.

It wasn't Russia. It wasn't racism. It's because she was a dishonest individual. Period.

I don't know how you missed that one. And now the left and the media is accusing the right of-haired and vitriol. But we're missing a pretty big trend. We're missing Black Lives Matter. And where was that anger and vitriol? And where were you coming out against that? And what does that influence?

A story in Chicago that will chill you to the bone. We begin there, right now.

(music)

GLENN: I contend that we are -- we're not as bad as everyone is saying we are, including those on the right. We are not as bad. We're just seeing -- I think these -- these people like the three I'm going to introduce you to, I think these kinds of people have been here forever. We just didn't see them because they didn't have a camera in their possession. They didn't have a network in their shirt pocket. Now they do. It's called Facebook.

Four people are under arrest. They're four black apparently teens. Under arrest. In Chicago. For taking, apparently, a handicapped man, a man who has some mental deficiencies, kidnapping him, bringing them to their house, taping his mouth, torturing him, and beating him, all live on Facebook.

PAT: And all because he was a supporter apparently of Donald Trump.

GLENN: Whether that is even true or not, we don't know. Here's some of the video.

VOICE: What (bleep).

VOICE: Donald Trump.

VOICE: What (bleep). (bleep) (bleep)

VOICE: Goof. My sister --

VOICE: Yeah, nigger.

VOICE: My sister said this is not funny, y'all.

VOICE: It's funny to me.

PAT: So they're --

GLENN: So somebody on my thread -- who was it? My mother?

PAT: My sister said, "This isn't funny."

GLENN: My sister said, "This isn't funny, y'all." This isn't funny? You've taken a handicapped individual and you're beating him and torturing him in the name of Donald Trump. But not in the way the media is always spinning this. Violence and-haired.

Now, where does this come from? I read a story last night -- and I have to say, "Jeffy, did you check and find the story that had this?"

JEFFY: Well, your story that you tweeted last night.

GLENN: Yes.

JEFFY: You didn't even mention -- you said, if this story is true, this must stop. I mean, it doesn't --

GLENN: That's all I said?

JEFFY: "Please, media, you're blindly encouraging -- more on the radio tomorrow." There's nothing about Black Lives Matter.

GLENN: Nothing about it. What's the story that I tweeted?

JEFFY: No.

You tweeted TheBlaze's story.

GLENN: Okay. And what does TheBlaze's story say?

JEFFY: It doesn't mention Black Lives Matter.

GLENN: What?

JEFFY: It doesn't. And then I saw -- I found other stories where they're raging about you --

GLENN: Claiming that --

JEFFY: -- claiming it was Black Lives Matter.

GLENN: Right. I'm pretty sure I wrote something about --

JEFFY: I didn't look at Facebook yet. So...

GLENN: I don't think I did anything on Facebook. But look in that story because somewhere I think I did say --

PAT: Here's what they say in the -- this is amazing. Here's what it says in this story.

GLENN: Okay. Wait. Wait. Wait. So people know, the topic of conversation apparently on CNN this morning was, how dare Glenn Beck say this is about Black Lives Matter.

Well, I was -- and I don't even remember where I said it or -- I thought it was on my tweet. But I said, "If this story is true, if this story is true," I didn't even know if this was true. I saw it on video, but I don't want to spread false news.

If it is true -- and the story that I read had tied in Black Lives Matter -- if it's true, it's got to stop.

Well, we know now that it is true. But we don't know what their motivation was. But I will tell you that it was all about anti-white and Donald Trump.

Well, Black Lives Matter cannot be held innocent. If I am to blame for every coarse word said in society against Barack Obama, well, then we have to assign some blame to the leadership of Black Lives Matter, who are saying these things, who are saying, "Death to whitey," who are talking about all of this. You have to assign something to the bleed over in culture, if you're going to do that to the Tea Party or me. You have to.

PAT: Well, look what the Hollywood lefties in that video assigned to Donald Trump because of his rhetoric during the campaign.

GLENN: Correct.

PAT: They're holding him responsible for supposed atrocities that are happening in the country.

GLENN: That we can find no evidence of.

JEFFY: That we can find no evidence of.

GLENN: Right. So they're saying that Donald Trump is responsible. But then how dare Glenn Beck say this about Black Lives Matter. Well, wait a minute. Hang on just a second. Just a few months ago, you were wrongly and giving fake news saying that I support Black Lives Matter. No.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: I support listening to the people, not the organization, because the organization itself has put a manifesto out. And anyone who would read that manifesto would see the hatred and the vitriol in it. I want nothing to do with that.

But the people who are just following, saying, "My community is not being listened to," boy, can I relate to that. I can relate to that.

And here's the one piece that the left cannot relate to: You had the day after election, you had psychiatrists on. You had family therapists on television, telling America how they should deal with their grief. That's what you woke up to on The Today Show or Good Morning America or something on CNN. You woke up the next day to a friendly counselor saying, "I know how you feel, and it's not unusual to feel this way. And it's valid to feel this way." We woke up to, "These people are crazy. They just hate the president."

So you're still getting a plush life.

(chuckling)

And I at least am coming out and saying, "I understand you. And I understand how frightened you are. I've been there. And I also understand how angry you are." But this will never work, unless -- I mean, thank God for people like Samantha Bee. I mean, we were so skeptical of Samantha Bee because we watch her show. We know what she does. We know her history. And she is an outspoken -- I don't even know if she would call herself a progressive. But she's an outspoken liberal and does not like, generally speaking, people like me, or didn't think she did.

She came down. I don't know if anybody see it -- Pat saw it yesterday for the first time. Did you see it, Jeffy?

JEFFY: Yeah. That was really good.

GLENN: That was unbelievable. That was the most honorable interview I've ever been a part of.

PAT: Because all of these -- all of these progressives who want to interview you say, "Oh, I'm not out to get you in any way. This is not going to be a hit piece. Don't worry about that. I've got nothing but good intentions. I just want to find out who you really are. I just -- I've been watching you lately, and I want to find out who you really are." Like Rolling Stone did, and then they turn around and stab you in the back when the story comes out. Like Rolling Stone did.

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: And so it was amazing to us that Samantha Bee did what she said she was going to do.

JEFFY: Yeah, she did.

GLENN: Yeah, she did.

PAT: Because that never happens!

JEFFY: She did do exactly what she said.

GLENN: And the way it was edited was very interesting to me. Because that was an hour and a half interview compiled into seven minutes. She could have made that look any way she wanted.

PAT: Yeah, that's hard to do. She could have made it look really bad.

JEFFY: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: And they didn't. And halfway through -- or, the first third of the interview, I say to her: Let me turn this around to you, why did you invite me here?

Well, that happened about halfway through the interview.

And I said to her, "Samantha, you've got a show face on." And said, "No, I don't have a show face." I said, "You do. You have the snarky little -- I'm holier than thou." I said, "I get it. I watch you." That's your shtick.

JEFFY: That's her deal.

GLENN: And she said, "Well, then what are we doing? What would work?"

And I said, "Well, let me turn this around: Why would you have me on?" And that's when she really got real, and she said, "Because I think we're in trouble. I think we're in trouble. And we all need to stand against Trumpism."

Now, I know -- I think -- what she means by that. She is interpreting this poison vitriolic atmosphere that we're living where facts don't matter as Trumpism. I gave her that. But that's not Trumpism. That's not how I would describe what she's talking about. It's not Trumpism. It's lies. It's deceit. It's vitriol. It's anger. It's vengeance.

That's not Trumpism. That's humanism. That's humanism. We all feel that way. I felt that way eight years ago. I don't want to feel that way anymore.

And I think there's millions of Americans on both sides of the aisle that don't want to feel this way anymore.

PAT: And we're trying to extend our experience to them on the left a little bit by saying, "You know, as worried as we were about the country when Obama took over, we made it." We got through.

GLENN: We made it.

PAT: We didn't think we would. Quite honestly, we didn't think we would.

GLENN: No.

I said to her -- and I think they left this in the interview. I said, "You know, you're starting to sound like me."

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Do you think that the president might become a dictator?

Yes.

Well, I did too.

Do you think that he could make a wrong move and we could go into economic destruction?

Yes.

Well, you're me. You're me.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Eight years ago, you're me.

PAT: And who is more likely to turn into the dictator? The guy who is a capitalist who grew up and became successful in America, or the guy whose mentor was a hard-core communist?

GLENN: Right.

PAT: A card-carrying communist.

GLENN: Now --

PAT: I don't know. Let's see.

GLENN: So -- you know, you could make a case either way. And neither of them are insane. Hopefully, they don't happen. But neither of those came out of nowhere. It's not like we had Abraham Lincoln.

And, by the way, people claim, still today, that Abraham Lincoln was a dictator.

PAT: Oh, I got to show you the emails I get every time his name comes up.

GLENN: I know. Every time his name comes up. "I can't believe you love that dictator, Abraham Lincoln," Oh, stop it.

PAT: Oh, jeez.

(laughter)

I'm going to get another one in about two minutes.

GLENN: All right. Oh, I know. They're already piling into my email box. I know.

So here's the thing: This won't work. This won't work. If CNN goes on the day and makes this about me saying, "How dare Glenn Beck make this about Black Lives Matter" -- first of all, if it's true -- if it's true that they were involved and that's who they were -- that's why I put "if" in this -- it was reported. Was it fake? "If it's true." I don't know.

But, you know, jumping to conclusions -- "how dare you jump to conclusions" -- I don't know. The guy who was stabbing people recently that you immediately started calling for gun control. Please don't call me somebody who jumps to conclusions, when you jump to conclusions too.

It's what we do. We're commentators. And I think any commentator -- I can say to you, "I see why you thought somebody with a knife might have gone in and shot a bunch of people." That's logical. You say, "Okay. What are we going to do about guns? Because here we have another one."

I can see why you jump to that. I also can understand your agenda. I don't have an agenda. My agenda is call them as I see them. My agenda is Black Lives Matter, the manifesto is poison. Black Lives Matter, generally the people who are following in the streets, the ones that I have met, are not poison. They're frustrated. That nobody is listening to them.

And there is a third of the country that now feels disenfranchised, that nobody is listening to them, because their person didn't win. Another third that is saying, "I'm not going to listen to you because you didn't listen to me."

I'm hoping that there is a third of Americans that say, "Oh, my gosh, are we all four years old? Aren't we better than this? Can't we rise above this?" Yes. We can.

Calling all people that want to live in a world of common sense. Don't go over the cliff with everyone else. We're going to disagree on policies. Major policies. But principles. Principles. You're talking about fake news right now. Why?

Because you don't want to face the facts that your candidate, Hillary Clinton, was corrupt. That's what the average person saw that didn't vote for Hillary Clinton: She's corrupt. It's not a conspiracy. It's corruption.

Why your side voted for Barack Obama, because they wanted transparency. People are tired of corruption in Washington.

But I fear the fake news talk has another agenda: to shut dissenting voices up. Now, you're currently worried about a dictator. Well, I was worried about a dictator with your guy. What do you say we restore the constitutional powers and principles to our nation? Once we do that, neither one of us will be afraid of being silenced by a dictator.

If someone stands to silence you, I will stand with you. If someone comes to silence me, will you stand with me?

We are one, even though we come from many.

Brand-new year. Time to start things off and -- and give a fresh start. Right now, one thing you can check off really easy -- it's easier than losing weight or anything else. Family security. With SimpliSafe. Family home security with SimpliSafe, they've extended their massive holiday sale one last time. You can get $200 off their best-selling defender security package. Now, this is a 17-piece system of pure protection.

I don't know for sure what it all entails. But 17 pieces, you know, it's got to be the windows, the doors, motion sensors. It will come with an alarm that is a siren that, you know, blares everybody awake and the control panels that, you know, you have there by the front door that automatically call police. You'll have everything. You can add more, but it's 17 pieces. And with a 200-dollar discount. I think it's like three or $400. That's insane. I've never heard of anything like that. I mean, you think of a home security system, wired up your house and everything. How expensive that is. That ain't 400 bucks. This is state-of-the-art. And the reason why it's 400 bucks is they cut out the middleman. They don't have a scam to tie you into a long-term contract, where you're paying $50 a month, you know, for the monitoring. You're paying 14.95. And there's no contract. You want it one month, you don't want it the next month. You just tell them. SimpliSafe. It is the new way to keep your family safe. Simplisafebeck.com. Go there now. Get $200 off the award-winning security system. $200 off, only if you go to simplisafebeck.com. That's simplisafebeck.com.

[break]

GLENN: We have some amazing audio out of Boston. And a cry out for common sense and some decency here. Let me just give you an update. CNN made a story about how dare Glenn Beck blame what happened in Chicago on Black Lives Matter. I wrote that in an answer to a tweet. I knew I had tweeted --

JEFFY: Yeah, you answered -- you replied to a tweet. And your tweet was, you're right. You are right. Stand up with me and demand justice in Chicago for the beating of a disabled Trump supporter by BLM. That was about ten hours ago.

GLENN: Yeah, what did they say? What did I retweet?

JEFFY: It was a thread under Dinesh D'souza. And it was -- it's not about seeing him fail. It's about the hate he promotes. Racism is not kind of, sort of okay, even if it benefits you.

GLENN: Right. So my point on that -- that was, what? Ten hours ago?

JEFFY: So that was ten hours ago. And in that time frame of 16 to 10 hours ago, there were headlines and stories claiming that this group was Black Lives Matter.

GLENN: I know that I read it that it was a possible connection to BLM. But it doesn't even have to be that. There were five police officers that were killed at a BLM rally here in Dallas. They have a history of promoting death to the police. That's what I was saying to this person. Stand up. You're right. But it's not just Donald Trump, if that's what you believe. It's the other side too. We have to call it evenly.

[break]

GLENN: By the way, happy anniversary to anybody here at the Mercury studios that was with us on the first day of broadcast for radio.

PAT: Thank you.

GLENN: Five years ago today, we started in a little teeny closet room that now has been blown out. And we just -- we transferred all master control for radio operations into that area.

PAT: Took five years to do that. Wow.

GLENN: Took five years to do that. No, actually it took about six weeks --

PAT: Once it actually happened.

GLENN: Yeah. But they've been working so hard.

PAT: Can you believe it's been five years that we've moved to Texas?

GLENN: Five years.

JEFFY: I know.

PAT: Five years.

GLENN: Crazy.

PAT: So we've been here -- well, certainly longer than I was in New York. I was only in New York for three. Were you there for five? So I think we were in Dallas for as long as you were in New York.

GLENN: Pretty amazing.

PAT: It's incredible.

JEFFY: Wow.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: New York took ten years off my life. I'm convinced of it.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: I think it took ten years off my life.

JEFFY: It does that.

GLENN: It does.

JEFFY: The city does want to wear you down.

GLENN: It does. It just -- it wears you out.

The only thing that does -- there's no other city that's like it for this one reason: You walk everywhere, and that keeps you healthy.

JEFFY: Yeah, it does. But I just remember it felt nice -- because we lived in Pennsylvania. So I took the train in and out of Manhattan, and it felt nice to be out of the city. But that one summer I spent right across the river, so I never left the city.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

JEFFY: And it's like -- just --

GLENN: Oh, I didn't leave the island of Manhattan for a year, and I went --

JEFFY: It just drains you.

PAT: When you had your apartment?

GLENN: Yeah.

PAT: When you live in Connecticut, it's not as bad, although the commute kills you. The commute sucks.

GLENN: I will tell you that I went on a tour where I was doing radio in the morning, television in the afternoon, and a stage show at night --

PAT: Oh, my gosh. Those were brutal days.

GLENN: With book stops. Remember? With book stops.

PAT: Right. Yes.

JEFFY: Yeah.

GLENN: And I remember thinking, "I am going to die." Four days into it, I thought to myself and said to the staff, "I am more relaxed now than I am when I'm in the city."

The city just makes you -- like, we're awake! We're awake! You're awake! And it's like, oh, my gosh. You just don't understand the grind of 16 million people living on top of each other. It's pretty intense.

JEFFY: Right.

PAT: Yeah, it is.

GLENN: It's pretty intense. A little Blade Runner-ish, but nice at the right times of the year.

Let me go to Rob in Indiana. Hello, Rob.

CALLER: Good morning, Glenn.

GLENN: How are you, sir?

CALLER: Very good. Working last night, there was the National News Network, I believe the one that's celebrating 25 years. And as disgusting with what has happened with this, if this turns out to be true, this victim in this video, I thought it's obvious, a left-wing production of this -- of this -- beginning of the video shows a Chicago police detective badge like, you know, enlarged right next to a still shot with that victim's face blurred out. And right underneath, it says "torture video." So the actual words on the screen are Chicago, police, detective, torture video.

And it just -- the image of it when I saw -- and they didn't play it every cycle. It repeated several times during the night. But I'm in law enforcement. And just, to me, it's like, here's another attack tied to law enforcement, just to put it out there.

GLENN: So wait. Wait. Wait. So they were -- they were playing the same thing, but the -- what's called a chyron. The script down at the bottom of the screen, they had superimposed a Chicago police badge so it looked like this was a torture -- instead of saying, "Here's a torture video that was released by police, they said, "Chicago police, colon, torture video?"

CALLER: The badge is blown up enough to see Chicago police, detective -- not just the police, but Chicago police detective. Then one of those still shots with their face blurred out. And underneath that video was torture video.

And I'm looking -- I'm like, this is -- if somebody just glances at that --

PAT: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

CALLER: -- it's spreading a false narrative. And people are going to see that and just tie it to it. And it's like, "No, the Chicago police are not the ones involved in it. They're the ones investigating it." It was on a major network news. I believe it's the one that's celebrating 25 years.

GLENN: Was it MSNBC? I don't know which one.

Which one is that? Fox? NBC? I don't know.

CALLER: I think it's ABC. ABC. It's through the South Bend area. I think it's Channel 57.

GLENN: Okay.

JEFFY: Oh, that's Chicago.

GLENN: Oh, Chicago.

CALLER: And they didn't play that same image every time. Because it was like whoever the local reporter was, they show his image, but you can't hear what he's saying. And then they have still shot, and then they go in to talk about. But every time I saw that, they did put it up there. I said, "This is just disgusting." They're taking advantage just to turn it and spin it their own way.

GLENN: Rob, thank you very much.

I will tell you this: On both the good and the bad, we're no different than any other media source on this. We'll get blamed for things we never did. And we'll get praised for things we never thought of. You know what I mean?

People are like, "I know what you were saying during that." We're like, "Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty brilliant of us."

That was not our intent. So when you look at that, it may not have even occurred to the person who was doing it, but we look at that, because it's on television -- you don't understand the grind. People just think that television and radio and everything else, it's just on and -- no, we're -- this is just glorified Facebook. You know, the -- the media -- we've gone into this unbelievably great revolutionary period.

And here's the revolution that I don't think any of our Founders could have ever seen coming. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, in some of the worst parts of the world and the deepest darkest jungles or the jungle of the city.

You have the power of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, in your hand, in your pocket. If you have something to say and can say it in such a way that people want to watch it, your voice, your face, your message can be heard all around the world. That is an amazing power. We've never had that as human beings before. Now, there are going to be those that are going to claim that we need to somehow or another curtail that, to license that, to monitor that, to gatekeeper that.

No. No. The question is: Do people realize the power that they have? Or do they just see what everybody else is doing? This is why everybody hates -- Glenn, stop apologizing.

It's important. It's important. It's important that we say, "You know what, I played a role in this. I don't even know to what degree."

But everyone needs to look at what they do on Facebook, on Twitter, and say, "Have I played a role?"

Well, no, not me because I don't really have a voice.

Yeah, you do. You do.

For the first time in my history of doing any kind of media, I would have to meet you or get you on the phone to be able to have a conversation with you.

I can respond to you now on Facebook. I can read your words on Facebook and on Twitter. And I can respond directly to you. Meaning, you are parallel to me.

We have a voice here, but you have a voice that just reached my voice. Your voice is just as loud as mine is.

Now, can we handle that power? Progressives and people who don't believe in the people will always say no. But we've always -- could we handle the power of the Bible?

There were people who said, "You can't give them the power. You can't read that." When the printing press -- you can't just give people an education.

Yeah, it caused upheaval. But in the long-run, it was good for society. In the long-run, it meant that the feudal system went away. In the long-run, this will set us free, should we choose, because this is massively exciting and revolutionary in its tone.

Somebody asked me yesterday in an interview what role did -- who role did the media -- did social media play in this election?

I said the -- the only role that really mattered. I honestly think if it wasn't for CNN and MSNBC and ABC, NBC, and CBS, I think Hillary might have had a better chance. Because the traditional media was so dismissed and so in the bag for Hillary Clinton, that they were like -- they were dismissed. Completely dismissed. And it added to the claim, "I'm not running against Hillary, I'm running against the corrupt media." Your voice -- this is the first election where social media actually, I think, called the election.

This is the one that made the president the president.

PAT: Probably safe to say.

JEFFY: Yeah.

GLENN: I think it is. I think it is.

PAT: Made me realize how much I had missed the feudal system too.

GLENN: Sorry for that.

PAT: Boy, those days.

GLENN: They don't come back.

PAT: They don't come back.

GLENN: They don't come back.

PAT: The feudal system just doesn't come back.

GLENN: Now let me tell you about our sponsor this half-hour, it's American Financing.

JEFFY: American Financing.

PAT: Ugh.

GLENN: Thank you, Pat.

PAT: That wasn't me.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: American Financing, what?

PAT: Go ahead, Jeffy. Finish.

GLENN: Finish, Jeffy. He doesn't have it.

JEFFY: I don't have it front of me.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. He is -- wow, he really is (sound effect).

PAT: (sound effect)

JEFFY: I don't have it in front of me.

PAT: We talked about it. You wonder why. Well, there you go.

JEFFY: I know we did. I know we talked about it.

American Financing, NMLS 18334 (sic). Www.NMLSconsumeraccess.org.

GLENN: Wow.

PAT: And there you have it. That's why.

GLENN: This is how good he is after the resolutions to be a better man and a better broadcaster.

JEFFY: Thank you.

Oh, not once did I ever resolve to be a better man.

PAT: Oh, please.

I believe that.

GLENN: In 2017, are you ready to buy your first home?

You want to refinance your mortgage loan. American Financing will make your mortgage experience straightforward and effortless. American Financing's mortgage consultants are salary-based, and they specialize on solutions and not counting commissions. This is really important. Because how banks work -- when you go in, they're trying to sell you -- they call them the instrument. They're trying to sell you an instrument from the financial house or the bank that they work for. They're trying to get you into this particular kind of mortgage because it's what the bank wants to sell. Because that's what they can sell to other banks. That's not the way American Financing works. They are not on commissions. So when -- they're actually listening to you. And they're like, "Okay. What do you want to accomplish? How do you want to accomplish that? What do you want to pay?" You know, this bank over here has this one, but I think this bank over here has a better loan program that fits you better. Nobody does that.

And it's why American Financing because they actually listened and were not counting commissions, it's why in 2008, they were fine. Nobody had a problem with American Financing. They were fine. And I know because I wouldn't take them as a sponsor because I didn't trust anybody selling mortgages. After it happened, they called back and said, "You want to see how much trouble we had? None." Because they listened, American Financing. Go there. You want to buy a new home. Your first home. You want to refinance and save a buttload of money. American Financing at 866-750-6551. 866-750-6551. AmericanFinancing.net. 866-750-6551.

[break]

GLENN: So we just got a new report out. Is this from Chicago?

JEFFY: Yeah, this was from last night. It was just a report from one of the stations, yes.

GLENN: Oh, I thought it was this morning. Because in this report they're now saying that the Chicago incident was not racially motivated.

JEFFY: Yeah, they were quoting the police department.

GLENN: How is that possible? They were talking about white people, weren't they?

PAT: Yes.

JEFFY: Yeah, the end of her report was that the police said that -- they believe it wasn't --

GLENN: Listen how bad this is -- listen how bad this is.

VOICE: Yeah. Smack --

VOICE: No. I don't want to send this (bleep) over my connection, man.

VOICE: It is a story we first broke here on Fox 32 News. And tonight, there is breaking information on the victim of a torture case broadcast live on Facebook.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Sylvia Perez in for Don Hansboro (phonetic).

VOICE: And I'm Jeff Herdin (phonetic). We've learned tonight that the victim in this case was mentally disabled and knew at least one of his captors. Lisa Chavaria (phonetic) is live now with breaking details. Lisa.

GLENN: Horrible.

VOICE: Well, Jeff, tonight, Chicago police have all four suspects in custody.

PAT: Good.

VOICE: Detectives are speaking with the victim who they say is special needs. Now, police believe he was held captive and tortured for almost up to 48 hours.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

JEFFY: I know.

VOICE: And all of it was posted to Facebook Live. We want to warn you that the video you're about to see is considered very disturbing.

VOICE: (bleep) Donald Trump.

VOICE: (bleep) white people, boy.

PAT: F white people. But that's not racial?

VOICE: Police say he has a mental disability. Investigators say he was a classmate of one of the suspects.

PAT: Oh, my gosh.

VOICE: Apparently, they met out in the suburbs. The subjects then stole a van out in the suburbs and brought him into Chicago.

VOICE: Police believe he went willingly initially, but that is clearly not the case based on three videos posted to social media. What you are about to see is disturbing. At one point, the victim is held at knife point and told to curse President-elect Donald Trump. The men can be heard saying they want this to go viral.

Another video shows the group forcing the victim to drink water from a toilet.

PAT: Hmm.

VOICE: Throughout these videos, the victim is kicked, hit, and cut. Police believe he was released after being held anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.

Officers found him walking along Lexington and Homan on the west side. They linked a separate call to the scene featured in these videos and were able to find the two women and two men allegedly involved. Many people took to Facebook, outraged, wondering whether this will be considered a hate crime.

VOICE: I think some of it is just stupidity. You know, people just ranting about something that they think might make a headline.

PAT: Oh, my gosh.

VOICE: I don't think that -- at this point --

GLENN: I can't believe it. I mean, I can't --

VOICE: -- we don't have anything concrete to really point us in that direction. But we'll keep investigating.

PAT: Are you serious!

GLENN: They said they hate white guys. They said F white people.

PAT: And then at the end she says...

VOICE: The Cook County state's attorneys office is now looking at this case. Officials say that they expect charges in the next 24 hours.

And, Jeff, despite all of that racial and hateful rhetoric that you heard in those videos, the Chicago police superintendent says he does not believe these videos were politically motivated.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Are politically motivated. Are --

PAT: What?

GLENN: Denounce Donald Trump.

PAT: Oh, man.

GLENN: Media --

PAT: Not political. Not a hate crime.

GLENN: Media, you have a golden opportunity right now to reset things and to show that you have learned something. Please, take this opportunity.

 

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.